Environment TOBAGO Newsletter - December 2012

Wetland Conservation

Education Coordinator (ET)

E nvi ronment TO-

BAGO (ET) is a non-

government, non-profit, vol-

unteer organisation , not

subsidized by any one group,

corporation or government

body.

Founded in 1995, ET is a

proactive advocacy group that

campaigns against negative

environmental act ivit ies

throughout Tobago. We

achieve this through a variety

of community and environ-

mental outreach programmes.

Environment TOBAGO is

funded mainly through grants

and membership fees. These

funds go back into implement-

ing our projects. We are

grateful to all our sponsors

over the years and thank

them for their continued

support

W hat’s inside

ET’s News 1

Ecology Notes 4

Articles 5

Book Review 10

Community

Announcements 13

What’s Happening @ ET 14

Notes to contributors 16

December 2012 Environment TOBAGO

This year Environment TOBAGO intends to raise awareness and get children

throughout Tobago to begin to develop a healthy relationship with wetlands. The pro-

ject Wetlands – wetlands take care of water -involves delivering a series of lectures

throughout schools in Tobago (or providing information on same in whatever form is

needed), as well as, encouraging participating schools to create posters on the theme

“Wetlands and Water Management” to further

promote awareness, knowledge and understand-

ing about wetlands and its value to communities

in Tobago.

This project will, in part, be funded by BHP Billi-

ton. We will also produce and publish a photo

book of wetlands and its biodiversity found in

Tobago and we aim to print 200 copies and dis-

tribute to all 50 schools and libraries in Tobago.

Environment TOBAGO has been a pioneer in

wetland conservation, research and education

and recently concluded the ‘Pilot Project, Belle Gar-

den Wetland, Tobago, and Sustainable Community

Based Wetland Assessment for Improvement of Conservational and Educational Efforts’. This

project, funded by the United Nations Development Program and executed by Environ-

ment Tobago in partnership with residents of Belle Garden, over a period nine months

saw members of the Belle Garden Community and nearby villages trained to conduct

field assessments, monitor and raise community

awareness with respect to wetlands and how

wetlands can be used sustainably.

Tobago’s wetlands are seriously threat-

ened by abuse and the critical importance of

them to biodiversity and human wellbeing is con-

sistently ignored. Most wetland areas of Tobago

have been destroyed or their capacity severely

reduced. Now less than one percent (1%) of our

land area is covered by wetlands. Such areas are

often erroneously viewed as dangerous to human

health, and of no value to humankind. This mis-

conception, and general lack of appreciation for

wetlands, has led to them being used as garbage dumps, filled in and cleared for agricul-

tural, residential, commercial and industrial developments. Environment Tobago has

recognized the need for greater awareness and education about wetlands - its func-

Speyside Wetlands

Another view of the Speyside Wetlands

December 2012

Editor:

Jo-Anne Nina Sewlal

Assistant Editor: Christopher K. Starr

Design & Layout:

Jo-Anne Nina Sewlal

Technical Support:

Jerome Ramsoondar

Enid Nobbee Contributors:

Jo-Anne Nina Sewlal

Christopher K. Starr

Bertrand Bhikkary

Erik Blair

Ian Lambie Environment

TOBAGO

Photographs:

Environment

TOBAGO

Board of Directors

2012-2014

President::

Patricia Turpin Vice-President:

Bertrand Bhikkary

Secretary:

Wendy Austin

Treasurer:

Shirley McKenna Other Directors:

William Trim

Kai Trim

Rupert McKenna

Fitz Phillips

Renee Gift Geoffrey Lewis

Sean Clarke

Darren Daly

Allan Sandy

Page 2 Environment TOBAGO newsletter

Clean, Green School Programme 2012

Education Coordinator (ET)

Established in 1996, Environment TOBAGO is committed to the protection

and restoration of Tobago’s fragile environment. We are a pro-active advocacy group

that campaigns against negative environmental activities. “Environment TOBAGO con-

serves Tobago’s natural and living resources and advances the knowledge and under-

standing of such resources, their wise and sustainable use, and their essential relation-

ship to human health and the quality of life.” We achieve this through environmental

education, community outreach and research programmes, and advocacy of local gov-

ernment for greater protection and sustainable use of our natural resources.

The Clean, Green School Programme was initially launched in 2000 and contin-

ues to be an important aspect of our work at Environment TOBAGO. We are com-

mitted to partnering with schools as we continue to re-shape the attitudes toward the

environment in Tobago. This initiative saw 50 schools registering and 29 actively par-

ticipating with a focus on areas such as Cleanliness/tidiness of the gen school surround-

ings, the management of solid waste, beautification activities, student involvement and a

reduction in solid waste through the principles of reduce, reuse, recycle and re-think

waste disposal within the school and communities in which they are located.

This year a total of 20 project reports were handed in and participating schools

demonstrated their enthusiasm for the project, not only in their execution of same, but

in feedback forms that were given to teachers. When asked about the effectiveness of

the programme, teachers responded: “Most definitely! Students have learnt the sig

tions and services to mankind.

Wetlands are precious, they build up the land, shelter growing fish and shrimp,

provide wood for fuel, timber for building. Mangroves protect the land from storm

surges, provide a living for crab catchers. They also provide water storage, purification,

flood control, shoreline stabilization and prevention of coastal erosion.

In short they are a valuable natural resource but instead, wetlands are thought

of as wastelands which would be more useful if they were filled in and used for building.

Changing that image is a difficult task, we at Environment TOBAGO recognize wet-

lands as vital ecosystems providing real services that contribute to human well-being –

they are considered to be the kidneys of Mother Earth.

In short, the need to protect and preserve Tobago’s wetlands are vital to not only the

wildlife that live and breed there – the many species of fish, birds, reptiles – but also to

us; the people of Tobago as we are as dependent on wetlands for our existence and

survival.

Through this project, we at Environment Tobago, intend to do just that – raise

awareness and foster understanding of one of our most precious resources – our wet-

lands. What we hope to achieve in the short term is an increased awareness, knowl-

edge and understanding of wetlands in Tobago and its biodiversity and, in the long

term, we would like to see conservation and restoration projects implemented by

schools across Tobago. For this to happen there must be greater teacher participation

through mentoring, direct involvement and encouragement of students’ conservation

and restoration activities; such as clean-up campaigns and recycling initiatives as well as

support of Environment TOBAGO’s projects/programmes.


roles they can play in the proper disposal and recycling of items.” John Roberts, Memo-

rial SDA School and “At this school, both teachers and students have benefitted with

the information given and fully understand the need to reduce solid waste not only in

our school but in Tobago” Pembroke Anglican School.

The Golden Lane Government Primary school demonstrated a deep under-

stand of the initiatives’ objectives when they commented “The school as an agent of

change will foster that greater awareness at home, community level and Tobago at

large” as this philosophy is at the core of the Clean, Green School Programme.

As we close another successful project, ‘The Keep a Clean, Green School Pro-

gramme 2012’ an annual initiative intended to address the issues of improper waste

disposal and to change attitudes about negative environmental practices, we look for-

ward to our continued, mutually beneficial relationship with schools across Tobago,

(and our partners in this project – BHP Billiton and the Dept of Tourism & Transporta-

tion, THA as well as the Rockefeller Philanthropic Advisors) in the hope that together

we can conserve and protect our vital natural resources.

Clean School Programme garden and

composting

Penguins made from recycled plastic

bottles

Guitar Clean School prize giving


ET Newsletter editor and columnist gets NIHERST Award

Jo-Anne Sewlal is the editor of the ET quarterly newsletter and writer of a

weekly column for ET on the environment and nature published in the Tobago News

newspaper. On 29th September she became the first recipient of the Frank Rampersad

Award for Junior Scientist from NIHERST. This award is given to young scientists un-

der the age of 35 for their exceptional achievements in the field of science. It is named

after economist Frank Rampersad who was also the first president of NIHERST who

provided young scientists with opportunities to develop and allow their skills to be rec-

ognised.

Sewlal is currently a PhD student at the University of the West Indies, St.

Augustine, Trinidad where she is pursuing her degree in Zoology focusing on ecology

and biodiversity specialising in spiders. She is the author of 35 scientific publications and

over 360 articles published in various newsletters, magazines and newspapers regionally

and internationally. One of her main areas of interest includes environmental education

and in addition to writing she has also appeared in local and international nature docu-

mentaries.

Sewlal’s accolades include being the first recipient of the Darwin Scholarship,

the youngest and the first female recipient of the CAS-TWAS Young Scientist Award

and the first in the American Arachnological Society’s history to receive the Vincent

Roth Award three times consecutively.

Jo-Anne Sewlal receives her NIHERST award


Some new ways of combating climate change

Jo-Anne Nina Sewlal

Dept of Life Sciences, University of the West Indies

Traditionally, the use of carbon dioxide sinks and preventing deforestation have

been advocated as the main ways to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the at-

mosphere and to reduce the effects of climate change. But more and more research in

this area has yielded some alternative methods some of which are a bit unconventional.

The first is a somewhat controversial method is “ocean fertilization” where

nutrients or minerals that are necessary to algal growth are dumped into the ocean.

This “fertilization” causes the algae to bloom and absorb more carbon dioxide for en-

ergy production via photosynthesis. More research is needed to prove the value of this

technique in reversing climate change and to reduce its undesirable effects such as, cre-

ating anoxic patches as the algae decay using up the oxygen in the surrounding water in

the decaying process.

Another new method that has been proposed is an alternative form of foresta-

tion – “green roofs”, so the roof is basically a big planter box. Of course the plants

grown here are not restricted to just a lawn grasses but one can grow other plants as

well. It is estimated that implementing “green roofs” in an area housing one million

people is equivalent to the removal of 55,000 tonnes of carbon per year. Also, if space

limited green roofs may be a good alternative to a backyard.

More attention is also being placed on using solar energy for lighting and cook-

ing which would reduce the amount of carbon dioxide pumped into our atmosphere as

less fossil fuel and wood will be burnt as fuel. This is certainly feasible for Trinidad and

Tobago as more and more companies that sell solar panels in this country.

However, research has found more harmful greenhouse gases than carbon di-

oxide in our atmosphere that contributes to climate change for example, nitrous oxide

which in addition to causing ozone layer depletion is 300 times more powerful than

carbon dioxide. Similarly to carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide is generated from human

activities like sewerage treatment, combustion, and from the use of fertilizers which

contain nitrates. Scientists have recently discovered that this gas can be converted into

harmless nitrogen gas by the enzymes found in many microorganisms that are con-

tained in the soil.

The climate changes experienced within the last 100 years is primarily due to

human activities, but hopefully further research will provide us with some more tech-

niques and solutions to clean up the environmental mess we have gotten ourselves

into.

ECOLOGY NOTES


Risking the marine wilderness

Bertrand Bhikarry

Environment Tobago

In August of this year while attending the Tobago leg of a trans-national panel

discussion “Fires of Hope – 50 years of Independence in Trinidad and Tobago ” I lis-

tened to once-prominent Black Power activist/turned island elder Dean “Sarge” Fraser

admonish the youth of this island. [sic]“… you have an island to run”. His discourse

followed a singular bent. Using strong rhetoric he attempted to draw the focus of To-

bago’s younger generation to the chances of a more developed lifestyle, made possible

through the largesse of offshore gas, and maybe oil.

Sarge Fraser is not alone in the view that Tobago’s natural assets require utili-

sation – meaning of course, monetisation. The central government under the Peoples

Partnership coalition have shown remarkable alacrity in mobilising buyers for the vari-

ous offshore blocks. And should exploration there prove fruitful, they’ve already

aligned T&T skill sets with Grenada to extract fossil fuels from her territory.

However neither the government, nor the Sarge for that matter, speaks little, if

at all, about maintaining the natural environment, about keeping space for wildlife, for

marine or terrestrial creatures and for plants. To them, it would seem when measured

against the needs of the people, the relevance or importance of nature’s services must

be measured against the going commercial value, against a dollar.

Now, I’m not wanting to flog the eco thing, but we may be overlooking what

ought to be truly obvious. We the people are but part of the fabric put together by

Mother Nature – we do not define it. We are less than a thread, but our very survival

depends on other threads or linkages. Those links incidentally are generally based in

natural habitat, spaces wildlife occupies, anzd marine territory is also a part of that tap-

estry. So we might want to tread carefully as we rabidly despoil the sea floor around us

in the search to find fuel for the economy.

Since caution in development is advisable, we need to backtrack a bit and see

what could wrong. For that we do not have to go far; the BP Gulf incident will do.

Now here’s a textbook case of greedy people (okay, ordinary working persons) doing

what their various industry captains desire – which is to make money by the hour ex-

tracting a resource. In the run-up to the disaster each company had refined their

rhetoric. Each company maintained the best practice. But, at the end of the day marine

toxicologist Dr. Susan Shaw, director of the Marine Environmental Research Institute,

said tellingly about BP’s use of chemical dispersants: “They’ve been used at such a high

volume that it’s unprecedented. The worst of these – Corexit 9527 – is the one

they’ve been using most. That ruptures red blood cells and causes fish to bleed. With

800,000 gallons of this, we can only imagine the death that will be caused.”

So for Trinidad and Tobago to rush to sell the offshore blocks might make for

good business. Conversely given the tiny Republic’s unique location in the fields, and

with the prevailing water/wind currents and all, the move could spell disaster one day.

Granted the future will be a hard one if we decided to NOT SELL blocks. But then

again, we will never decide against making easy money, so the soft option stays. But

surely we can, must, ensure the oil and gas companies leave a little more than they tra-

ditionally do upon demob. Actually in T&T’s case it would be nice if that parting gift

also included an intact habitat for fish, birds, and those other wild creatures too nu-

merous to mention.

ARTICLES


Supporting the environment of Tobago through service learning

Erik Blair

Instructional Development Unit, The University of the West Indies

Awareness of the role and importance of the environment can broadly occur

in one of two ways: indirectly or directly. In the indirect method we find examples of

people who simply ‘care’ about the environment and wish to understand, enhance and

preserve its natural wonder and beauty. These people are drawn by an inner desire to

address environmental problems and become good stewards of the land. The second

way to become involved in environmental matters is for people to be directly driven

into action through a specific local cause such as deforestation, flood or the impact of

some invasive species. These people may have previously been complacent about envi-

ronmental concerns but suddenly find themselves facing a particular situation where

they feel they now have to do something.

Neither of these two instances is the ‘best’ way to become environmentally

active and, for the sake of our environment, it is more important that people take ac-

tion (for whatever reason). But, when we consider how to get more people engaged

with their environment, we might look at the role of direct action and ask the ques-

tion: how do we get people to care for the environment if they do not have a direct

cause to rally around?

Perhaps one of the tools that can be used to inspire such direct engagement

with the environment is something called service learning. Service learning is a direct

learning technique that hopes to encourage students to be socially responsible individu-

als. Instead of waiting for students to act to protect their environment, service learning

gives students specific projects that they can work on. Projects that hope to stir their

passion for the environment whilst enhancing their educational achievement.

Service learning combines classroom teaching and learning with service to the

wider community. Through hands-on experiences classroom learning is enriched as

students make links between what they learn in school and its relationship with the

‘real world’. The students of Tobago live in a rich and varied environment and service

learning allows them to understand and enhance this environment in an educational

manner. Service learning gives students the chance to get involved in civic projects then

reflect upon their experiences so that they can understand their own responsibilities in

relation to their community and environment.

According to the American Environmental Protection Agency (EPA, online) service

learning has five key components:

It is a method of encouraging student learning and development through active par-

ticipation in thoughtfully organised service that is conducted in, and meets the

needs of, the community.

It involves an elementary school, secondary school, institution of higher learning, or

community service program, along with the community.

It helps foster civic responsibility.

It is integrated into, and enhances, the academic curriculum or the educational

components of the community service program in which the participants are

enrolled.

It provides structured time for students or participants to reflect on the service

experience.

(EPA, online)

“Service learning

combines class-

room teaching

and learning with

service to the

wider community.

“


A good example of how service learning can benefit students and the environ-

ment comes from Mainland High School, Daytona Beach in Florida. Over 800 Students

at Mainland High School were involved in a service learning project at Rose Bay County

Park. This project involved them mapping and studying the flora and fauna; producing

brochures; building viewing platforms; designing a website; composing songs, and learn-

ing how to cook with the native plants. Not only were the teachers able to link this

project to the students learning in English, maths, technology, art, music and science

but both the country park and the students benefited from the experience. This is

quite a big example and Mainland High School has many students and staff that allow

for this scale of project but there is no reason why similar activities cannot occur in

Tobago.

With the right planning, enthusiastic teachers and community leaders could

help develop meaningful service learning projects that would be educational, purposeful

and environmentally sound. There are a few pointers that organisers should consider

before they start a project and projects that are well thought out to begin with tend to

be more successful. It is important that there should be a link between the project and

the curriculum. This will involve arranging meetings with teachers to work out how to

make sure the service learning project supports school learning. Since, service learning

puts students at the centre and encourages them to be responsible, students should be

involved in the planning stages and should be encouraged to think about what type of

projects they would like to do and how they would help manage these projects. Suc-

cessful projects need the support of the local community which means that parents,

aunts, uncles, grandparents, shopkeepers and residents should be kept informed about

what the project is and how they can help out. Next, the service learning project needs

to be kept under constant scrutiny. This involves the students reflecting on their pro-

gress – often through written logs or diaries. Writing these logs helps the students ana-

lyse how well the project is going and also helps their writing and analytical skills. Fi-

nally, hard work and achievement need to be celebrated. When students complete a

successful service learning project they need to take time out and be encouraged to

celebrate their endeavours and learning. If students feel that they have made a differ-

ence then they are more likely to get involved with future projects.

Students leave school with grades and qualifications but they have few

‘experiences’ that they can add to their résumés. By getting involved in a service learn-

ing project students add skills such as planning, problem-solving, goal setting and deci-

sion-making to their résumés and show future employers that they are hard-working,

thoughtful and can see a project through to the end. Service learning is a great win-win

-win activity. It brings communities together; it supports students’ academic study, and

it helps the environment. Service learning helps students connect with their environ-

ment in a direct way and show the constructive impact that humans can have on their

environment. There are a number of service learning projects that could be really ex-

citing learning experiences – building green habitats; cleaning and restoring wetland

areas; developing and promoting farmers’ markets, and designing waste collection and

recycling schemes. All these offer the opportunity for students to become academically

stronger, to grow as individuals and to make a positive difference to the environment

of Tobago.

Reference

United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) (online) Service-

Learning. Learning by doing: students taking greening to the community, edition 3.

Available from http://www.epa.gov/wastes/education/pdfs/svclearn.pdf

http://www.epa.gov/wastes/education/pdfs/svclearn.pdf

Modern Values versus Habitat Loss

Bertrand Bhikarry

Environment Tobago

While some people go blue in the face about the destruction of natural habi-

tat in T&T, the damage goes on. In Tobago the wetlands are being bulldozed for; let’s

see – there’s a community centre in Bloody Bay, there’s a rum shop in Granby Point,

and they’ve started to build swimming pools and car parks in the Courland area just

above the Black Rock Ponds. And let’s not get too upset about the Kilgwyn Marsh

where daily, the forestry department (of all people) are ‘supervising’ the opening up of

the area, building huts for relaxation.

Now Tobago may be small, but within what little land space it occupies, the

terrestrial ecosystem has developed a pretty tight relationship with the coastal zone.

Thus, Pigeon Point and Buccoo are prime examples of natural habitats for birds, am-

phibians, fishes, marine growth. So much so that the folk at RAMSAR, understanding

the importance of the peninsula and marsh as providers of natures services, gave the

go-ahead to create an Environmentally Sensitive Area down there.

This blog is too limited a forum to say why the proposed ESA does not yet exist even

after a decade. Suffice to say though, instead of a reserved area for wildlife, mangrove,

fish, and assorted marine organism, there’s going to be a dock in the buffer zone af-

forded by Rhizophora mangle. Ah c’mon guys, It’s not like that area isn’t already under

severe stress caused by the proliferation of nutrient rich wastewater from Bon Ac-

cord and environs.

However if the list of travesties against the Tobago wildlife habitat is long,

consider the situation next door. Trinidad – land of the Hummingbird, where the

landmass is bigger, and the appetite of the population for taking the natural resource

is a lesson in rank avarice. The major wetlands in Trinidad, the Nariva Swamp and the

Oropouche Lagoon are all that’s left of what nature intended. Minor wetland and

marsh are all under cover of ubiquitous concrete, operating as shopping malls, hous-

ing, or dumpsites. Nariva (Swamp) was lucky enough, having barely escaped the de-

pradations of developers and rice farmers going on to become an ESA. Oropouche

Lagoon however may simply go down in history as the multi-billion dollar lagoon high-

way that sank.

The forested areas of Trinidad are diminishing quicker than was thought pos-

sible, as State goes on a building binge ostensibly designed to catalyze a faltering con-

struction industry. Not for the TT government to tighten belts, and develop added

value industries – like education for export, high level skills and classy entertainment

(what? Soca and Chutney?). Rather the governors of Iere have entered a sliding slip-

pery slope of selling out the natural assets: Resources given us by fate, and of a type

which are key to take the country out of the third world.

If, and it’s a big if, the oil, gas, pitch, and the fisheries were left for local use,

the general population would not have to contemplate emigration – in order to earn

a living. Rather they could go away as professionals in demand. These are desirable

options that T&T has the wherewithal to explore, but perversely it seems the always

reactive state machine will only cut down good land for social development housing

schemes. Argghhh!


“The forested ar-

eas of Trinidad

are diminishing

quicker than was

thought possible. “


Keeping out of Tobago People Business

Ian Lambie

Recently, there was a letter published in the various newspapers from a group

of concerned visiting Birdwatchers who witnessed the shooting of pelicans at Grange

Bay at Mt. Irvine in Tobago. I received several telephone calls and e-mails from my Bird

watching colleagues resident in Trinidad and in the USA enquiring from me what I in-

tended to do about this report. My response was that any intervention on my part will

be viewed by my Tobagonian neighbours and friends as "meddling in their business".

Hunting in Tobago, in and out of the Hunting Season, was traditional in To-

bago. Wildmeat, including nestling Sea- birds taken off their nests on St. Giles Islands

and pelican or "Sea Duck", is served at many of the monthly Harvest Festivals, whether

in the open or closed Season is well known by the Police, the officers of the Wildlife

Section of the THA, members of Environment Tobago and the tour guides and bird

watching guides who earn a livelihood by conducting natural history and bird watching

tours. It is for them to ensure the observance of the existing conservation of wildlife

laws, and not for me a resident, "an outsider" for only fifteen years to become involved

in “Tobago business". These persons have been silent on these matters.

Tobagonians are of the opinion that Tobago belongs to Tobagonians and not to

the Citizens of Trinidad and Tobago. The land, the Wildlife and the reefs "is all we

own, and you can’t come here and tell we what to do with it ".

Up to mid-December of 2012, in my opinion, the contest in the THA Elections

was a close one but after the arrival of the "heavy People’s Partnership (PP) artillery"

from Trinidad and the taking-over of the reins from Ashworth Jack by the Prime Minis-

ter as the leader of the Peoples' Partnership assisted by the "high-profile" Jack Warner,

the demise of the support for Ashworth Jack and the TOP began to wane.

Ashworth Jack should have been seen to be leading the charge even if he was sup-

ported, in the background, by the PP's heavy artillery and their apparent limitless fi-

nances. Had this been done it is quite likely that Ashworth Jack would have retained his

seat and the TOP winning 4 or 5 Seats. Let this loss by the TOP and the Peoples

Partnership is a lesson to all Trinidad-based politicians, “Keep out of Tobago People

Business".

Similarly to birdwatchers and conservationists in Trinidad, let the people of

Tobago decide the fate of their wildlife whether it is to be consigned to the pot or to

be managed in a sustainable manner for posterity. All the deer both the indigenous

Red Brocket Deer and the introduced White-tailed or Tobago Deer have long been

extirpated by over-hunting and so too has the Tobago Picoplat by trapping for sale in

the pet Trade. Crabs, lobsters and conch are scarce because of overhunting and in the

case of the crabs also due to loss of habitat. And what has happened to our Flying

Fish? Where have they gone? They are now two months late for their annual arrival.

The strategy required in dealing with "the people of Tobago” must be different

from the strategy adopted in dealing with the people of Mayaro, Point Fortin, Rio

Claro, Toco or Sangre Grande. The people of Tobago are a proud people who be-

lieve that they can solve all of their problems without the advice or the interference of

outsiders but especially Trinidadians.


JOURNEY TO THE CENTRE OF THE EARTH

Henry Walter Bates 1864. The Naturalist of the River Amazons. 2nd ed. London: John

Murray 394 pp.

Reprinted 1975 by Dover, New York. Also available online from Project Gutenberg (http://www.gutenberg.org/catalog/).

[Thirtieth in a series on "naturalist-in" books.]

Christopher K. Starr

Dept of Life Sciences, University of the West Indies [email protected]

As a young man Henry Walter Bates (1825-1892) and an-

other working-class English naturalist, Alfred Russel Wal-

lace, had the idea of financing an expedition to the Amazon

through the sale of plant and animal specimens. They went

in 1848, remained together for about a year and then

worked independently. Over 11 years Bates collected al-

most 15,000 specimens, mostly insects, of which more than

half represented undescribed species. Most of that time

was spent in the Upper Amazon, isolated from other scien-

tists except through the very slow exchange of letters. The

lack of intellectual society was the one thing that he most

missed, and Bates never left Britain again after his return

(Crawforth 2009).

This book is a classic, perhaps the most engaging of

Victorian natural history. It first appeared in 1863 in two

volumes. The next year Bates condensed it to the one-

volume edition reviewed here. The 12 chapters have nine full-page and 30 smaller illus-

trations. The former include an interior view of primary forest so rich and wild that one

could miss its human element: two Indians with their blowguns.

The two friends had large ambitions. Enthusiastic about the growing idea that spe-

cies evolve, they saw the study of tropical life as the best path to understanding this

process. Charles Darwin had already formulated his theory of evolution by natural se-

lection, but did not publish it until near the end of Bates's time in Brazil. They landed at

the coastal city of Pará (now Belém) in a state of exaltation. Bates remarked that "The

impressions received during our first walk, on the evening of the day of our arrival, can

never wholly fade from my mind." Belém then had a population of just 15,000 and was

well forested on all sides, where the teeming tropical diversity that they sought was very

much in evidence. There were, for example, about 700 species of butterflies within an

hour's walk of Belém, more than twice as many as in all of Europe.

The Amazon river system drains an area of 7 million km2, about 40% of South

America. Bates first went up the Amazon in 1849 and traveled widely in the interior

after that. He wandered in a world framed by rivers and streams, whose sheer immen-

sity is the central feature of the landscape. Toward its mouth, the Amazon is so wide

that one cannot see both shores at once. Some of its tributaries are more than 1000 km

long, hundreds of meters wide even far upstream, and navigable for hundreds of kilome-

Henry Walter Bates “Bates tried a

vegetarian diet,

but with ill effects

“


ters. Of one waterway far up the Amazon, Bates remarks that this "stream is not more

than forty or fifty yards broad." Note that this insignificant "stream" is wider than any of

the "rivers" of Trinidad.

The Rio Negro and its tributaries flow south from the Guiana Highlands, whose soils

tend to be dark and nutrient-poor. At Manaus, 1600 km from Belém, it joins the Amazon,

whose headwaters are in the Andes. Above this confluence the Amazon is commonly

called the Solimões in Brazil. The dark waters of the Rio Negro and the light waters of

the Solimões run side by side for several kilometers before mixing. Bates remarked that

"In crossing we passed the line a little more than half way over, where the waters of the

two rivers meet and are sharply demarcated from each other." Unlike Wallace, Bates

made no substantial exploration of the Rio Negro system.

Amazon travel was then a laborious business. The tides reach far upriver, the river's

rise and fall are a major seasonal factor. There was danger of wind and squalls on large

rivers, of getting grounded on the small ones. An 1851 descent of about 2200 km from

Ega (now Tefé) to Belém took 29 days, even with a strong current. In the Upper Amazon,

boatmen to manage the boat and mass of cargo were often hard to obtain.

Then there were the biotic difficulties, such as ticks, which attacked in large numbers

and could leave a festering wound. In some places Bates was much tormented by mosqui-

toes in the night and other biting flies in the daytime. Sporadic epidemics could descend

on an area. In 1850 yellow fever affected about 3/4 and killed about 5% of Belém. Later a

smallpox outbreak took away a further 5%. Bates names some personal friends who per-

ished in this way.

And food could be hard to find, as the local people did not produce a surplus. Bates

tried a vegetarian diet, but with ill effects, so that the search for meat was a frequent con-

cern. At Tefé, where he stayed two years, the standard article of food was a large fresh-

water turtle. "I became so sick of turtle ... that I could not bear the smell of it, although at

the time nothing else was to be had, and I was suffering from actual hunger." The turtles'

eggs at the nesting beaches were collected for their valuable oil. Bates estimated that 48

million eggs were harvested annually in the Upper Amazon. This does not sound sustain-

able, and the local people told him that the turtles were not nearly as abundant as in years

past.

Amid all this, Bates happily collected and observed. During his sojourn in some lo-

calities, he "led a quiet, uneventful life ..., following my pursuit in the same peaceful, regular

way as a Naturalist might do in a European village. For many weeks in succession my

journal records little more than the notes made on my daily captures." The first two

hours of the day were devoted to collecting birds, the middle part to collecting insects

before the mid-afternoon rain. The late afternoon was for processing specimens and

notes.

Toward the Indians who were his main contacts upriver, Bates's attitude was liberal

and sympathetic, but with little admiration. He appreciated their openness and hospitality,

but regarded them as unemotional, incurious and largely uninteresting. Even less did he

admire the working-class Portuguese immigrants, sarcastically termed "these shining ex-

amples of European enlightenment". He partly attributed to the tropical environment

their indolence, "a moral condition not to be wondered at in a country where perpetual

summer reigns, and where the necessaries of life are so easily obtained." Bates makes

virtually no comment on the African slavery that had so incensed Darwin in Brazil 20

years earlier, perhaps because he spent almost no time in plantation areas. Enslavement

of Indians as domestic servants was illegal, but tolerated by the authorities.

It bears mention that a form of the Tupí language known as lingoa geral was a lingua

franca throughout much of Brazil at this time. It has since almost disappeared, and I have


had no success in hearing it spoken in the Lower Amazon.

Bates earned his living from collecting and shipping dead specimens, yet he had a

keen sense of the living organism. This is seen, for example, in descriptions of the nesting

behaviour of solitary wasps. Watching sand wasps, he described and interpreted the ori-

entation flights on leaving the nest, perhaps the first to do so. Ants were everywhere,

including leafcutters (Atta spp.). Bates pondered the division of labour among different-

sized workers. The largest could not be soldiers or supervisors, as they did not sting or

seem to give directions, yet nature would have eliminated them if they were truly useless.

He suggested that they served in passive defense of colony from vertebrate predators, just

by being so spiny and un-succulent.

Around Tefé he collected about 550 species of butterflies. Their wings provided a

wealth of heritable characters, and he "paid special attention to them, having found that

this tribe was better adapted than almost any other group of animals or plants to furnish

facts in illustration of the modifications which all species undergo in nature .... It may be

said, therefore, that on the expanded membranes nature writes as on a tablet the story of

the modification of species, so truly do all changes in the organisation register themselves

thereon."

Bates's main contribution to science was his theory of mimicry (Bates 1862). Heli-

conius butterflies were common and slow-moving, yet all but ignored by lizards and other

predators. He further noted that species from different genera or even different families

might bear a strikingly exact resemblance to a given Heliconius. While Heliconius tend to

be markedly distasteful, a look-alike species might be palatable, and Bates and reasoned

that the palatable mimic gained protection from predators through an evolved deceptive

resemblance to the unpalatable model. This was one of the earliest and most striking tri-

umphs of the new theory of evolution.

Bates was at São Paulo de Olivença, more than 3000 km upriver and planning to as-

cend another 1000 km into the Peruvian Amazon, when he was laid low by fever, the cul-

mination of a gradual deterioration over years. "Heat, mosquitoes, insufficient and bad

food, hard work and anxiety had brought me to a very low state of health." It was time to

go home. In Belém he was welcomed by old friends for whom the Brazilian interior

where he had spent seven and a half years was still the unknown sertão (backlands).

Even in his wasted state, Bates knew that he was leaving behind the best years of his

life, remarking that "To live again amidst the dull scenes [of England] I was quitting a coun-

try of perpetual summer, where my life had been spent ... on the endless streams or in the

boundless forests." Even so, I doubt that he had ever seriously thought to settle in Brazil.

During those years, Bates was ever an expatriate, never an immigrant.

References

Bates, H.W. 1862. Contributions to an insect fauna of the Amazon. Lepidoptera:

Heliconidae. Transactions of the Linnaean Society 23:495-566.

Bates, H.W. 1863. The Naturalist on the River Amazons. Vol. 1-2. London: John

Murray 351+417 pp. Available online at wwww.loc.gov/rr/rarebook/guide/ra041001.html

Crawforth, A. 2009. The Butterfly Hunter: The Life of Henry Walter Bates. Buckingham:

Christopher K. Starr is also the host of the new weekly radio show "EcoTones", a half-hour programme de-

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