From high up in the Serra das Almas Private Natural Heritage Reserve in Brazil’s Ceará state
It’s April here in the municipality of Crateús
some 400 kilometers (250 miles) inland from the state capital
which means it’s the end of the rainy season
The trees here in this Brazilian hinterland known as the sertão are still clad in green leaves and bright flowers
whose springs are vital for the water security of the communities living nearby
Since Serra das Almas was established as a private natural heritage reserve
its landscape has been transformed from cropland and livestock pasture to lush vegetation
That recovery was accelerated by forest restoration
with native wildlife soon returning and resuming their natural dynamics
The reserve is home to a recorded 485 plant
The mustached woodcreeper (Xiphocolaptes falcirostris)
white-browed guan (Penelope jacucaca) and Ceará leaftosser (Sclerurus cearensis) are among the birds found only in this part of the world
These species are also among those listed in Brazil’s National Action Plan for the Conservation of Caatinga Birds
Several wildcats are also native to the region: the puma (Puma concolor)
oncilla (Leopardus tigrinus) and jaguarundi (Herpailurus yagouaroundi)
The red-handed howler monkey (Alouatta ululata)
Perhaps the most surprising wildlife discovery in Serra das Almas came on July 12, 2022. Biologist Samuel Portela was returning to the reserve when he spotted a three-banded armadillo (Tolypeutes tricinctus) on the dirt road
The species is an icon of Brazil’s semiarid region
but hadn’t been seen in the state since 2008
and started tailing the armadillo barefoot while recording video with his phone
he was able to approach it without being noticed
eating some insects from the road and the field
probably looking for food on the ground,” he recalls
Portela knew the importance of that rare encounter
As the technical head of the Caatinga Association
which owns and manages the Serra das Almas reserve
he’d organized two expeditions to the Poti River Canyon on the border of Ceará and Piauí states in 2016 and 2017 to study the range of the three-banded armadillo
researchers found some individuals in eastern Piauí
but western Ceará residents hadn’t reported seeing the species in recent years
The conservation efforts in Serra das Almas and its surroundings have contributed to the reappearance of this armadillo species in the state
who’s in charge of updating the official list of threatened species in Ceará
published by the state environmental department
considered endangered in Brazil but only vulnerable on the IUCN Red List (despite the species only occurring in Brazil)
where the state lists it as critically threatened
The disappearance of the three-banded armadillo from the state was a process that took centuries but was only really documented since the 1980s
The main drivers were hunting and loss of habitat — the sandy sediment that the insect-eating animals prefer — as well as activities such as mining
who only learned of Portela’s 2022 encounter this past April
“Since no [captive-raised armadillo] has been released in that border with Piauí
these images of a native animal from the area are the most recent record within Ceará territory
and it means the possibility of the Serra das Almas RPPN being a key location for the preservation of the three-banded armadillo in the state,” he says
established the Caatinga Conservation Fund
Some of the money went into creating the Caatinga Association in October 1998
Another portion was used to buy land that would protect the natural habitat of the carnauba palm tree
emblematic of this biome and whose wax was the backbone of the family’s business empire since the 1930s
the two landowners who still had farms in the Serra das Almas agreed to sell their properties for an offer above market value
because people used to cut it to plant their crops and raise cattle,” says Aureliano da Silva Neto
the first ranger of the Serra das Almas reserve
“It was good only because it was a quiet place
instead spending his childhood in the forest
paying attention.” He credits this upbringing with turning him into one of the leading experts on the local biodiversity
Neto has lived for 22 years in Jatobá Medonho
a community that neighbors the reserve but that falls within the jurisdiction of the municipality of Buriti dos Montes in Piauí state
He still returns to the reserve to guide teams of researchers
including a group conducting a survey earlier this year to assess the carbon stock in Serra das Almas
They put the number at 1.6 million metric tons: 30% of it in the aboveground biomass
The Caatinga covers a tenth of Brazil’s landmass
or an area of about 862,000 square kilometers (333,000 square miles) straddling nine states
Human activities such as cattle ranching and cotton plantations have wiped out 46% of the original vegetation of the Caatinga
the only biome in Brazil that sits entirely within the country’s borders
Pressure on the Caatinga remains strong, according to mapping initiative MapBiomas
the biome lost 10.1% of its native vegetation
the amount of land in the biome dedicated to agriculture and livestock expanded by 24%
and human-use areas amounted to 31 million hectares (77 million acres)
There are 234 conservation units in the Caatinga
covering nearly 8 million hectares (20 million acres)
This gives the Caatinga the third-highest proportion of protected territory (9.14%) of all Brazilian biomes
and the fourth-largest number of conservation units
the disconnected nature of fragments of native and secondary vegetation poses a major challenge to the recovery of the Caatinga
but the riparian forest was the original connection not only between fragments and large continuous areas of Caatinga but also with the Amazon and the Atlantic Forest,” says Fernandes
which are very dependent on the riparian forest
the Caatinga Association proposed the creation of a federal environmental protection area and seven more conservation units in Piauí and Ceará
along with 12 existing and proposed protected areas
would together form a 494,000-hectare (1.22-million-acre) corridor along the Poti River Canyon
Three conservation units were subsequently created in the region with the association’s support: Poti River Canyon State Park in Piauí
and Boqueirão do Rio Poti Environmental Protection Area in Ceará
“Along the river there are several very interesting areas that include archaeological sites
with some kind of environmental attraction or appeal,” says Portela
these areas can be connected by fully protected or sustainable-use conservation units in places with more human occupation.”
The Caatinga Association has already contributed to the creation of 26 RPPNs and three public conservation units that cover a combined 103.600 hectares (256,000 acres)
These actions were expanded in 2011 with the No Clima da Caatinga project sponsored by state-owned oil and gas company Petrobras
which focused on the surroundings of the Serra das Almas mountain range and encouraged the creation of other private reserves in Crateús
José Wilmar de Sabóia was the first landowner to be assisted by the Caatinga Association in creating an RPPN in Crateús
Sabóia grew up in the Monte Nebo community
where his grandparents had moved to in the late 19th century
He formed the 205-hectare (506-acre) Neném Barros RPPN in 2012
of which 63 hectares (156 acres) came from his own property
The Caatinga Association now assists in managing the reserve
“This reserve focuses on two points: conducting scientific research and raising student awareness,” says Sabóia
who plans to expand the RPPN by another 100 hectares (250 acres)
With the support of the Caatinga Association
he reforested a 7-hectare (17-acre) area next to the reserve and
has been hosting restoration experiments on his land using specially developed seedlings
in partnership with the Restoration Ecology Laboratory at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte
which aims to increase their survival rate when planted in the Caatinga from 30% to 70%
More than 15,000 of the 20,000 planned seedlings have already been planted
Sabóia says he can ward off the current pressures weighing on the land: burning on neighboring properties
The preserved vegetation of the Serra das Almas mountain range also contributes to the water security of nearby communities
An external audit by the company LimnoTech found that the reserve sequesters an additional 4.8 billion liters (1.27 billion gallons) of water per year — that is
the region would lose this much water in runoff each year
where more than 100 of the state’s 184 municipalities were in a state of emergency from 2012 to 2017 due to a prolonged and extreme drought
But the four springs of the Serra das Almas Nature Reserve remained stable
helping recharge of the water table and seven watersheds of the Poti River and
That makes it all the more important to protect the biome from the impacts of a changing climate
“The Caatinga is highly vulnerable to climate change
There are already three desertification spots in Ceará
including a potential new cycle of rural flight — people who can’t make a living from the land and migrate to urban areas,” he says
About 15,000 people live in 40 communities around the reserve; 30 of the communities are in the municipality of Crateús and 10 in Buriti dos Montes
The Caatinga Association provides assistance to help the communities adapt to the rapidly changing conditions in this semiarid region
it has distributed 1,419 forms of assistance
former Serra das Almas ranger Neto shows off his biowater system
It filters wastewater from bathing and washing dishes and clothes
cleaning it up so that it can be used to irrigate his fruits and vegetables
Farming now is a huge improvement over before the system was installed
I’d carry it on my head to water [the plants],” he says
he can water his plants even through the dry season: “All the time.”
Antonia Elisabete Soares received a slab cistern in 2014
because there was no water and I was pregnant at the time,” she says
Her backyard also features a bioseptic garden: an ecological septic tank where sewage from the house where she lives with her mother goes
The “bio” part of it is the banana tree that receives that wastewater
all without allowing it to contaminate the water table
Soares opens the lid of the cistern and celebrates that it’s almost full
with a total capacity of 16,000 liters (4,200 gal)
the winter rains are about to end and will be followed by at least eight months of a summer drought typical of the Caatinga climate
except when there’s a power outage and we can’t pull water from the well,” Soares says
Editor’s note: Mongabay Brazil’s reporter traveled to the Serra das Almas Private Natural Heritage Reserve at the invitation of the Caatinga Association
Mongabay maintains complete editorial independence over the story reported during this visit
and the Caatinga Association has no editorial input on Mongabay content
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