We dock during breakfast at the smallish city of Ilheus. It is overcast with bits of blue sky. There are two all-day tours offered; both go to different cacao farms, of which there are many in this region. I chose the hiking and bird-watching excursion. I am not too great a bird-watcher but I do enjoy the plants and insects with which they cohabit!
It is about an hour’s ride out to the countryside to a private preserve with a bit of Atlantic forest, a very endangered forest type with a phenomenal amount of endemism, species of plants and animals that occur nowhere else. In a publication from 2000, it was estimated that 40% of the plant species are unique, 30% of the birds, mammals and reptiles and a whopping 90% of the amphibians are also endemic to the Brazilian Atlantic forest. But it is not so easy to get to intact Atlantic forest as only about 7.5% of the original forest exists and it is broken up into many bits and pieces, mostly wood lots on large farms that have been selectively logged over the centuries. We are very excited to be on one of those pieces. Doug Gualtieri, one of our naturalists, saw 30 new birds!
After hiking for a couple of hours we made a brief stop at a small farmstead that is part of a new conservation effort in conjunction with ecotourism. The mission is to offset carbon emissions by managing the forest resources rather than just exploiting them… that is, do not just cut down a tree, cut it down if you must, but plant one or two new ones as well and hopefully have visiting eco-tourists contribute some income. Simple, yes, but getting closer to carbon neutral, at least in the forest. In this case carbon neutral equals no new loss of species, hopefully.
We have lunch at another, larger farm that is also managed in an “eco-friendly way.” Lunch was vegetarian and mostly local. There is nice birding and botanizing here and an active cacao plantation. (In the evening naturalist David Cothran gives a nice presentation on the history and process of making chocolate.)
Our day ends with a spirited dance by a local capoeira group… the historical Bahia voodoo/martial arts celebration performed for us by some fairly talented, definitely entertaining young folks.
