From Setembro, or Funchal you will receive or The sixty-sixth symposium From the International Association of Vegetable Sciences. There will be nearly 300 researchers who will visit Madeira and discover its ecological wealth. But the “joy” of Portuguese biodiversity, says botanist Miguel Sequeira, as its unique ecosystems and endemic species reveal themselves to visitors as an undiscovered stage of ecological tragedy, where the final, obvious chapter has not only burned.
“It’s really an unbelievable coincidence. Everyone has seen it, from all over the place. Canadians, Americans, Japanese, Chinese, Koreans, from different countries in Africa and Europe, we see everyone, Spanish, Portuguese, Italians, Greeks… We will do expeditions into the forests, visits to the burning treehouses. We want to show Madeira as it is, or as it is, and not as it was,” says Botánico, who is also a Botánico scholar. Professor at the University of Madeira. Madeira by phone.
There is now a lot of panic, as people have been living and studying these ecosystems for decades, and they are facing another natural disaster, which is nothing more than a repeat of past disasters, always caused by more humans. After the fires of 2010 and 2016. New forest fire It has been operating on the island since April 14, August 14, and has already consumed nearly 5,000 hectares, the second piece of information. More modern Two of the EU's Copernicus emergency services.
Fortunately, at the moment there is no death without human life or fire, which is still active in the highest areas of the island and can descend to the coasts of the famous wetland. laurisilva forestMore work has been done with fires in recent years, destroying the unique natural habitats that make up the different ecosystems of Madeira, iso continuous“We are like doctors here, selling our dying patients. There are entire ecosystems disappearing,” the botanist explains.
When you talk to the scientists studying Madeira, you begin to understand what is in play. Empora has seen a lot in recent days about the Laurisilva rainforest on the north coast of the island, it is just a part of The island's natural wealth.
This piece of the biome became a UNESCO World Natural Heritage Site in 1999 – a status that this year completes a quarter of a century – because it represents the last significant part of an ecosystem that existed several thousand years ago in continental Europe (the climate change that the planet has naturally suffered is causing it to disappear). In Madeira, these monuments are located on the north coast at an altitude of between 300 and 1,300 meters.
But above all, there is a mountain range, where tree species no longer survive the winter freeze, and where plants capture the moisture coming from the snow, transforming it into water, making the land available. Then, at altitudes close to sea level, there appears the Mediterranean forest, now barely present in small fragments, its dominant tree is the Madeira Zambujero, a species of olive tree endemic to the island. Also on the south-facing coasts there are pockets of laurisilva forest adapted to a drier climate, which characterizes this part of the territory. Now, all these different ecosystems have species that are not found anywhere else.
“Laurisilva is just part of the importance of Madeira. Most of the island, 20 to 30%, was never covered by the laurisilva forest, it was always covered by other ecosystems. What is the importance of Madeira’s ecosystems? Because it has an absolutely extraordinary level of endemism. “It is a forest of unique plants, where there are trees that, in the whole world, are only found in Madeira,” the researcher explains, without mentioning the animal species that complement the existing plant life. biomes.
Fala-se is from Madagascar, but “there are new species here, and unknown species that exist in our forest. We only have one national park, Peneda-Gerês. “It should be a national park. Portugal só tinha um, tinha que ter dois.”
Since the arrival of the Portuguese in Madeira, at the beginning of the 15th century, the natural biomes of the island have been used for agricultural exploration, which was conquering the island. Only the highest and most inaccessible areas would remain protected. The indigenous forest only began to recover abandoned lands in the 19th and 20th centuries. On the south coast, the cultivation of exotic species, against the risk of flooding, which still forms a current cliff, has fewer sites of indigenous nature.
Now, we are witnessing the third part of this story, with fires caused by human actions, whether involuntary or unintended, with climate change making environmental conditions more dangerous and suitable for fires, and with alien species colonizing every square meter destroyed by fires.
“All the species present in Madeira are obligated to preserve the burned and lost species,” says Miguel Sequeira, who has undertaken the task of preserving the burned and lost species. It is very important in relation to how the authorities in charge fight the fire.“On the one hand, we have a loss of biodiversity, which is unfortunate. It is really a catastrophe. We have the possibility of having the status of Laurisilva reduced, by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which would be a shame, and at the same time, an economic problem, and we have an increase in the abyss caused by the disappearance of the vegetation of the alluvial lupine.”
