Climate Witness: Marlene Rocha, Brazil

Posté le 18 février 2009

My name is Marlene Rêgo Rocha. I was born and raised in the village of Igarapé do Costa. With around 80 families, the village is located near the margins of the Amazonas River and sees only two seasons throughout the year: winter, when it pours and summer, the dry season.

English | Română | Dutch

In the winter, the river rises almost three meters high, leaving everyone separated by the water. The only means of transportation is by canoe or boat. During the summer, things are quite different and we must walk up to three kilometers to reach the waters of the Amazonas. There are two extremes.

I am 51 years old and I work for the local government as an auxiliary nurse. I take care of everyone’s health around the village. I am one of the few villagers who does not depend on the river’s resources for my livelihood. There are few professions in the village apart from fisherman. We have a school, a health clinic and a few churches. Those who do not work for one of these institutions fish for their livelihood.

Planting crops is our way of life

Growing foodstuff here has become very difficult since the wet season strikes the region too early and evermore strongly. There is not enough time to plant and harvest anything.

It was not always like this. When I was young, I used to work in the fields with my mother. We used to plant cassava and jute. With the cassava, we used to make flour and with the jute, packaging. We used to sell all products right here in the community. Our family and many others lived on these products.

With time, growing crops proved to be more and more difficult until it became impossible to grow either cassava or jute. The river’s waters rise too early and much faster than in the past.

Because of this, in order to enjoy fresh foodstuff, I have to plant in the soil during the summer and, when winter comes, transfer everything to a Styrofoam container in a suspended field in the back of my house. I have in my containers tomatoes, onions, wild mustard and various medicinal plants such as chamomile and lemon grass. Other necessary produce is imported from Santarém.

Animals have to find higher ground as the water rises

Our livestock also became accustomed to life according to the rhythm of the floods. In the summer, the animals stay on the ground, many free to roam around. When winter comes, we put them in wooden pens and raise the wooden floor depending to the river’s rise. The chickens have already grown accustomed to this and make their home around the trees. My husband throws them corn on a wooden floor constructed below the trees’ canopy. Only when they come down to eat do we realize that there are chickens living there.

Until the year 2000, my mother had cattle and my brother worked with her. But it became too expensive. If we were to maintain it all year round in the Igarapé, we would have to construct a barn in which the floor would have to be constantly raised to follow the river’s movement. That would mean we would have to feed it, which is much too expensive. It is much cheaper to leave the cattle in the nearest pastures: the colonies. There, the animals are free to roam around. Many families in our community have lands in the colonies while others pay rent during the winter. My family used to pay rent for a piece of land, but the price became too steep for us and we had to sell our cattle.

This year I tried to raise pigs, but I also had to sell them. It was too expensive to keep them. I only kept the chicken and the ducks. Nonetheless, it is very important to be careful with the rhythm of the floods. Last night, it rained more than we expected and three ducklings died because we couldn’t raise the scaffold on time. They were still very young.

Crafts as a source of income

I remember clearly when I was young my mother worked with cuias alongside other women of the village. During that time, while the men were away fishing, they would harvest the cuias, clean, dry, paint and then sell them. In this region, the cuia is used frequently to eat tacacá, a typical northern dish. The cuieiras, once frequent in Igarapé do Costa are nowadays very rare. They were all taken by the force of the floods. When we want a new cuia, we need to buy it in Santarém.

Winds damage homes

Another change we have felt is an increase in the strength of the waves caused by the wind. When I was young, I didn’t remember my mother worrying about the possibility of a wave tearing down the floor or the roof of our house. We slept assured. Also, there were a lot of trees then and I believe that helped to reduce the winds.

In 2006, when a large flood hit our village, the water rose thirty centimeters inside our house. My floor is the highest here, its supporting beams reaching a height of 2,82 meters. It was in that same year that a big wave tore down various floor boards. My husband and I had noticed in previous years that the waves were getting stronger each year.

Adaptation to the waves

That is why in 2005 we decided to plant tall grass called canarana to try to absorb the strength of the wind. In 2006, after we had our boards torn down, we decided to enlarge the planted area. Now, I believe the waves are much less intense around our house. At least, it doesn’t bother as much. I believe that our idea is working. We haven’t suffered any damage since then.

I don’t want to leave the village. That is why I’m doing this work around the house and preparing for a better future for myself and my sons. I find life to be very tranquil here. It is good to be near nature and my family.

I hope our village can stay here for ever, in this exact place. That is why we have to do everything possible to be able to live here. I am very happy here with my family.

Scientific review

Reviewed by: Carlos Nobre

The methodological proposal of the Climate Witness Project is an important tool to capture and register climate changes perceived at riverine communities scale. The identification and capacity building of the riverine dwellers to follow – for decades – the effects of environmental changes can offer valuable information to refine the prediction models for climate change.

An important aspect to highlight in this analysis is that the biological systems, many times, respond much faster to climate change than demonstrated in the most common climate variables itself. Therefore, it’s important that climate witnesses are alert to permanent changes in biological systems of any nature.

To imply a cause for a change is a complicated factor in many areas of the Amazon Forest. A permanent change in a biological system (at the limit, i.e. the extinction of species) is due to climate change, deforestation or other causes? This is an analysis very difficult to be made and should be studied in future researches. Although, obviously, the climate witnesses are not the people who are going to explain the changes, only register them consciously.

Summarizing, the climate witnesses shouldn’t register only the physical level (i.e. river levels, river flows, rain or drought). This kind of information is more adequately measured through measurement tools. However, climate witnesses can offer important information about the subtle permanent changes in biological systems.

Some study references to future refinements of Climate Witnesses Project work:

MARENGO, J. A.; NOBRE, C. A.; TOMASELLA, J.; CARDOSO, M. F.; OUAMA, M. D. (2008); Hydro-climatic and ecological behaviour of the drought of Amazonia. Philosophical Transactions Of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences; Volume 363; Number 1498; Pages 1773-1778.
BORMA, L.S., ROCHA, H.R., CABRAL, O.M., RANDOW, C. von, COLLICCHIO, E., KURZATKOWSKI, D., BRUGGER, P., FREITAS, H.C., TANNUS, R., OLIVEIRA L., RENNO, C. and ARTAXO, P. (2008). Atmospheric and Hydrological Controls of the Evapotranspiration over a Floodplain Forest in the Bananal Island Region, Amazonia. J. Geophys. Res., doi:10.1029/2007JG000641, in press.
ROCHA, A.V., POTTS, D.L. and GOULDEN, M.L. (2008). Standing litter as a driver of interannual CO2 exchange variability in a freshwater marsh. J. Geophys. Res., doi:10.1029/2008JG000713, in press.
NEILL, C.; ELSENBEER, H.; KRUSCHE, A.V.; LEHMANN, J.; MARKEWITZ, D.; FIGUEIREDO, R.O. (2006). Hydrological and biogeochemical processes in a changing Amazon: results from small watershed studies and the large-scale biosphere-atmosphere experiment. Hydrological process, John Wiley & Sons (p 2467-2476).
MORAES, B.C.; da COSTA, J.M.N.; sé Maria Nogueira da Costa; da COSTA, A.C.L.; COSTA, M.H. (2004). Variação espacial e temporal da precipitação no estado do Pará. Acta Amazônica, 35 (2)
NOVO, E.M.L.M.; FERREIRA, L.G.; BARBOSA, C.; CARVALHO, C.; SANO, E.E.; SHIMABUKURO, Y.; HUETE, A.; POTTER, C.; ROBERTS, A.; HESS, L.; MELACK, J.J.; YOSHIOKA, H.; KLOOSTER, S.; KUMAR, V.; MYNEMI, R.; RATANA, P.; DIDAN, K.; MIURA, T. (2004). Técnicas avançadas de sensoriamento remoto aplicadas ao estudo de mudanças climáticas e ao funcionamento dos ecossistemas amazônicos. Amazônica, 35 (2).

All articles are subject to scientific review by a member of the Climate Witness Science Advisory Panel.

Read the stories of more WWF Climate Witnesses FactSheet