How agroecological cacao can save an endangered lion tamarin in southern Bahia

The area of distribution of the golden-headed lion tamarin (Leontopithecus chrysomelas), a primate endemic to southern Bahia, is characterized by patches of mature and regenerating forests, as well as agroforestry crops where cacao is planted in the shade of native Atlantic Forest trees. However, the area is already small and has faced the same deforestation that caused the species to disappear from northern Minas Gerais state in the not-too-distant past.

Over the last 30 years, the range of the primate, also known as the Bahia’s lion tamarin, has been reduced by approximately 42%, from 22,700-13,215 square kilometers (8,765-5,102 square miles), while its population has dropped by around 60%. It is estimated there are between 16,000 and 21,000 individuals in the wild in southern Bahia, most of them in the municipality of Ilhéus.

The data are part of biologist Joanison Vicente dos Santos Teixeira’s doctoral thesis. He is the executive director and head of research at the Almada Mata Atlântica Project (AMAP), a German-Brazilian environmental organization that has funded scientific projects and actions to protect the golden-headed lion tamarin, a symbol of the institution and its flagship project.

The small primate sleeps in hollow parts of native tree trunks. It moves around in groups of 5-11 individuals that avoid repeating resting places to escape predators. This interesting characteristic requires permanent efforts to find shelter and food in forest patches that have been shrinking outside protected areas, due to pressure from livestock farming, intensification of management in cabrucas (traditional cacao agroforestry systems) and expansion of crops such as coffee and eucalyptus.

“They defend their territories from other groups. If a group enters or approaches another’s territory, there will possibly be conflict in the form of vocalizations aimed at each other,” says Teixeira, who also highlights the species’ collaborative spirit: “In groups, only one couple is able to reproduce, and older offspring help take care of their siblings.”

Considering the threats, planting cacao in the shade of native trees — the cabruca system — is an economically viable alternative for the region, in addition to being crucial for the survival of the golden-headed lion tamarin. “It’s a perfect combination,” Teixeira says.

He says that some NGOs and Brazilian and foreign research institutions recognize the importance of that primate for the biome and joined efforts to save it from extinction. They have focused on keeping what remains, in addition to connecting forest patches through regeneration. AMAP is one of those organizations.

Teixeira is involved in updating data such as extent of occurrence, area of occupancy and population size, among other factors that indicate the primate’s conditions for long-term survival, in addition to informing actions to defend the species and its habitat.

“Every four years, we update population parameters that help us plan conservation strategies,” he notes. “We also need to rouse interest in political decision-making with this focus.” Raising society’s awareness through education and communication activities is another challenge.

Biodiverse and economically viable cabrucas

Cabrucas in southern Bahia have an average of 197 trees per hectare (about 79 trees per acre), which makes them ecologically viable. However, Teixeira reports, in 2014, without considering scientific parameters, a state executive order put the primate’s survival at risk by allowing agricultural properties to have cabrucas with 40 trees per hectare (16 per acre). “Many farmers want to expand cocoa production and, as a result, they reduce shade trees,” he says.

To face the challenges, he advocates increasing the visibility of the species so that people will understand its importance and engage in its protection. “A local resident didn’t know the golden-headed lion tamarin that passed through his backyard, but he knew the golden lion tamarin [Leontopithecus rosalia], which is native to the state of Rio de Janeiro, because he’d seen it on television,” he explains. For him, the movement that made the species from Rio de Janeiro a symbol of mobilization for its conservation in Brazil is an essential inspiration.

However, for the situation to be reversed in favor of protecting the species, Teixeira explains that cabruca crops need to be economically viable for small farmers. “We’ve been trying to convince them that organic production is a way of adding value to their product. We also want them to feel more appreciated. Maintaining a high density of shade trees, which are also for the tamarins, is our biggest challenge,” he acknowledges.

In addition to research, he says AMAP carries out environmental education actions to raise awareness among producers and society in general. To this end, the environmental organization manages the Bom Pastor farm, which works with ecotourism, involving visitors in protecting the golden-headed lion tamarin. They also receive Brazilian and foreign students and researchers with a scientific interest in the species.

Another important actor he mentions is the Southern Bahia Cocoa Association, a cooperative that promotes cocoa production in the cabruca system and has advanced in the organic certification of a large number of farmers in the region, adding value to the regional product and therefore protecting the tamarin and other species.

Research and engagement focused on degraded areas

Since most golden-headed lion tamarin groups are concentrated in small patches of unprotected forest, it is precisely in this type of degraded area, on private land, that the BioBrasil Project concentrates its research and environmental education actions.

This initiative is headed by the Center for Research and Conservation at Belgium’s Antwerp Zoo and managed by NGO Bicho-do-Mato Research Institute, working in partnership with the State University of Santa Cruz (UESC). It has been carrying out activities for two decades in southern Bahia, where they complement each other and connect with AMAP’s practices.

Roberto Fiorini Torrico, an environmental engineer with a graduate degree in ecology, who is head of research for the initiative, says one of the main concerns of partner organizations involves the permanent risks of habitat loss — one of the tamarin’s biggest threats. That is why the project focuses on understanding how degradation affects the ecological dynamics on which the species depends, in addition to efforts to implement sustainable practices for its conservation and raise public awareness in schools and communities of areas where the lion tamarin occurs.

This primate has a strong connection with mature trees. Local bromeliads are also considered essential for the species, since insects on which the tamarin feed live inside these plants, and they also use them to protect themselves from predators and heavy rain. “They spend a lot of time searching for insects that live in these bromeliads,” Torrico notes.

With the increase in deforestation, Torrico warns that “in addition to the risks to this species that is a regional symbol, we are also losing ecosystem services” such as soil protection, freshwater sources, climate balance and others that are crucial to the conservation of biodiversity and human well-being. The organic production certification process is seen as an ally of nature conservation in this region.

From 2002-10, the BioBrasil project operated in a degraded area incorporated into the Una Biological Reserve. From then on, data collection and ecological monitoring of tamarins began in sections of properties suitable for agriculture, where forest patches and small cabrucas share space with vegetables, fruit species and even rubber, which regenerate after periods of idleness. The researcher notes that even though this Amazonian species is not native, it serves as shelter and supports large bromeliads used by tamarins.

Field activities involve monitoring four groups of golden-headed lion tamarins and, more recently, a group of Wied’s marmosets (Callithrix kuhlii). In the forest, these species live together and do not compete; on the contrary, they help each other. “When there is a predator in the forest, they will vocalize to each other,” Torrico says.

Factors monitored include the groups’ geographic positions and the fruiting of the trees they use, in addition to encounters between groups. These encounters are more common in areas where they live in tighter conditions due to less forest connectivity, “which not only make it difficult for them to look for food, especially fruit, but also reduce their chances of finding new partners.”

In this scenario, educational actions have been crucial in the region. “Working with students and professors from the University of Santa Cruz, we raise complementary questions to our project,” he argues.

The educational work involves workshops to promote appreciation of cabruca and biodiversity and visitation by local students to a trail in the area under study. In addition, one of the environmental communication practices is “Bahia’s Lion Tamarin Cultural Afternoon,” when the community is invited to attend activities aimed at raising environmental awareness.

While children participate in storytelling, young people are engaged in an action plan that involves strengthening socioactivism. As a result of that, a group has already volunteered for socioenvironmental activities in their communities, including cleaning important areas to protect water sources.

“We noticed a strong interest by young people in matters related to nature, as well as great potential as mobilization agents,” Torrico concludes. He also hopes to make them interested in this work in the future.

Increasing profitability can reduce replacement of cabrucas

Biologist Leonardo Oliveira is concerned about increasing deforestation in the region and its numerous interconnections. He is a professor at the School of Education of the State University of Rio de Janeiro and at the graduate studies program in ecology and biodiversity conservation at UESC, as well as scientific director of Bicho do Mato Research Institute. He has observed that the ecological issue will not be solved without providing economic alternatives to small producers. “Without agricultural diversification and law enforcement, cutting down native trees has been the only alternative for many of them,” he explains.

But, in addition to agricultural diversity, small farmers need profitability. As an example, the researcher mentions that a 60-kilogram (130-pound) sack of organic cocoa intended for the gourmet consumer segment fetched 800 reais ($145) compared with 200 reais ($37) for the non-value-added product, until April this year. However, due to losses in the African harvest caused by the climate crisis, especially in countries such as Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, which are among the world’s top global cocoa producers, prices in southern Bahia have seen historic highs that have already reached 900 reais ($165) per arroba — a 33-lb [15-kg] measurement — in May.

The specific change in scenario causes a mix of enthusiasm and concern, given the risk of deforesting cabrucas to expand cacao production, which has already been happening in the region.

Involved with studies about the behavior of tamarins in cabruca since 2007, he has seen an increase in national and international partnerships for studies and mobilization actions to protect the species in southern Bahia. “We have been holding workshops, debates and other communication actions in this challenging local context,” he notes.

These meetings have discussed the fact that converting cabrucas into full-sun cacao plantations leads to loss of biodiversity and numerous environmental services. To reverse the problem, the partner institutions understand that it is also crucial to overcome the cultural and economic depreciation of that crop system and guarantee funding sources. Another idea is to make the golden-headed lion tamarin a local mascot, raising awareness and creating engagement with its protection.

Other initiatives under Oliveira’s project focus on supporting recovery actions in legal reserves (where deforestation in private properties is banned) and permanent protection areas such as riverside forests, springs, hilltops and other areas of great importance for protection of biodiversity and water sources.

“We must recover these areas and connect patches to form forest corridors with the protected areas of the region, thus preventing these environments from being occupied by monocultures,” the researcher stresses. “Cabruca is an agroforestry system associated with food production, which is better than any simplified farming system such as monocultures.”

 
Banner image: A golden-headed lion tamarin (Leontopithecus chrysomelas) in an Atlantic Forest area in southern Bahia. Image courtesy of Patrick Böttger.

This story was reported by Mongabay’s Brazil team and first published here on our Brazil site on June 3, 2024.

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