Some impressions recorded by the FAO Forestry Mission
by K. McGRATH R. GACHOT and N. M. GALLANT
THE Amazon is an area which has suffered greatly from ill-informed journalism and the creation of the "green hell" legend. It has been equally ill-described as a potential "bread basket of the world." It is, in truth, an area of poor soils and, by tropical standards, of poor quality forest. Over perhaps 99 percent of the area there is little prospect of any traditional type of land colonization based solely on the production of agricultural surpluses.
On the favorable side, however, the magnificent system of waterways, the general ease of topography, and the often open nature of the jungle presents less difficulty to timber extraction than probably any other extensive tropical forest in the world. There is no technical reason why the forests should not be exploited to the limit of available markets. Modern methods of extraction and industrialization could in effect so reduce the selling prices of Amazon timber and other kinds of forest produce that a very much greater outlet than even the quite considerable market that is available today, could undoubtedly be created.
The forests are indeed of enormous extent and, despite the low yield per unit of area, the amount of utilizable timber aggregated over the vast area is of staggering proportions. Given an unlimited market, an enormous timber industry could indeed be visualized. But at the moment, the only reliable market is the domestic Brazilian market. The general supply position to this particular market is now such that it is a matter of urgency for measures to be taken in the Amazon valley to ensure a supply of the timber which will be required for the future development of Brazil. What these internal market requirements will be in the fairly immediate future is unknown. It is beyond doubt, however, that the development of the country can absorb, and at reasonable prices will definitely take, all that an Amazon industry expanded at a practicable rate can produce.
It is certain that overseas markets could also be found to take regular deliveries of standard grades of well-produced and conditioned sawn wood. The Amazon carries a wide variety of woods from the heaviest and most durable to white light substitutes for softwoods. Mahogany and cedar are known to all the world's markets and several other species are already well-known and established in European markets. But the extent to which such markets could be developed would depend largely on the costs of the produce, and even were the demand to be created, it is nevertheless unlikely that international trade could in the foreseeable future occupy other than second place to the domestic Brazilian market itself.
Within the borders of Brazil, the Amazon forests cover the States of Amazonas and Pará, the territories of Acre, Guaporé, Rio Branco and Amapá, the northern part of Mato Grosso, and a narrow strip of Maranhão. This vast forest area, extending over roughly 40 percent of the whole of Brazil, is still little known. Much progress has been made with studies in the field of systematic botany and many species have been described and identified, but the inventory is still far from accurate.
Likewise, geo-botanical information is too slight for a clear definition of subdivisions. On the basis of the extent of existing or available water, as elaborated later in this article, forest formations of four types can be distinguished:
1. coastal mangrove with characteristic flora;
2. Varzea formations;
3. Igapo formations;
4. Terra firma formations varying with climatic conditions (particularly rainfall): dense forest, dry forest and savanna woodland.
Generally speaking, because of low soil fertility, the dense forest, which covers some 95 percent of the Amazon valley, has a tree flora of which the average height is less than, for example, the African average. Vegetation comparable to the latter is only to be found in stands on soil of volcanic origin.
In the present state of knowledge, it is clearly not possible to describe the forest stand composition; all the information that is available relates to a few species of special commercial value1. It is not difficult to appreciate that, because of the vastness of the area, the assembling of all the data necessary for a true appraisal of the forest resources would be a herculean task. The only practicable approach at the moment would be to undertake inventories of limited regions selected for economic reasons.
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The following timber species are fairly well known to foreign trade: Aguano (Swietenia macrophylla), Andiroba (Carapa guianensis), Assacú (Eura crepilans), Cedro (Cedrele odorata), Cupiuba (Goupia glabra), Freijó (Cordia coeloiana), Itauba (Mezilaurus itauba), Jacareuba (Calophyllum brasiliense), Louro-inhamui (Nectandra elaiophora), Louro-vermelho (Ocotea rubra), Macacauba (Platymiscium uleii), Mandioqueira (Qualia spp.), Marupá (Simaruba amara), Massaranduba (Mimusops-Manilkara spp.), Quaruba (Vochysia spp), Sapupira (Diplotropis martiusii), Ucuúba (Virola surinamensis).
The following species would probably be of interest if fair and steady supplies could be made available: Acapu (Voucapoua americana), Anani (Sympnomia globulifera), Araracanga (Aspidosperma desmanthum), Cumarú (Coumarouna odorata), Jacarandá do Pará (Dalbergia spruceaena), Jutai (Hymenaea coubaril), Muiracatiara (Astronium graveolens), Muirapiranga (Brosmium paraense), Pau Roxo (Peltegyne paniculata), Pau d'Arco (Tabebuia serratifolia), Tatajuba (Bagassa guianensis).
The most important characteristics of the physical composition of the stand are the sparsity of even potentially utilizable lumber trees and the general openness of the stand and absence of vine and undergrowth. This openness plus the ease of topography add up to low access cost and to a large extent compensate the low yield per unit of area served by the access.
Geology and Topography
The Amazon plain may be regarded as two gently sloping surfaces abutting along a somewhat east-west junction corresponding to the course of the main Amazon and Solimoes rivers, and stretching out on either side to attain eventually a proximity to the elevations of the chain of small peaks and plateaus which bind it to the north and, to a much less continuous extent, to the south, well into the center of Brazil. On the west the plain continues into Bolivia and Peru to the foothills of the Andes.
About 42 percent of the total area, or a million and a half square kilometers, has an elevation between zero and 100 meters and a further million square kilometers (nearly 29 percent) lies at less shall 200 meters. The general flatness of the area is in fact its most important characteristic. The general geological picture is of a parent plain of volcanics overlain by a vast spatula of tertiary sandstones, fanning out to cover a huge area west of Manaus and stretching into Peru and Columbia, and being narrowed in between Manaus and the mouth of the river.
Later processes have modified the picture by the action of surface run-off water carving out a pattern of widely separated broad flat v alley depressions through which the streams wander slowly changing course and in their annual floodings building a quaternary deposit over the valley flats. An enormous amount of silt is torn off the Andes and the banks of most of the rivers, particularly in their upper courses, and is deposited as the river currents slow down as they reach the east. This has been responsible for the formation of two levels over the previously eroded tertiary deposits - an old quaternary layer1 above the present levels of river floods, and a recent level being built up by the annual floods.
1
The old quaternary is at its greatest development in the river estuary or island region of Belem, but the area still flooded every year along the main river valley is of enormous extent. The Hooded Areas are termed Varzea if they are receiving annual depositions of silt or Igapo where they are merely covered by clear water without material in suspension; the two types pose different problems of access, have different forests and different land utilization possibilities. In local parlance all firm lands above flood level are called terra firma irrespective of the geological series to which they belong.
As the rivers, coming down from what is to the largest extent archaic gneisses and granites, pass over the almost indiscernible junction of the volcanic and the softer sandstones, they spill over in rapids or small waterfalls which are known collectively as cachoeiras. The main Amazon-Solimoes axis is somewhat closer to the northern watershed - and to the junction of the volcanics with the sandstones - than to the southern, and since the watersheds to north and south are of almost equal elevation, the waters travel in a much more leisurely fashion to the main Amazon river from the south than from the north.
As a result, shipping may continue from the Amazon up any of the southern tributaries for a very considerable distance before encountering the shallows of rapids, and timber from a big belt of country on this south side may be rafted without difficulty. Even above the rapids on the south side, which means in effect practically all the mahogany belt, floating of timber presents nothing like the difficulties that the very considerable falls and rapids on the north side constitute Here the crossing of the junction of the two geological series produces real waterfalls instead of mere rapids.
Hydrology
The principal feature of the stream flow of the Amazon and its larger tributaries is that each year the river rise to an annual floodcrest and then recede to a period of minimum flow. On an average the cycle starts at dead low in September-October, the rivers begin to rise in November and continue to rise to a top level in May, after which they start to recede again. The recent quaternary level, already referred to, is flooded during this cycle generally from early February until towards the end of July.
The lower courses of the major tributaries of the Amazon itself form a system of lakes and parañás, interlocking and inter lacing watercourses spread over a vast width With the mother river winding between them. In addition to direct discharge to the main river, the tributary streams frequently enter a network of lakes or deltas which may themselves be interlaced With those of adjoining tributaries before their waters finally reach the river proper. In the lower rivers the rise of the floods may innundate all the intervening land and give rise to enormous areas of Varzea or flood plain receiving annual deposition of silt. Further up the rivers the Varzea decreases, but there may still be a wide belt of low flat quarternary land bordering the rivers through which wind a maze of depressions and dry water courses which will be flushed by backwaters of the main stream in the flood period
These courses may in the wet season provide water access to within the forest, but in the dry period they constitute a real problem in land transport to the main stream. Even when they carry water, they are still a very indirect means of progress in a given direction because the backwaters which flush them enter the system by so many devious routes that there is no reliability in the flow of the currents along any one route. Progress is now With the current now against it, and the sweep changes at each junction and each entry to a swamp. The utilization of this watercourse system thus may enormously increase the distance to be maneuvred to a given point, and requires intimate local knowledge to ensure that the desired vicinity is reached.
Logging Operations
Enough has been said to show that rivers are the highways of Amazonia and the existing sawmills have been located to draw their supplies in rafts from upstream. But arising from the feet that no power other than manpower exists for the extraction of logs from the stump to the watercourse log supply is disorganized uncertain and costly.
In the first place, logging operations are necessarily restricted to the frontages bordering the watercourses, and consequently the species now established on the market are not necessarily those of the greatest utility but rather such as are found close to the rivers. Moreover, the quality of the logs which reach a mill is determined not by their milling utility but by the ease or difficulty which they present to muscle-powered extraction.
Another and most important result of the fact that kilometers by water are of less consequence than meters by land is that mills, particularly in the island region of Belem, lose all geographic relationship to their areas of supply: with logging operations scattered over vast distances along the rivers, difficulties of administration and organization are accentuated. The picture is thus not really one of forest exploitation - for the real forest of the Amazon still lies on the vast waterless planalto and remains virtually untouched.
The general principle by which manpower is used to extract timber is much the same throughout the Amazon and variations in practice are mere modifications necessitated by peculiarities of topography or forest type which may differ with locality. Thus in the typical picture, the trees are felled by axes, worked into lengths of 4 meters and rolled to the water where they are tied into rafts with wire rope or vines and towed by launch to the mill.
To permit the logs to be rolled, a track is cut six meters wide and as direct as possible from stump to water edge. It is provided with three parallel lines of continuous skids of round timber 6-9 inches (15-23 cm.) thick which are laid on the ground for the full length of the track. The logs are maneuvered on to the skids and with or without the use of levers, are rolled on the skids to the water. In general, the distance over which the logs are rolled is not great but in special circumstances it may stretch to 2,000 yards (1,800 m.) or more.
However, since the general picture of the Amazon area is of a river pattern of roughly parallel main tributaries 100-200 miles (160-320 km.) apart, with largely waterless country between, and with the best forests on the higher country of the interior, it is apparent that the methods now used are not only primitive and inefficient but are incapable of tapping the real timber wealth of the Amazon.
Soils
The existence of a so-called luxuriant rain forest vegetation is the origin of considerable and misleading literature on Amazon agricultural potential. It has not always been recognized that the tropical rain forest is primarily the creation of the climate, that it lives mainly on its own wastes and, once established, is largely self-sustaining. Its major requirement of the soil is continuous moisture, and it makes very little chemical demands and almost none on the upper horizons which agriculture would utilize.
The most significant evidence as to the possible value of the soil is the laterization which in a general way attacks all the soils of the terra firma itself. There is considerable doubt as to whether the exact chemical process is one of laterization or of tropical podsolization, but for practical purposes the end effect is the same - with leaching of the soluble bases, the soil is finally composed of variable proportions of hydroxides of iron and aluminum, and in their most advanced condition they are able to offer no element assimilable by plants.
That the Amazonian soils have not proceeded to a final deteriorated condition is due to the forest cover which protects the soil from the conditions necessary for advanced laterization - absence of humus, open exposure to precipitation, marked alternation of wet and dry soil moisture conditions, high soil temperatures. But evidence of this type of soil alteration is indeed available over the whole region - the formation of spotted nodules in layers below the surface or the general appearance of layers of concretations or encrustations of hydroxides of iron and aluminum.
The soils of the Varzea areas are, however, unique in that they are not attacked by laterization and, being provided annually with depositions from the "white" waters, their fertility is considerable. They offer the only areas naturally suited to sustained agriculture in the Amazon; but control of the water required to permit their utilization to full advantage and the difficulty of mechanized working present real problems in the production of foodstuffs of the type the Amazon requires.
On the terra firma agriculture has been practicable only under shifting cultivation. Generally one to three crops on a single area are all that is possible but rare instances of six crops of manioc have been observed. In the Braganca region, traditionally Belem's local supplier, increasing population has shortened the rotation under which lands have to be re-utilized to the point that, through exposure, they are now in a state of advanced laterization.
If properly organized, there is no reason, except economic, why shifting cultivation on long-term rotations should not be practicable, but otherwise the terra firma soils could not provide for permanent agriculture, other than to serve as the physical vehicle for applied chemical plant foods, for which purpose their physical condition is quite good. Although possibly more remote in location, the richer volcanic soils offer greater possibilities of continued agriculture on the firm lands, but these are similarly affected by laterization processes, and experience of lixiviation and erosion to the point of loss of all fertility following deforestation of somewhat similar soils of the Rio Paraiba do sul, the Paulista plateau, the Rio Doce, and elsewhere, does not induce optimism.
The general character of the soils is loamy clay of a physical type highly suitable to agriculture and equally to the construction of low cost earth roads for mechanical extraction of timber. Despite the high rainfall it is felt that on these soils mechanical extraction could be practiced with no more disruption by weather conditions than is normal to tropical working.
Climate
The Amazon region runs true to the general conditions of the world's equatorial regions as regards temperatures - dry bulb temperatures are only moderately high and there is little variation in the daily or annual range. The warmest weather is generally in the low rainfall period and the coolest in the wet season. Near the coast the average maxima are about 85-87 degrees F. (29°-30° C.) with absolute maxima rarely above 90 degrees (32º C.) and the minima, averaging 72-75 degrees, (22°-23° C.) seldom drop below 70 degrees (21° C.). Further inland the disparity is greater with absolute maxima above 95 degrees (34.5° C.) and minima of 60 degrees (16° C.) and a general range of 15-20 degrees (8º-11° C.) occurring between day and night.
The relative humidity increases gradually from the coast inland and for the whole area averages about 80 percent.
The almost universal pleasant breeze is, however, most important in relation to human comfort in the Amazon and a factor whose effect is incapable of sufficient expression in any statistical attempt to characterize the Amazonian climate. The region is indeed one of light winds and occasional calms, or general trade winds. High winds are practically unknown, and no tropical cyclones invade the area. For nine months of the year the northeast trade wind comes from squarely offshore and blows right up the valley, and the more unpleasant season (July-October) for inland areas is associated with the establishment of the doldrums to the north of the area, in consequence of which the winds do not blow direct inland. Then the decided contrast beta between the quite pleasant climate of Belem and the sticky unpleasantness of Manaus, despite its cooler nights, is understandable only in terms of breeze.
The region is one of abundant and widely distributed rainfall, amounting to perhaps 80 inches (2,000 mm.) over the area as a whole. There is a belt of below, average precipitation running north along the Xingú river to the Amazon and then bending west of north along Rio Branco into British Guiana; here the annual rainfall may drop to 60 inches (1,500 mm.). Wetter belts cover a crescent on the east, including all the island of Marajó and then swinging away to the coast and in the west extending from the rivers Negro and Tapajós to the borders of Colombia, Peru and Bolivia. Within the latter belt are two centers of very high rainfall which, together with a lesser area on the coastal strip, constitute the three zones which experience rainfalls of over 100 inches (2,500 mm.).
The climatic conditions are completely favorable to luxuriant vegetation, and the reason that the vegetation is not, by rain forest standards, in fact luxuriant is due to the poverty of the soil. For the same reason, and not because of the climate, the area is not densely populated. In fact the bar to the satisfactory colonization of the Amazon has been not climate but nutrition and hygiene.
There have been several spectacular outbreaks of malaria in the Amazon (notably on the infamous "life per sleeper" Guaporé railway), but malaria is neither so great a hazard as elsewhere in the tropics nor is it generally as difficult to control. Of 30 species of anopheline mosquitoes in the Amazon, only two carry malaria, and one of these, breeding only in saline waters is not only restricted to a small area on the coast but has been completely controlled. It can be stated that malaria is no longer a problem except where, by reason of the sparsity of population, effective control is difficult to implement.
Other well-known tropical diseases are common, in particular hookworm, amoebic dysentery, bacillary dysentery and intestinal worms Filaria, and its final stages, elephantiasis, have previously been serious but their culex vector has been practically eliminated in the process of malarial control. These diseases cause much suffering and misery but they are not themselves the direct reason for the high death rate; malnutrition reduces resistance to such a point that death from other causes is inevitable.
There is no evidence to suggest that further colonization, if it could be made self-supporting, would be confronted by any serious problems. Surprisingly, the Amazon valley can be regarded as one of the potentially most healthy tropical areas of the world, despite a present average expectation of life of only 39 years.
Present populations
At present the Caboclé, who is of mixed European and Indian blood and constitutes 49 percent of the population of the Amazon, is the foundation of the economy. He is essentially a man of the river and forest. He is nomadic and not disposed to agricultural practice, and no attraction as, for example, was offered him in the Ford Company plantations would either anchor him or buy his continued performance of plantation work. Education, far from securing him to the land, at once tempts him to the city.
However, timber work in the forest, on the river or in the sawmill appeals to him. In the mill, routine work with logs, lumber and machinery attracts him, while in the forest the diversity of the activities in his, native element makes work akin to the carefree picnic existence of the Caboclé's natural inclination.
Then there are also the Indians. No exact estimate of the Indian population has been made but the best guesses place their numbers at around 10,000. They belong to many tribes, some of which are docile but more are hostile.
The official Government attitude to the Indians is extremely sympathetic and laws relating to the interaction of Brazilians and Indians are weighted very heavily in the latter's favor. Despite this, so-called civilization has contrived its own very realistic measures to control any Indian menace.
Though they are a danger to unaccompanied explorers in the jungle, the Indians will not usually attack groups of men. But tribes of exceptional animosity, for instance the Tupi or the Gê Indians, cannot be relied on to subscribe to this generalization. On the Tocantins river, for example, it is almost an annual event for the Tupi to come down from the interior in the dry season when food is scarce and shoot up the Government train which cuts them off from the river and its fishing.
Nevertheless, it is of interest that the whole of the mahogany belt is peopled by Indians and any real extraction industry there would have to take serious precautions to ensure the safety of both personnel and equipment. Otherwise, Indians are of no consequence in the areas at present being worked for timber, and there is a considerable area available for extension of forest exploitation in which there is no Indian problem.
So vast is the area and so few the people living in the Amazon valley that there has not been the urgency to draw up a classification of land for sound use - which traditionally is done not to plan development so much as to control extension of land despoiliation after this evil has arisen. However, it is constitutionally provided in Brazil that 3 percent of the national revenue shall be devoted to Amazon development, and to administer this fund a Commissão de Valorisacão da Amazonia is in process of establishment. This body will presumably determine the future lines of development and have in its power the possibility of giving a real impetus to welding diverse interests into a co-ordinated scheme of sound land use.
Very considerable studies have indeed already been made in the Amazon on many aspects connected with possible land use but, without the urgency of a pressing problem, they repose in libraries as being little more than of academic interest. Until now, each of these studies has followed the particular inclination of the worker, and has had little reference to the development of an overall picture, with the result that there has been much overlapping and misdirected investigation.
Recognizing the need for an integration of all studies towards a definite objective, the Instituto Brasileiro de Geographia y Estatistica has set about the task of assembling what is known of Brazil and in what respect information is lacking. For this purpose, it has constituted a number of internal sections, each charged with responsibility for a defined region of the country, of which the Amazon valley is one. The first task of the Amazon section is to assemble a bibliography of what has been done; secondly to examine, sift and summarize the various treatises; and finally to carry out field studies either to supply missing information or to confirm or deny the findings of previous workers. This work is in progress and the region is being examined area by area to give each part such detailed study as is warranted.
The Amazon section is staffed by competent scientists who can call on the full assistance of economists and statisticians. It has, in addition, the co-operation of the Brazilian Air Force and of the State Governors to assist with field excursions and air surveys. True, it labors under some difficulties which hamper continuity of the investigations, but nevertheless it is engaged in serious work which is of fundamental importance in determining a sound use for the whole area. Although the section functions purely as an advisory organ, it can be expected to play an important part in the decisions of the Commissão de Valorisacão da Amazonia when it is fully operative.
As an adjunct to the work of the Instituto, a research institute to investigate the evidence or to test conclusions is essential. To a limited extent such an institution exists in the Instituto do Agricultura do Norte which is a well-staffed and well-equipped body having the benefit of ample demonstration areas - including inheritance of all the Ford Company achievements at Fordlandia and Belterra, as well as areas in the vicinity of Belem and elsewhere.
The immediate need in the Amazon is the selection of suitable areas and economic assistance for the establishment of an agricultural industry capable of feeding the present inhabitants, so as to obviate dependence on outside sources and eliminate the importance of the trader on whom all food supplies at present depend. Sufficient information already exists to permit this objective being soon achieved and tentative beginnings have already been made in the Guama valley, at Santarem, and at Manacapuru.
But by the Amazon we really mean the planalto and only with its wide-scale utilization will any degree Of real occupation of the region ensue. As has already been said, the poverty of the soils eliminates serious consideration of their settlement on the traditional basis of agricultural colonization. But they carry an enormous volume and although the planners have not hitherto seriously considered the possibility of forest industries as providing the cornerstone for colonization, such industries do indeed provide such an opportunity and are in feet the only possibility on the basis of present knowledge. The development of the timber industry and colonization are inseparable complements to each other.
The most pertinent facts about the present timber position in the Amazon are the serious shortage of sawn timber in the remote areas and the excessive prices of timber throughout the valley, prices that are beyond the average local purse. In the remoter areas, a solution undoubtedly lies in the installation of small portable units in centers of exploitation that are as close as possible to the demand. Elsewhere, production costs must somehow, be brought down in the interest both of the local and of the export market.
This lowering of production costs can be effected by rationalized extraction, with a more direct linkage between sawmill and forest and With fewer middle men in between; by improved sawmilling facilities, and by a steady supply of labor that is rendered contented and maybe cheaper by making a greater variety of foodstuffs available at prices that labor can afford to pay.
Can the local market be developed materially? Three to four times the present consumption could probably be absorbed with ease, if prices were correct and if the industry were located so as to ensure proper distribution. A good deal devolves on the effectiveness of the Commissão de Valorisacão da Amazonia. If its objectives are attained, there should be a greater area under cultivation in the Amazon and a greater variety of cheaper foodstuffs, an accelerated rate of increase of the population, and a marked improvement in living standards. A regular supply of forest and sawmill labor should result, a supply that must somehow he safeguarded from enticement by other activities that may appear to become more remunerative.
A new economy required
Having in mind what needs to be done to achieve the development of a timber industry in the Amazon, a sound rate to aim at would appear to be a threefold increase of production over the next ten years. Anything bigger would be to explore the realm of fantasy and to founder any plan on unreality and lack of appreciation of Amazon conditions. Three centuries of a "collection" economy and a trading psychology have produced a set of conditions in the Amazon valley unsympathetic to the founding of any sound industry;.
For instance, the Amazon's 3,500,000 square kilometers produce less than half of the foodstuff, other than manioc and corn, consumed by the mere two million inhabitants, and the people are so inadequately fed that malnutrition and undernourishment are major medical problems. Moreover, the habits and philosophies of all the peoples who now populate the Amazon basin tend to be alien to a permanent and substantial economy.
Little contribution to a threefold increase in forest output could come from the present so-called timber industries, for they add up to no more than just another unit of the "collection" economy, operated not by technicians but by traders. The rosewood oil industry is facing extinction unless it can be rationalized and its raw material supplies made cheaper and more readily and reliably available. In the center of one of the largest of the world's forest areas, town authorities are turning to oil, of which there is no national source of supply, to replace firewood which they can no longer obtain in quantities sufficient to avoid a continually rationed and uncertain supply of urban electricity.
It is true of course that existing industries could be assisted in some degree and the first task is in fact to develop them to the maximum of their possible efficiency But still, this would not greatly increase productivity, for the present forest industries suffer organically from an establishment so basically opposed to modern flow production, the machinery is so inadequate and incorrect in type, and the trader type of management so inefficient that they can make little contribution in volume to anything in the nature of a threefold increase.
An increase in production of the magnitude visualized could stem only from completely new industries and new investment. It would not be sufficient merely to demonstrate sound exploitation techniques. Expanded output requires the tabulation of data on possible forest yields and detailed mapping - desirable indeed for existing exploitation but essential to any organized extraction planning. It requires detailed information on the commercial and industrial possibilities of species other than the few timbers already accepted. And, above all, it requires an influx of new people, provided for locally in food, housing, medical services and amenities such as could alone make them dependable and stable members of industrial enterprises. The exploitation and industrial techniques they would use are indeed not new - merely the standard methods well developed elsewhere, with minor adaptions to Amazonian use. But the methods would have to he demonstrated and operators trained.
In short, to justify confidence in developing the forest resources of the Amazon, it must be shown that the timber is there and accessible in sufficient volume: that it can be got out reliably and economically, and be delivered to centers strategically favorable to the establishment of industries; that colonization on modern lines is practicable; that taxation will be equitable and the method of collection not unduly burdensome: and that the official attitude is sympathetic to and desirous of establishing the conditions which could be attractive to new developments and favorable to investment.
Whatever inducements are necessary to bring about these conditions and attract investment into the Amazon valley need to be given every consideration. The Amazon valley now yields 1 percent of the national revenue of Brazil and receives 3 percent, but it could be made a self-supporting area if soundly developed and sympathetically administered. The establishment of new forest industries could eventually render it solvent and convert the region from a fiscal burden on the south of Brazil into a flourishing internal market for nationally manufactured products.
