Sílvia Renate Ziller, founder and president of the Horus Institute for Environmental Conservation and Development, talks about her collaborations with Fabio Rosa:
In August 2002, Rosa and his Institute for the Development of Natural Energy and Sustainability (IDEAAS) organized two workshops with the
Horus Institute (of which Rosa is a member and founder) in order to provide information about the impacts of alien invasive species on a global level, and how to manage them to allow sustainable development. These workshops were held in the southern Brazilian states of Rio
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Photo by Kris Herbst
Sílvia Renate Ziller
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Grande do Sul (where Rosa is based) and Paraná (Ziller's home).
(Rosa) is the only person I know who has established a practical model to control African weeping grass . . .
"Both states have grassland ecosystems, and it's a common passion that we have," Ziller said, noting that she and Rosa "talk a lot and exchange ideas."
"(Rosa) is the only person I know who has established a practical model to control African weeping grass in Rio Grande do Sul," Ziller said. This African grass is a particularly hardy foreign invader that eliminates native grasslands and has no economic value. The Brazilian government is developing ways to convert lands that have been invaded by the grass to agricultural crops, "but this does not restore the ecosystem," Ziller said.
Rosa devised a system of dividing grasslands into grazing areas, or paddocks, for buffalo using electric fences, which is much less costly (and therefore affordable) than building standard fencing. "You keep the grazing pressure very high so that this grass can never flower and produce seeds again, and you just exhaust the plants in time," Ziller said. "Then you plant seeds of natives grasses, or the native grasses just come back in on their own."
By shifting the buffalo from paddock to paddock, "you then lower your grazing pressure so that the native plants can grow." By using this method of rotational grazing, Rosa "slowly converted an area totally dominated by this African grass back into native grassland."
This rotational grazing ensures that the native grass "grows back and it's fresh when the buffalo come back to it," Ziller said. "So it's very high protein and it increases the buffalos' production of milk."
Ziller fist met Rosa while working on a project to restore native trees along Atlantic forest river and stream banks in the state of Paraná. She had established a nursery to supply the native trees. One farmer was given free technical assistance by Rosa to establish a rotational buffalo grazing system – which boosted his milk production by 30 percent – in exchange for agreeing to plant 400 trees along a river each month.
"We realized that we had complementary ideas and activities, such as promoting forestry and native species," she said. "It's all sustainable development."
Now Ziller and Rosa are working together with the Brazilian Ministry of Environment to help develop ecologically sustainable income-producing activities for residents of areas surrounding park lands and biological reserves, so they will serve as buffer zones that protect these precious natural resources. This year, they are beginning to implement some of these activities, including reforestation with native species and Rosa's rotational grazing scheme.
Ziller and Rosa are both Ashoka Fellows.
- by Kris Herbst
