Belem is the Brazilian city at the mouth of the Amazon. It has squares and marketplaces replete with variegated cafes, pluming fountains and the bustle of an interesting, cosmopolitan, life. This large city grew up shipping rubber from the Amazon Forest, which begins on its doorstep. This made it wealthy. One can see the beautiful baroque Theatre of Peace, a fluffy pink building where Anna Pavlova danced.
On the main square, ornate with pavements of black and white quartz, is the Hotel Grao Para where Xavier Cugat and his orchestra would play and Zsa Zsa Gabor would stop over on her way, by propeller plane, on the slow flight to Rio. Then there is the magnificent opera house which once attracted the best singers from Europe and North America. Now beautifully restored, following a period of hands-off neglect and decline, it is attempting to do the same again.
By now we all know the forest has been milked of much of its wealth and, as wildfires sweep across its mammoth area, cattle farming and illegal logging are having a field day under the very right-wing president, Jair Bolsonaro, who is tearing apart the legacy of the great conservationist ex-president, Luis Ignacio Lula da Silva, who is now running again for another term. Cutting such a forest down- it is the same in the Congo, Indonesia, India, Madagascar and China- and introducing modern methods of intensive agriculture or cattle rearing leads to its ruin.
Without the protective cover of the umbrella canopy, the soil will turn soon enough to rock, laterite or sand. Gabon, home of part of the rain forest in the Congo basin, is one of very few countries whose leadership understands this.
It is using its plentiful oil money to fight the ravages of deforestation and restore the forest cover. Interestingly, this francophone country has a white Britisher as its environment minister who used to work for Word Wildlife Fund, Professor Lee White. He has been honoured by the British queen for his work in Gabon.
