The bird evangelist

How one ornithologist spreads his passion for nature

By Roger Hamilton

Eco-motorcycle races? For Braulio Carlos, a nature guide in Brazil’s Mato Grosso state, this is going a bit far. “Just because they hold the race on the Pantanal (Brazil’s enormous wetland), they think they can use the “eco-” prefix,” he says. “Today, everything is ‘eco.’ ”

With his spotting scope in one hand, tape recorder in the other, and binoculars around his neck, Carlos looks the part of a fanatical birdwatcher, which he is. But despite his views on overused prefixes, he’s no purist when it comes to enjoying nature. Birdwatching, fishing, canoeing, or just being among the trees and away from people all qualify as ecologically friendly activities in his view.

Carlos does insist on one thing, however. An ecotourist must come out of the forest knowing more about nature than before. And this is where he believes he can make a difference. “The main goal of ecotourism is teach people how ecosystems work and why they must be preserved,” he says. “It is much more than traveling in natural area. It involves learning about nature.”

The ecotourist guide must also be an educator, and a good one. “Just because nature is an intellectual subject, it doesn’t have to be boring,” continues Carlos. “Science is not boring. Everything we do and experience is science, because we live in a living world.”

Carlos wants to turn his clients into enthusiastic advocates for nature preservation. In particular, he would like to see more Brazilians visit natural areas, and this is one objective of the organization he helped to found, the Pantanal Bird Club.

“Incredible as it may sound,” he said, “when we started offering birding trips, we saw our market as almost exclusively limited to U.S. birdwatchers. Our website was only in English. But when we did a Portuguese website, we started receiving e-mails from Brazilians, and then visits. It turned out that they were very keen birdwatchers, just waiting for somebody to offer tours in Brazil for Brazilians.”

A big myth. Born in Peru, Carlos and his family were forced to leave their homeland during the time of the Shining Path guerrilla movement. He settled in Mato Grosso 15 years ago and today considers himself to be thoroughly and enthusiastically Brazilian.

Carlos has a master’s degree in ecology and biodiversity conservation, and is a member of the Brazilian Ornithological Society, the Neotropical Bird Club, the American Birding Association, and the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology.

He also has an undergraduate degree in economics, which might explain his pragmatic view of ecotourism’s potential. Can ecotourism provide sufficient economic benefits that it can save the tropical forest?

“This is a big myth,” he says. “Ecotourism can be a main source of income in only a very few places, because its success depends on more than just natural resources. A place can be a paradise, but if it doesn’t have infrastructure, ecotourism will not work.”

But even with good hotels, roads, and airports, Carlos thinks that ecotourism will remain a fragile sector. For one thing, it will always be at the mercy of distant events. For example, he says, when unemployment rose in Spain, visitors to the Pantanal from that country dropped. “If there is a war or an economic crisis (he was interviewed before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks), there won’t be any tourism at all,” he says. “If people have to choose among a car, a house, or travel, tourism is the first to go.”

But for Carlos, one certainty is his passion for nature. “I love what I do,” he says. “Every day I learn new things, and I enjoy showing them to others.”