016.アマゾン河 02.熱帯雨林
016.Amazon River 02.Tropical Rainforest

2023年1月22日

世界最大の流域面積を持つアマゾン河が支える巨大な熱帯雨林。

The Amazon River, which has the world's largest drainage area supported a huge tropical rainforest.

空から見るアマゾン河の支流。
See the tributaries of the Amazon river from the air.

思い込みというものがある。アマゾン河の船旅もその一つ。閉め切った小さな客室より、甲板にハンモックを吊るして眠る方が、気持ちよさげで、運賃も安いので、迷わずハンモックを選びました。実際は、夜半、気温が下がり、そこに、森を抜け、川を渡り、気化熱で暑さを奪われた風が吹くと、寒くて震えるほど。ありたっけの服を掛けても眠れず、昼寝で補う羽目。地球の環境装置としての熱帯雨林を実感しました。

ペルーアマゾンの中心都市イキトスは、陸路で行けない都市として世界最大。熱帯雨林キャンプツアーの出発地として、観光客を集めます。そんなキャンプの一つは、イキトス港からボートで支流を遡ること１時間。港からしばらく行けば、時々、水辺の集落が現れ、住民を乗せたボートが行き交う他は、森と川だけ。

間近で見る熱帯雨林は、鬱蒼とし大きいものの、圧倒する量塊ではありませんでした。豊かに見えても、実際には、一度広く伐採されると、過酷な日差しで簡単には元に戻らない薄い植物相。キャンプも先住民の家も、建物の周りは、マラリア蚊を避けるために、木々を大きく伐採した草地でしたが、森に戻る気配はありません。熱帯雨林とは、いろいろな木々や植物が、支え合いながら維持している弱い森でした。

キャンプのスタッフは元教師で、熱帯雨林の保護運動で逮捕された後、ここで働くようになりました。部分は繊細なのに、大きな広がりを持ったことで、地球規模の影響を及ぼす熱帯雨林。その保護活動には賛同しますが、例えば、森に覆われていたイベリア半島が、農地として開拓された結果、乾燥化したように、他の地域での過去の開発の付けを、アマゾンの現在に担わせるのも、少し傲慢な気もします。熱帯雨林の保護は、先進国の可耕地、可住地の森林化とセットで考えるべきことなのかもしれない。

Everyone has a prejudice. A liner trip on the Amazon river was that for me. I chose no cabin but a hammock on a deck without hesitation because it seemed more comfortable, and the tariff that a passenger slept in a hammock on the deck was cheaper than that in a small closed cabin. However, the temperature dropped in the middle of the night. The wind, which passed through the forest and river, took a body temperature due to the heat of vaporization. I shivered with cold. I could not sleep even with all my clothes, so I had to take a nap to make up for lack of sleep. I realized the tropical rainforest as an environmental device of the earth.

Iquitos, the central city of the Peruvian Amazon, is the largest city in the world that they cannot reach by land. It attracts tourists as a departure point for tours to rainforest camps. One of such camps that I visited was an hour's boat ride up a tributary river from the port of Iquitos. When going for a while from the port, villages occasionally appeared on waterside. As for the rest, there were only forests and rivers, except for boats carrying locals.

The tropical rainforest seen up close was dense and large, but it was not an overwhelming mass. Although it looked rich, it was a thin flora that, once widely cut down, did not easily grow back in the harsh sun. Ggrassland, where trees had been cut down to avoid malaria mosquitoes, surrounded either the camp or the houses of the indigenous people, but there was no sign of returning to the forest. A tropical rainforest was a weak forest where diverse trees and plants supported each other.

The camp staff was a former teacher who came there after having been arrested for campaigning to protect the rainforest. Although each part of the rainforest was fragile, the total area had a boundless expanse. So I agree with activities to protect a tropical rainforest that had a global impact. However, it seems to be a bit arrogant to blame the past developments in other regions on the present of the Amazon. For example, the Iberian Peninsula, which forests covered once, has become arid due to agricultural development. Perhaps, protection for tropical rainforests should be considered together with the afforestation of arable and habitable land in developed countries.