• Nível B1
• Interpretação de texto
• Dispersão de sementes e regeneração florestal
• reportagem
• PUC Minas
• 2025

Sem animais, sem árvores: causa e efeito na Tijuca (PUC Minas 2025)

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Tijuca National Park: The fight to rewild the world's largest urban forest

Rio de Janeiro might be known for its beaches, football and Carnival, but few realise that it contains the world's largest urban forest: the Tijuca forest. After the forest was decimated by colonial plantations, an ambitious rewilding programme is now aiming to ensure the survival of Rio de Janeiro's ancient rainforest. "Picture in your mind just for a second Rio without the forest, just the bare mountains and the seas – Rio would not be the wonderful city anymore," said Fernando Fernandez, a professor of ecology at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and co-founder of the conservation organisation Project Refauna. But the Tijuca forest isn't just eye candy – it's a critical temperature regulator and source of freshwater for Brazil's second-largest metropolis. And according to Fernandez, the forest isn't healthy. The forest's tall trees are slowly dying and not being replaced. Without them, the forest can't capture as much carbon – a necessity for slowing down climate change – and will become "a disturbed forest that is a mess of trees of every size". The reason Tijuca's tall trees are struggling to spread is because the forest is empty of many of the seed-spreading animals that used to thrive there. "If you don't have the animals, you don't have the trees," said Catharina Kreischer, a researcher with Project Refauna. Trees grow colourful, delicious fruit to attract hungry animals who then digest the seeds and defecate them out elsewhere, spreading the plant species across the forest, explained Kreischer. But many of the seed-spreading animals disappeared from this particular part of the forest when it was cleared and have never returned. That's why Project Refauna is bringing the fauna back to Tijuca – because a forest isn't just trees; it's also animals. Saving a forest is slow work so, in the meantime, both Fernandez and Kreischer believe there's another way to help by visiting the park, just as I did. Hiking in the forest, absorbing its views and learning about its flora and fauna remind humans that this forest isn't just for Rio's recreation, it's vital for the city's survival. "The more people visit this forest, the more people enjoy this forest, the more protected the forest will be," said Fernandez.

(Adapted from: Tijuca National Park: The fight to rewild the world's largest urban forest (bbc.com). Access: 08/12/2023.)

Fonte: BBC.

What is the disappearance of many of the forest’s animals causing?

1. A A) The death of the forest's large trees.
2. B B) The emergence of hungry wild animals.
3. C C) The extinction of seed-spreading animals.
4. D D) The growth of new species of fruit trees.