ON THE WAY TO BE EXTINCT???

"Mutum-do-nordeste" (Alagoas curassow, in English), Pauxi mitu.

[Reproduced from www.oeco.org.br]

"Mutum-do-nordeste" or "Mutum-de-Alagoas" (Alagoas curassow), Pauxi mitu

The story of the occupation of Northeastern Atlantic forest, especially in the states of Pernambuco and Alagoas, begins in its colonization in the 16th century and extends to the present day.

The practice of deforestation to make way for plantations of sugar cane is old in the region, being the contemporary of the hunting of big wild animals.

From the Decade of 70, a new cycle of deforestation - until then - stagnant arises, this time more intense and fast, encouraged by the advent of the "Proálcool"  program [ethanol program]: board forest fragments and the adjacent plateau were decimated, eliminating huge portions of the forest over the heads of the Brazilian Forest Code and without any intervention of government agencies responsible for the protection of natural resources.

Many species were affected, among them, the Alagoas curassow (Pauxi mitu). Appreciated as part of the hunt, was wiped out along with the forest where it lived. Today is extinct in the wild.

Today, the chance to avoid the definitive extinction is through captive breeding and reintroduction in the wild, in protected areas. In this sense, the species is also the focus of a National Action Plan for Conservation, led by ICMBio ("Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade").

The sad history of the Alagoas curassow is one of the first cases of extinction of a species in Brazil because of human intervention and reflection of lack of commitment that the environmental agencies and society in general, had with the last remnants of the forest in the States of Alagoas and Pernambuco, where there are less than 2 % of native vegetation cover.