Recently, whilst returning from the lodge mid-morning Raquel and I were surprised to see a plume of almost transparent smoke arising from the Petrobras funded reforestation planting.

As the plume swirled from behind a small hill of pasture, initially we thought it was a large BBQ in the local village, but we thought it worthwhile checking out, just in case.   Low and behold as we approached we realized some mischievous youngster had put fire to the dead material around the young trees.   Though the weather has been favourable with much rain recently, one day of sun is enough to dry things out and offer a laugh to marauding pranksters.

The culprits had long gone and we soon put out the fire and the rain came down in the afternoon to help matters.

Although we know this fire was not the efforts of a local saboteur angry over REGUA’s efforts in conservation, we still have to keep a close look out for this sort of action.  Happily it wasn’t a large area and the plants were not too badly scorched.