Exotic pines
Thursday, April 27. 2006
Mucubaji, Venezuela (March 18, 2006)
When Mayli saw this photo she was outraged. She originally thought that I was working on some photos taken in the italian Alps, and only after some time she realized that those view were Venezuelan. The fact is, pine trees are not endemic of the Venezuelan Andes. The typical vegetation consist of a very unique and fragile ecosystem called “páramo andino”, consisting of endemic species like the frailejones, which are really unique. These pine trees shouldn’t be there, they had been introduced as part of a development project sponsored by the local University. You can imagine the result: the exotic species are not adapted at all to the local ecosystem and are gradually replacing the endemic species. The damages are severe, also because pine trees use much more water than the better adapted local species, creating a damage that goes well beyond the visible replacement of a typical andean landscape with an “alpine” view.
