SATURDAY 16TH MARCH 2002

Donal was equally as excited to be dealing with Peter, recognising and respecting the passion and determination that embodied his work and his life. In Donal we recognise, and respect, those same qualities.

Here is a man who believed that something must and can be done to address the issues that face all of us, somebody who was drawn to the work Peter began, and most importantly somebody who is as determined to help continue that work despite and because of the loss of Peter.

And so, here we are, back in the Amazon with Seamaster, but this time with Donal MacIntyre and his BBC team aboard. And, in just one week they've dug into the heart of the issues threatening the Amazon - illegal deforestation, sustainable logging and greenhouse-gas research.

Donal MacIntyre has this to say:
Seamaster has magic to it - even in the aftermath of Sir Peter's death - the boat resonates hope and enthusiasm - and a determination to make a difference. The torch was handed down by Peter and is carried by everyone of board. Indeed, it captivates everyone who comes on board. The boat is a family and crew members are visibly a `band of brothers` with a shared vision for life and the environment.

In our short time on the boat making a film about Sir Peter we have been welcomed on board as family and every time we leave Seamaster the temptation is to return as soon as possible.

Seamaster is Peter's creation and everything and everyone on board back references everything they do by what they feel their friend and leader would have wanted.

Extraordinary is an overused word - but in its true sense that's what Peter was - simply extraordinary. He had intended to return to the Amazon to finish some of his environmental work but now his boat and his crew returns without him. Nonetheless his spirit pervades and the team and his family - are determined that his good work should continue.

For me personally I was charmed and mesmerized by Peter's commitment to the environment. When talking from the Amazon on board Seamaster a week or two before he was killed - he persuaded me that the biggest journalistic story is the protection of the environment. I was won over. Peter's story is a remarkable one and it's a great honour to be a guest of Seamaster to be able to play a small part in the telling of it. I know everyone on the BBC team feels privileged to be here.

There is a sense from the crew and I feel it too - and that is - although Peter has left this world - He has not left this boat.

Donal MacIntyre
BBC Reporter

Thanks Donal. It's great to have you and the BBC aboard.

Tomorrow we'll report in full on what Donal and his team have discovered during their time filming with us on Seamaster.

All the best from the crew of Seamaster.

http://www.blakexpeditions.com/archive.asp?id=216

SEAMASTER LOG 193 | SUNDAY 17TH MARCH 2002

Return to the Amazon

If we had been asked to describe how we felt about our return to Seamaster and the Amazon as we flew into Belem, it would have been a mixture of the positive with a certain amount of apprehension. Peter's loss was felt deeply by the entire crew.
 
In the week since returning aboard Seamaster we have found that being back in expedition mode has improved our wellbeing considerably. We are busy planning routes, navigating new rivers, looking at environmental issues writing logs and working with Donal MacIntyre and the BBC. We have a direction and we have rediscovered blakexpeditions and everything that Peter hoped for it.

You cannot be back on Seamaster without feeling the presence of Pete. He is all around us.

The Voyage So Far

Yesterday we introduced you to Donal MacIntrye, who's aboard Seamaster with the BBC to make a tribute documentary about Peter, his life and his work, what he'd started with blakexpeditions.

In just one week with Donal and his team, we have dug into the heart of some of the issues threatening the Amazon - illegal deforestation, sustainable logging and greenhouse gas research. We've seen the evidence and met the people who are struggling to turn the tide. 

We've accompanied field scientists whose news is truly exciting - that is, the age of discovery in the Amazon animal and insect kingdoms is far from over. This is real. This is happening right now.

Part of Peter's method was to travel to the world's pulse poinrs and see these things with our own eyes. What we're seeing here in the Amazon is very, very exciting. Just think about it -  new spiders, new insects, new snakes, even new monkeys.

But there is the other side of the equation which brings sadness. Yes, new discoveries are being made every day, every year.

But, for every new discovery, many more are slipping away, lost forever because of man's influence and, worse still, man's indifference.

Being here, seeing this for ourselves, and meeting the people responsible for cataloguing it all, makes one thing very clear - the race is on.

blakexpeditions isn't about just bringing you the bad news, however. That wasn't Pete's style an that won't change. Pete believed intensely in balance, facing up to the issues that needed addressing but, in doing so, offering some solutions. Highlighting the issues is one way to achieve progress.

Our trip so far has brought us 150 miles up river from Belem to Breves, a frontier timber town. We've spent the last few days exploring the rivers around Breves and keep uncovering evidence of milling and logging. This is where raw timber meets the mills and the water-highways. No doubt, we'd like to believe, the majority of this logging is legal, but we've undoubtedly witnessed the result of just as much illegal harvesting. It's easy to judge this by the guilty looks when the television cameras come out.

Logging and deforestation is old news. The problem is that it is still news.
 
Donal observes: "Twice the number of logs are being felled than the Government here know about. The situation is improving, but there are differences of priority between local and State levels in terms of how seriously they take the threat of logging."

But, the tide is turning. Education is the key, and it is happening. Sustainable methods are being adopted by the local and indigenous people to ensure the future utilisation of the resource and most, importantly, the younger generations here are being taught why this is important.

With the BBC team, we visited the Paragominas forest,  an hour's small-plane ride from Belem. The 140,000 hectare forest is completely natural, plus it is the largest area certified by the Forest Stewardship Council here in Brazil. A precondition of the FCS is the use of low impact methods of forestry, so at Paragominas they work on a 30-year harvesting cycle. They do not cut trees with a diameter less than 45cms and they replace everything that they cut down.

Donal again: "There's a developing sense of awareness here about now and the future, that this can be a resource for now and for generations to come and, most importantly, an acceptance that what happens here in the Amazon affects the whole planet. But the same is true in reverse. What we do directly affects the Amazon, so we have to learn to accept that we're all in this together."   
 
This is what the experts say too. We travelled by local ferry to the Ferreira Penna research station, 60-miles by river from Breves, where Dr Antonia Carlos Lola da Costa and his team of scientists are collecting the evidence to support this view.
The research station sits within 33,000 hectares of pristine rainforest, was built partly with British funding and is linked with NASA and Edinburgh University.

Da Costa's team are monitoring changes in temperature and levels of greenhouse gases, and  are exploring the Amazon's role as a global reservoir of carbon. They deliberately dry out areas of the forest with large panels that simply collect and drain-off rain water, preventing it from hitting the forest floor. They compare their results against pristine forest. They monitor the effects this has on greenhouse gases, taking soil measurements from deep pits, as well as air humidity and temperature readings from 30-metre and 60-metre high scaffolding towers that they have erected within the experiment areas. At the very least, the views of the rainforest are spectacular from these towers.

The project's only five years old, so results are only just becoming useful but, da Costa is convinced they will prove how important the exchange of greenhouse gases between the Amazon and the rest of world really is, and with that highlight how important the preservation of this region is. 
 
It's at Ferreira Penna that we met the man who named a spider after Peter Blake.

Dr Alexandre Bonaldo is involved in with the discovery of new species, and specialises in spiders. 

Alexandre joined us aboard Seamaster for the trip from Belem to Breves, and accompanied the film team by ferry to the research station. Whilst fossicking in the jungle recently, Alexandre discovered a new spider belonging to the corinnidae family and the altacobius genus. During his trip aboard Seamaster he decided to name his discovery in Peter's honour and has promised to send drawings, plus the official title for us to post on the log. The Seamaster crew aren't quite sure which honour Peter would have been be most proud of - his knighthood or Alexandre's bestowal.

The film crew accompanied Alexandre into the jungle during his  search for spiders. Not only did they find the Amazon's most poisonous, but also the world's biggest spider - a massive native Tarantula that had everybody cowering. 

Donal again: "They're working right on the frontier and new species are being found every day, which is unbelievable. But what's really distressing is as many are being lost. So, it's a race to discover everything before it's destroyed. Of course we'll lose the practical benefits of those discoveries, like the contribution they make to new medicines. But. more importantly, do we care that they're gone forever?"

Seamaster is now headed back downstream to Belem, where the film team will depart to order to visit the battle against the illegal felling of mahogany. This is dangerous business in the Amazon region. It's virtually a running war. Logs are impounded, then recaptured by the people who fell them. It involves tip-offs, fly-bys and satellite imagery.

This is happening, still, and is why we're here. We look forward to telling you all about it.

Until then, all the best from the crew of Seamaster.

http://www.blakexpeditions.com/archive.asp?id=217

log continues...