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Interview: Sílvia Ziller
The Nature Conservancy ecologist and South American invasive-species specialist talks about battling trees, frogs and fish in her native Brazil, the need for speed, and her big idea for soap operas.
—By Courtney Leatherman
Nature Conservancy: You just helped the state of Paraná, Brazil, pass the country’s first invasive-species law, which lists more than 70 problem plants and animals. Why is it significant?
Sílvia Ziller: The law requires state and municipal nurseries — which distribute free seedlings as a social service — to not produce any seedlings on the list. We’ve been trying to get the Ministry of Environment to issue a federal law recognizing a list of invasive species for about two years. And it’s going to, but Paraná was faster.
Nature Conservancy: It sounds like speed is of the essence for you. I hear you always run through airports. Have you run anybody down in customs.
Sílvia Ziller: No, I just rush along to get in front. I don’t want to stand in line.
Nature Conservancy: OK, so let’s cut to the chase: You’re pretty much a one-woman show when it comes to work on invasive species in Latin America. Is it surprising that talk about invasives is new in the region?
Sílvia Ziller: This discussion is lacking in most countries. The exceptions are the United States, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Europe. As much as climate change is a big problem, I would put invasives [on par]. The only thing worse is land conversion.
Nature Conservancy: In the United States, we do talk a lot about invasives like zebra mussels and kudzu coming into our country, but I’ve never heard about species we export. What are some of the worst U.S. offenders in Brazil?
Sílvia Ziller: Pine trees and bull frogs. These were imported. The frogs never really made a market.
Nature Conservancy: You mean they were marketed as frog legs? To eat?
Sílvia Ziller: Yes. But most people wouldn’t touch them. Like African snails, which were also introduced as a food crop. They are a major pest in Brazil today. About 85 percent of the terrestrial and freshwater species invasive in Brazil were introduced on purpose. Only 15 percent were accidental.
Nature Conservancy: So when did you know invasives were going to be your thing?
Sílvia Ziller: I didn’t even know they existed until 1996, when I was doing environmental work. I knew I was interested in ecology. I’ve known since I was 13. I watched The Voyage of the Beagle and thought I wanted to be a naturalist.
Nature Conservancy: But you ended up getting a Ph.D. from a forestry school, studying invasive pines and essentially becoming the first person in Brazil to tackle invasives.
Sílvia Ziller: Ecology gave me the option of being a professor; forestry seemed more practical. And I could just see the pines going across the grasslands and along the riverbanks.
Nature Conservancy: Your work has really been groundbreaking. Yet I’m told you’re the black sheep of the forestry school.
Sílvia Ziller: There are people who still think I’m against pines and plantations. That’s not the case. It’s about proper forest management.
Nature Conservancy: So how do you properly manage a plantation of invasive pines whose seeds are dispersed by wind?
Sílvia Ziller: Get away from high areas; stay away from riverbanks; plant windbreaks around the plantation to make sure seeds don’t blow into neighbors’ lands.
Nature Conservancy: What other species concern you?
Sílvia Ziller: Fish. People promote them so much, and they are so damaging to native ecosystems. Brazil has the largest biodiversity of freshwater fishes in the world. That’s what we risk losing—all for [imports like] tilapia, carp, catfish and trout.
Nature Conservancy: With all this pressing work, how do you have time for astrology and tarot cards?
Sílvia Ziller: Who told you about that?
Nature Conservancy: I never reveal my sources.
Sílvia Ziller: I’ll have to read the cards to find out. I do read tarot cards, and I do like astrology. I’ll tell you why: We’re brought up in a world that relies too much on science, too much on whatever is rational. There are things that provide charm and enchantment and joy, and they are not rational. I like these things because they bring a certain magic to daily life.
Nature Conservancy: Does your work ever get you down?
Sílvia Ziller: I don’t have time to think that way. If people were aware, then things would change radically. If we could insert this [message about invasives] into a soap opera ...
Nature Conservancy: Is that a goal?
Sílvia Ziller: It’s always in the back of my mind. It would be more effective than putting it on national news.
Nature picture credits: Photo © Lalo de Almeida
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