Saving trees with fish.

ALONG THE BANKS of the Rio Negro in Barcelos, Brazil, are the settlements of the caboclos--river dwellers whose very existence is tied to the health of the waterway. Using just a dugout canoe, a paddle, and a clip net, they can make a living while safeguarding the rainforest. This symbiotic relationship is due to a one-inch-long, red and blue fish called the cardinal tetra, sought after by aquarium owners and pet stores around the world.

For more than 50 years, the caboclos have sustainably harvested the cardinal tetra and other river species for the global pet trade. "Rural people in this region found this to be something they could base a livelihood on with very little investment," says Scott Dowd, a researcher at the New England Aquarium who has studied the cardinal tetra for more than a decade. "This is an example of where people are able to live in the forest in harmony and perhaps even contribute to the long- term well-being of the forest." But now the hold the caboclos have on the cardinal tetra market is in danger because commercial fish farms in Florida and Southeast Asia have begun to successfully raise their own cardinal tetra and may flood the market with farm fish offered at a lower price.

Dowd warns that if the caboclos lose this industry, they will be forced to find other ways to make a living that are less sustainable, such as mining, ranching, and logging. "This is their economy. If they lose it, it's going to be bad for the economy, the people, and the environment," he says. The caboclos sell nearly 40 million cardinal tetra a year to fish lovers throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. Combined with the other species harvested from the Rio Negro, the aquarium fishing industry employs nearly 1,000 families and provides the economic base for Barcelos' total population of 40,000. The caboclos know that although the cardinal tetra population is very strong, the fish are extremely sensitive to environmental conditions. As a result, they've kept an area of the rainforest the size of Pennsylvania in pristine condition. "There's an argument to be made that the wild fish are even healthier and heartier coming from a product of natural selection," Dowd explains. "A lot of people say that even the colors of the wild fish are more brilliant."

To sustain the Barcelos fish trade, Labbish Chao of the Federal University of Amazonas in Manaus, Brazil, has worked with Dowd to create the Buy a Fish-Save a Tree program. Their goal is to educate consumers about the caboclos and their fishing industry so that shoppers will choose to buy the wild fish instead of the farm fish. Telling the story of the Barcelos fish trade will debunk the popular opinion that all wild-caught fish are bad for the environment. Part of Project Piaba, the Buy a Fish-Save a Tree program is working with the Forest Stewardship Council to create a certification program for the Barcelos fish that is similar to the successful trade coffee and Cocoa programs in place today. Wild-caught cardinal tetra that meet the fair-trade standards would be sold as part of the Buy a Fish-Save a Tree program, singling those fish out as the best choice for people concerned about the environment.

Dowd says that although only small pet stores carry the wild-caught cardinal tetra right now, he is encouraging the larger pet store chains to carry the wild tetra as well. "If you care about the environment, have we got a fish for you," Dowd says. "It's a red and blue fish, but it's the greenest fish in the world."

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