Among the many alleged reasons to put down a tree, this is perhaps the most bizarre one. It is a human determination; it just disregards the right to existence of the tree itself. Nobody asks to be born, neither choses a place of birth nor a social class. This is true also for trees.
There are many examples of non-native trees in Brazil. The avocado tree is native to Mexico. Mango tree comes from India. The apple tree has its origin in Central Asia. The Christmas Pine-Tree was brought to Brazil from conifer forests in the northern hemisphere. And so it goes…
In Nature, the dispersion of species may occur in several ways. Seeds are spread by the wind. Rivers and seas transport plants and animals from one place to the other. And due to their self-motion, animals carry with them diverse species to other localities.
We, human beings, besides having this self-motion, have also fascination, curiosity and economical drive acting on us. This is how, in a time of slight or non-existing ecological awareness, European settlers intensified the introduction of species coming from other regions of the planet to America.
To carry a species to a new locality sometimes generate ominous or undesired consequences. Case in point is the Nile Perch in Lake Victoria, in Africa, or the arrival of the first rabbits in Australia. But these issues not always occur, and new species adapt favorably to environments where they were brought to.
It would be insane to repatriate all species in this world to their original habitats. Nature is a mutant process and adaptation of species belongs to it. The presence of non-native species in a biome can be rationally controlled in order to avoid unbalance; however its sheer decimation contradicts Nature’s supreme principle, which is the preservation of life.
Natura Futura 