A Critical Conversation on Climate Change ... - Green Choices

offsets – the fossil economy’s new arena of conflict 227Paramo soils.Well, planting trees is bound to be a good thing for everybody involved, isn’t it?It’s not so simple. The Sierra sites used by PROFAFOR are located ina biome known by the colonial Spanish term paramo – which denoteshigh altitude plains or barren plateaus without woodlands. This zonewas never forested, although it does support some trees. The dominantvegetation is Andean grasses from the genuses Festuca, Stipa,Calamagrostis and Deyeuxia.The dark, volcanic paramo soils have a complex particulate structurethat, in the cold, moist climate of the Sierra, enables them to retaina great deal of water and organic matter. The soils have a far greatercapacity to hold water than the vegetation covering them, althougha layer of plants is important to keep moisture in the soils duringdry seasons. In the humid but not high-rainfall Sierra environment,paramo soils are believed to be the main water reservoirs for the localinhabitants.Although indigenous agriculture has been practised for hundreds ofyears up to 3,500 metres (the Sacred Valley of Cuzco, a centre ofindigenous agriculture, lies at around 3,000 metres), the ecologicalbalance of the paramo above 3,200 metres is very fragile. If the plantcover is removed even temporarily, evaporation from the surface increasesand organic matter in the soil begins to decompose, resultingin reduced capacity to hold water. Once dry, the soils cannot recovertheir original structure and organic content, even when they get wetagain.The monoculture tree plantations PROFAFOR sets up to fix carbonare a bizarre and damaging innovation in this environment. The speciesused are exotics commonly used in industrial plantations elsewhere.Some 90 per cent are pine, either Pinus radiata (particularly inthe provinces of Carchi and Chimborazo) or, to a lesser extent, Pinuspatula (mainly planted in Cañar and Loja). Eucalyptus and cypressspecies make up another 4 per cent.But what’s wrong with pine trees? PROFAFOR says that experiments withpine in diff erent places get diff erent results and that ‘it cannot be categoricallystated that pine is noxious for paramo soils.’PROFAFOR’s non-indigenous pines dry out and crack the soils, notonly because they disturb the existing vegetative cover, but also becausethey use a great deal of water. Organic matter and biologicalactivity decline, uncompensated for by the fall of pine needles. Soilstend to be transformed from water retainers to water repellents, andsurrounding flora and fauna are deprived of food and habitat. 11