UJ #7 - Peruvian Amazon

INTERVIEW
THE IDEA IS TO
START TO LOOK AT
IT FROM WITHIN.
WE NEED TO START
LISTENING TO THE
PEOPLE OF THE
AMAZON, AND
UNDERSTANDING
WHAT THE JUNGLE
IS AND HOW IT
FUNCTIONS
Agriculture, illegal
mining, and logging
are threatening the
jungle’s natural
protected areas.
nizations, like AIDESEP, have much more power today
than they did 20 years ago. If you look closely, there
are a lot of extraction projects that have been paralyzed
because of environmental concerns. It’s not true
that they aren’t heard; I would actually argue that it’s
quite the opposite. If you compare the political pull of
a person like myself with that of an indigenous person,
theirs is probably double mine. Is it enough? No. But
it’s more.
Are highways the solution?
Let me start my stating that everything is a big misunderstanding.
In Peru, 80% of the Amazonian deforestation
lies 20 kilometers from a highway. It is scientifically
proven. Like the laws of gravity. And although
this is an unchangeable fact, deforestation is not. In
places like California and Florida, you can drive down
highways that traverse through the heart of a national
park that remains perfectly conserved. How can we
change this Peruvian reality in order to build highways
that don’t lead to deforestation? Firstly, we can’t imagine
a future based on the past - based on how things
have been done previously. Peru’s future can be different.
So, what can be done?
We have to make sure that the government does
its job. It has to protect the land surrounding the
highways, and impede outside occupation. People
arrive to the jungle from all over the country, with all
kinds of ideas. There are those who are more reasonable,
and then those who think “God has given us
these thousands of hectares and we are going to fill
them with rice and maize.” These invaders arrive with
certificates from the Ministry of Agriculture. The certificates
are anachronistic; they come from a time when
the government was trying to promote migration into
the jungle. If you put in a highway, put a moratorium
against land-ownership certificated for the land surrounding
the highway. No one is going to go traipsing
into the jungle. People stay close to the highways.
Is the government taking illegal mining and logging
seriously?
There are three different problems. Illegal mining is
being taken seriously, but illegal logging isn’t. Its much
more complicated than mere deforestation, and much
more ecologically impactful. And the agricultural problem
is never taken seriously. If one had to rate the
three in terms of damage to the ecosystem, illegal
mining would be first, followed by agriculture, and
then logging. Looking at superficial damage, however,
Rodrigo Cabrera
agriculture comes first, then logging, and then mining.
And if they’re rated in terms of how easily they can
be solved, agriculture comes first, then logging, and
mining comes last, as it is the most difficult to resolve.
Is carbon offsetting an option?
In the case of carbon offsetting, I think that the ‘reforestation
credits’ require too much investment for
small amounts of land, and thus, they have little potential
for long-lasting, positive impact. What’s being
talked about now is basically the opposite: carbon
credits for avoiding deforestation. In this case, the focus
wouldn’t be on reforestation, it would be on conservation.
The problem is that it doesn’t factor into the
Kyoto Protocol, and so it’s harder to get politicians to
back it, and to get money for it.
Don’t you feel that the Amazon is often viewed in
a negative and problematic perspective, and it is
necessary to make an effort to show the success
stories instead?
Sometimes I feel that the environmentalists are spot
on in terms of recognizing and denouncing the pro-