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The blog of the Wilson Center's Environmental Change and Security Program
  • Beat on the Ground

    Margarita Mora, Human Nature

    Peruvian Farmers Change Attitudes Toward Forest Protection

    July 23, 2013 By Wilson Center Staff

    The original version of this article, by Margarita Mora, appeared on Conservation International’s Human Nature blog.

    I first visited Peru’s Alto Mayo Protected Forest in 2008. At the time, deforestation rates there were among the highest in the country. CI-Peru wanted to find a way to help communities and Peru’s National Service of Natural Protected Areas (SERNANP) keep their trees standing.

    On that trip, we had hired a consultant to conduct a feasibility analysis to determine whether we should implement conservation agreements in the forests of the Yuracyacu watershed. I remember the consultant was worried about the reaction local people would have when they met us walking in the forest. At that point the farmers living there were unfriendly to visitors, as they were afraid that they would be expelled from the area.

    Last week I returned to the Alto Mayo with staff from CI-Peru and CI-Europe, from local partner organizations ECOAN and EcoYungas, and from Fondation Ensemble. We walked for an hour and a half to one of the settlements in the Aguas Verdes watershed where farmers have signed conservation agreements – and I was struck by the differences I saw.

    Continue reading on Human Nature.

    Video Credit: Field Spotlight: Roberto Carlos, courtesy of Conservation International.

    Topics: agriculture, Beat on the Ground, community-based, conservation, development, economics, environment, forests, natural resources, Peru, video
    • stevenearlsalmony

      Somehow we have got to do many things differently, do them much more ably,
      and do all of them simultaneously, collaboratively and fast. Ready or not,
      like it or not, we are presented with a planetary emergency.This is the time
      for making necessary behavioral changes by thinking globally and acting
      locally. Science and common sense will give us direction. What we cannot do
      is sit on the sidelines. No, we cannot afford to sit this one out. All hand
      are needed on the deck at this critical moment in the history of our
      planetary home. Our generation is simply not stepping up to the challenges
      before us. The consequences of our failures appear colossal and profound
      with regard to the prospects for future human well being and environmental
      health. The very last thing a responsible person is to do in such
      circumstances is consciously and deliberately choose to remain silent, I
      believe. Are we not participants in and witnesses to yet another
      preposterous failure of nerve? When are the leaders going to speak out in an
      intellectually honest way and act with a sense of moral courage? How
      terrible are things going to have to become on Earth before
      the-powers-that-be begin to talk about and do the right things, according to
      the lights and best available knowledge they possess? Whatsoever is real and
      true must be acknowledged if we are to respond ably to climate
      destabilization, pollution, biodiversity loss, resource dissipation,
      environmental degradation and overpopulation,but the manufactured ‘nothing
      is wrong’ reality is well-established and those who speak truth to power
      are consistently marginalized and ignored. It is difficult even to imagine
      how much can be done in such unfavorable circumstances. Still our efforts
      are vital because the-powers-that-be are living in a fool’s paradise, and
      the stakes are such that the things that are not being acknowledged will
      likely destroy life as we know it on Earth. We know how to stop
      overpopulation humanely.The gravity of this and other looming human-driven
      global threats are understood and could be confronted with a long overdue
      determination to do what is necessary. All of the world’s human resources,
      including overrated intelligence and technology, need to be deployed in
      order to overcome the emerging and converging wicked problems looming
      ominously on the horizon.The-powers-that-be could save the world if they
      acted with the intellectual honesty, moral courage and power they possess to
      sound alarm bells, forcefully warn the world, and call out loudly and
      clearly for changes toward sustainable lifestyles and right-sized corporate
      enterprises. But most of the necessary changes are unlikely to happen,
      The-powers-that-be want to maintain the status quo, come what may. They lack
      the moral courage and the imagination to save the world we are blessed to
      inhabit as a fit place for habitation by children everywhere and coming
      generations.

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