By Michael Spoor, CEO of eight south
A brilliant example of progress is the remarkable decrease in global deforestation in the last three decades. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), it went from a net loss of 78 million hectares in the 90s to 47 million hectares in the most recent decade (2010 to 2020). At the per capita level the data is even more shocking: Our World in Data reported that greenhouse gas emissions derived from the “change of land use and deforestation” decreased by 55%, going from 0.33 tons per person in 1990 to 0.15 tons per person in 2020.
Peru has been a remarkably different case in the same period. Greenhouse gas emissions derived from the “change of land use and deforestation” did not decrease even 1% Why have Peru had such poor performance in this aspect? Some will have believed that agribusiness, in particular the oil palm, was the main responsible. However, the data says otherwise: over three decades, Peru lost 4.5 million hectares of its tropical jungles (Minam), while at the end of that period, the entire oil palm sector covered less than 100,000 hectares ( Midagri), with more than half of areas cultivated by small farmers. Even if each hectare of palm had replaced a hectare of jungle (although this is not the case), the deforestation driven by this sector could not have represented more than 2% of the loss.
For many decades, the Amazon It has been the least developed. A large amount of ideological, legal, political and financial capital has been invested in the construction of walls that have isolated it from the rest of the world. Non -governmental organizations, which benefit from the current status quo and promote fake conflicts, complaints and narratives against responsible private investment, hinder development and formalization opportunities in the Amazon. As a civil engineer, I see the importance of building bridges instead of lifting walls, since there is evidence that the isolationist walls of punitive policies and practices of the past have failed to protect the Peruvian Amazon and the planet.
