As fire once again tore through part of the Amazon, members of the Coordinator of the Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin (COICA) were in Marseille, France on Sunday lobbying for greater protection of what is one of the earth’s most precious resources. As if the destruction of the world’s largest rainforest is not deleterious enough, it is compounded by ongoing deforestation elsewhere as consumer greed climbs to dangerous heights.
COICA, founded in 1984, brings together indi-genous groups from Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, Suri-name and Venezuela. Their common purpose is defending the rights of their peoples and by extension protecting the forests within which they dwell. In the former undertaking, they are championed by anthropologists and researchers who recognise the value in preserving culture and history. In the latter, scientists and earth campaigners do not hesitate to support their advocacy, rooted as they are in the knowledge that the air we breathe is paramount to our survival. It is more than passing strange then that governments still need to be lobbied and convinced that action to quell deforestation and conserve pristine forests would best serve everyone.
Deforestation has a long history. Time was when it served our foreparents well in their quests for food and shelter, then later on, land to graze domestic animals: cattle, sheep, goats, horses and mules required for sustenance and enterprise; as well as to plant crops. Back in the era when some people were transient, so was deforestation. When the humans moved on, the forest crept back; it was a not-so-perfect circle of life. This rarely, if ever, happens today.
For generations, there has been wanton and widespread deforestation that scientists say has significantly altered not just the composition of forests, but also their biodiversity. The resulting ecological tilt has seen the extinction of thousands of plants and animals, their loss affecting us in ways we are yet to discover.
The utter devastation of earth and our own extinction have been held off by the fact that not all humans are stupid and greedy. In some parts of the world, Guyana included (thanks to former president Desmond Hoyte’s gift to the world in 1989 of some one million acres of pristine forest for purposes of research into sustainable management and development of tropical rainforests), enhanced forest management practices have seen the slowing of deforestation rates.
The Iwokrama rainforest, managed by the Iwokrama International Centre since 1996 under the patronage of the Prince of Wales, is a unique habitat and a decided best practice in sustainability and conservation with the involvement of local forest communities; it is also a teaching environment.
For all of its wondrousness, however, it is not enough. For one thing, Iwokrama has to be constantly policed to keep out human intruders who would seek to desecrate it by indulging in illegal mining and logging. For another, the incentivizing of forest clearing in the Amazon for beef production, ranching, mining, and increasingly soybean production, which has seen areas twice the size of Iwokrama in Brazil alone deforested in a single year, does not bode well for humanity.
Ongoing for decades, the deforestation of the Amazon has quickened under Brazil’s current government led by President Jair Bolsonaro. Global consensus is that if it is not curbed, the Amazon would cease to be the magnificent entity it still is at this point. Furthermore, the carbon dioxide emitted by the fires that follow deforestation would push global warming, a circumstance we should all be actively trying to avoid. The COICA lobby, therefore, should be resolutely supported.
Earlier this year, the Bolsonaro administration had said publicly that if it were given US$1 billion in foreign aid, it would set a target for a decrease in deforestation. That money was to come from the US in conjunction with other partners, but no deal was reached as the US sensibly stated it would prefer to see results first. Brazil’s overture was tantamount to ransom when in fact having encouraged incursions into the forest, Mr Bolsonaro’s about face was not at all convincing.
One suspects that Mr Bolsonaro’s peacocking was partly because of the global clamour for rich nations to pay poor ones to protect forests. This has thus far had meagre success as with the US$250 million deal struck by Norway with Guyana in 2009 for its performance on limiting greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, which hit numerous snags and dragged out way beyond its five-year plan. Norway made a similar pact with Gabon for US$150 million in 2019.
Mr Bolsonaro’s attempt to place a bounty on the earth’s head, so to speak, has so far failed. However, it falls to all of us, as stewards of the planet to ensure its existence. This includes defending all forests; we need them, whether we live in them or not.
