Image Courtesy of Giorgos Moutafis via Business Insider
By Maximilian Frederik van Oordt
Not all surgeries are perfect. Some leave scars, some replace the patient’s problem with another, and – in the worst cases – some fail fatally. Environmentalists, economists, politicians, and even certain companies would all agree that the Amazon rainforest is in dire need of help but have conflicting suggestions in the way of solutions. I will endeavour, then, to grapple with this issue of such great importance to our world: how to save the lungs of the earth to the benefit of all.
Almost every aspect of the Amazon rainforest is unique in its sheer scale. According to the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF): “the region is believed to be home to 10%... [of] known species on Earth” and they consider it to be the world’s biggest deforestation front. Enter our first actor: the estimated 400 tribes of indigenous peoples who live in the Amazon, whether inside or outside Brazil’s 487 reservations or ‘Terras Indígenas’ (TIs). These communities are constantly lobbying for greater protections from the Brazilian government with the intention of protecting lands which dictate the quality of their livelihoods. The Amazon is the spine of their communities which rely on the great rainforest for everything from the nutritional to the spiritual. This has led to indigenous leaders classing inaction or deforestation by the Amazonian governments of Peru, Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela, Bolivia and – overwhelmingly – Brazil as genocide. However, crossing off an area twenty- five times the size of Britain exclusively for a relatively small indigenous population of around two and a half million (about the size of Chicago) will leave many non-indigenous people in the aforementioned countries feeling cheated. The plight of the tribal communities is well-known and often manifests itself in highly public tug-of-wars with non-indigenous groups about land distribution. The first box a solution must tick therefore, is an acceptable distribution of land; ideally one which protects the overwhelming majority of the rainforest and its TIs in order to preserve the lives and livelihoods of its original inhabitants.
The question of land distribution leads on nicely to the next actor: the economy. This is a rather broad term but, in this case, concerns itself with the industries that see potential financial gain from the exploitation of Amazon resources. Brazil, by far the main sovereign player in the great rainforest, finds itself in a very difficult position economically: of almost two hundred states in the international community, none other has had such a tremendous chunk of its globally recognised sovereignty confiscated in the name of environmentalism. Of course, many nations – such as those of the Sahara Desert – find themselves unable to exploit much of their land due to geography, but Brazil’s unique situation is one of enormous economic potential challenged by enormous international restriction. It is not fair to leave the maintenance of the world’s lungs in the hands of only one of its constituent nations, and Brazil must be supported in its conservation efforts as well as positively incentivised on a far greater scale than we are seeing presently. If it is in the international community’s interests to preserve the Amazon, then the preservation effort must reflect this. Failure to deliver enough support arguably explains the rise of a certain president who promises a greater – and far more irresponsible – exploitation of the rainforest’s resources. It is absolutely in the economic interests of the Amazonian countries to exploit these vast swathes of fertile, rich land with such massive development potential, and this means that the rest of the world must dig deeper into its wallet to make it not so. Loans or, better still, grants to Amazonian countries can be sent with environmentally savvy conditions, such as those offered by the G7 nations last year, will help lessen the effectiveness of the exploitationist rhetoric championed by contemporary politicians of the region. No matter what remedy is chosen, it will fail if it assumes that the Amazonian nations must act alone.
Whether the subject is the TIs and their communities, or the economy of the region, the most important solution for the world’s lungs – before conducting any revolutionary surgery on it – lies in finding a more efficient way of simply upholding the current regulations. Fencing off the whole area in the name of conservation is redundant if the conservationism is not upheld in practice. Impunity for illegal loggers will encourage hedonistic and irresponsible behaviour by others. The significance of this prohibited activity is not slight either and, according to the WWF: “A study by a Brazilian commission showed that 80% of all logging in the Amazon was illegal during the late 90s. Of the 13 companies that were investigated, 12 had broken the law.” Similar rates of illegal logging have been estimated for Peru and Colombia. Evidently, government regulations are simply a paper tiger in this enormous rainforest, and investigative innovation combined with increased resources for authorities will undoubtedly be required to change this reality. Consequently, an efficient and thorough justice system for the Amazon is a priority. International support here will help swell the ranks of police and non-government sentries and provide them with adequate resources for their herculean mission. Should this be effective, it will buy time for other long-term strategies to be thought up and put into place.
With any luck, the strategies of the future will support all the interested parties and successfully conserve such a vital environmental organ for the world. To do this, it must provide the indigenous communities with the comfort that their homelands are no longer at risk, protect the irreplaceable biodiversity of the area, and ensure that the citizens of each Amazonian nation do not feel stripped of an economically valuable chunk of their country. If that is achieved, the solution of choice will have constituted one of the greatest surgeries in human history.
Maximilian Frederik van Oordt is a second-year International Relations student at King’s College London. interested in politics, history and law, he enjoys focusing on Latin American affairs, with a particular emphasis on these three areas.
