Environmental Problems of Peru Michael Valqui Amazon Programme Director World Wildlife Fund

Priority environmental problems in Peru How does WWF try to tackle them What can you do

What are some enviromental problems you know of?

12 general environmental problems (Diamond 2005, Collapse) 1. Deforestation and habitat destruction 2. Soil problems (erosion, salinization, and soil fertility losses) 3. Water management problems

12 general environmental problems (Diamond 2005, Collapse) 4. Overhunting 5. Overfishing 6. Effects of introduced species on native species

12 general environmental problems (Diamond 2005, Collapse) 7. Overpopulation 8. Increased per-capita impact of people 9. Human-caused climate change

Ecological footprint and human development Peru

12 general environmental problems (Diamond 2005, Collapse) 10. Buildup of toxins in the environment 11. Energy shortages 12. Full human utilization of the Earth’s photosynthetic capac ity

What are in my opinion the environmental problems of Peru?

Priority environmental problems in Peru 1. Deforestation and habitat destruction 2. Soil problems (erosion, salinization, and soil fertility losses) 3. Water management problems

Priority environmental problems in Peru 4. Overhunting 5. Overfishing 6. Effects of introduced species on native species

Priority environmental problems in Peru 7. Overpopulation 8. Increased per-capita impact of people 9. Human-caused climate change

Priority environmental problems in Peru 10. Buildup of toxins in the environment 11. Energy shortages 12. Full human utilization of the Earth’s photosynthetic capacity

Priority environmental problems in Peru 1.Deforestation and habitat destruction 2. Soil problems (erosion, salinization, and soil fertility losses) 3. Water management problems 5. Overfishing 9. Human-caused climate change 10. Buildup of toxins in the environment

What are the causes of these problems?

Example Direct cause of deforestation: Pedro cuts the tree

What can we do? Can we go and stop Pedro from felling the tree? Don’t cut the treeeees!!!

Not very effective… He must be kidding!! Yeah, he is in underpants!

We have to understand the problem What are the direct causes, what are the indirect causes, what are the root causes To organize our thoughts we work with models

Not with these models!

Models of how we understand the environmental problems. Ok, so why did Pedro cut the tree? Because it was in my way to the gold… UH-OH

SO, LET US MAKE A MODEL OF INFORMAL GOLD MINING IN THE AMAZON

Balsa gringo Caranchera Chupadera Draga Shute - cargador frontal

Problem 1 created by goldmining: Deforestation and habitat destruction

I am Pedro

HUEPETUHE - CAYCHIVE

19 km. 2 km.

Ejemplos de carreteras en bosques tropicales 50 km Madre de Dios, Perú 2005

Problem 2 created by gold mining: Build up of mercury (toxins) Liquid mercury is added to the sand/gold mix to “pull out” the gold out of the sand, approximately 1 gram mercury per gram of gold.

As a Madre de Dios miner, once you have the gold/mercury mix, what do you do?

Bring your gold/mercury mix to the next store

Vaporize the mercury

Let the gold cool down

Weigh the gold and get paid 92 soles/gram

Cool? A small miner can produce 1 to 2 grams of gold per day, i.e. gross income of 92 to 184 soles a day Madre de Dios produces 16 tons of gold in a year, worth $ 600 million

Not cool! Since it is mostly illegal or informal only $42,000 are collected in taxes (less than 0.06%)

Not cool!

1.Deforestation: Pedro cuts trees and digs deep holes to get to the gold 2. Buildup of toxins: Pedro dumps mercury into the river and into the air I am Pedro So what about the model?

Pedro informally mines for gold Deforestation: Pedro cuts trees and digs deep holes to get to the gold Pedro informally mines for gold 2. Buildup of toxins: Pedro dumps mercury into the river and into the air

Pedro informally mines for gold Pedro migrates to Madre de Dios People in the highlands don’t have good economic opportunities Highlands are environmentally degraded and forgotten by central government Developing country, small and weak government Deforestation: Pedro cuts trees and digs deep holes to get to the gold Pedro informally mines for gold 2. Buildup of toxins: Pedro dumps mercury into the river and into the air

Pedro informally mines for gold Low costs: anybody can be a gold miner everywhere except in urban areas, no control on impacts, no taxes to be paid High gold prices: 1 gram 92 soles for the miner, can obtain 1 to 1.5 grams per day Global economic crisis: everybody wants gold Developing country, small and weak government Deforestation: Pedro cuts trees and digs deep holes to get to the gold Pedro informally mines for gold 2. Buildup of toxins: Pedro dumps mercury into the river and into the air

Pedro informally mines for gold No other good options in Madre de Dios, no knowledge, no plans, no capacities Deforestation: Pedro cuts trees and digs deep holes to get to the gold Pedro informally mines for gold 2. Buildup of toxins: Pedro dumps mercury into the river and into the air Wrong ideas about what to do in the Amazon region No investment in green activities

Pedro informally mines for gold Pedro migrates to Madre de Dios People in the highlands don’t have good economic opportunities Highlands are environmentally degraded and forgotten by central government Low costs: anybody can be a gold miner everywhere except in urban areas, no control on impacts, no taxes to be paid High gold prices: 1 gram 92 soles for the miner, can obtain 1 to 1.5 grams per day Global economic crisis: everybody wants gold No other good options in Madre de Dios, no knowledge, no plans, no capacities Developing country, small and weak government Deforestation: Pedro cuts trees and digs deep holes to get to the gold Pedro informally mines for gold 2. Buildup of toxins: Pedro dumps mercury into the river and into the air Wrong ideas about what to do in the Amazon region No investment in green activities

Pedro informally mines for gold Pedro migrates to Madre de Dios People in the highlands don’t have good economic opportunities Highlands are environmentally degraded and forgotten by central government Low costs: anybody can be a gold miner everywhere except in urban areas, no control on impacts, no taxes to be paid High gold prices: 1 gram 92 soles for the miner, can obtain 1 to 1.5 grams per day Global economic crisis: everybody wants gold No other good options in Madre de Dios, no knowledge, no plans, no capacities Developing country, small and weak government Deforestation: Pedro cuts trees and digs deep holes to get to the gold Pedro informally mines for gold 2. Buildup of toxins: Pedro dumps mercury into the river and into the air Wrong ideas about what to do in the Amazon region No investment in green activities No go zones, recovery of old mining sites Use other methods of gold extraction Give Pedro a job at an ecotoursim lodge Invest in ecotoursim Create an “Amazon green forever” campaign Increase taxes so government can be stronger

Environmental problems are social problems. You must deal with the people. Most of WWF’s work is more with people, less with animals or the environment directly.

What can we do as citizens? –Inform ourselves –Inform others –Change our behavior to reduce our footprint –Give a good example –Be part of a greater initiative

Join Campaigns

Think about our ecological footprint Walk more, drive less Chose green appliances Eat local food Eat less meat Drink filtered tapwater, not bottled water Use less water Use less energy Reduce, reuse, recycle

Since a year ago I drive to work on my bike. –I emitted 600kg less carbon dioxide –I saved 2800 soles in transport costs –I made 40 minutes of daily exercise for 200 days (no gym fees)

What else can we do? In the next 5 minutes, write on a sheet of paper an idea to reduce your ecological footprint and if you want, make a commitment.

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