Environmental Problems of Peru

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


4. Overhunting

5. Overfishing

6. Effects of introduced species on native species


7. Overpopulation

8. Increased per-capita impact of people

9. Human-caused climate change

Ecological footprint and human development

Peru


10. Buildup of toxins in the environment

11. Energy shortages

12. Full human utilization of the Earth’s photosynthetic capacity

• What are in my opinion the environmental problems of Peru?

Priority environmental problems in Peru

1. Deforestation and habitat destruction




4. Overhunting

5. Overfishing

6. Effects of introduced species on native species


7. Overpopulation

8. Increased per-capita impact of people




11. Energy shortages

12. Full human utilization of the Earth’s photosynthetic capacity


1.Deforestation and habitat destruction



5. Overfishing



• 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

HUEPETUHE - CAYCHIVE

19 km.

2 km.

• Ejemplos de carreteras en bosques tropicales

50 km

Madre de Dios, Perú2005

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 getto 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 getto the 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





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




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.

• http://www.panda.org/how_you_can_help/greenliving/

[email protected]

http://www.panda.org/how_you_can_help/greenliving/

http://www.panda.org/how_you_can_help/greenliving/

Environmental Problems of Peru

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