Logging
From Perupedia
Peru has the fourth largest extent of tropical rainforests in the world, after Brazil, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Indonesia. The FAO estimates that the country loses somewhere between 224,000 and 300,000 hectares of forest per year, giving it an annual deforestation rate of 0.35-0.5 percent, a low rate relative to neighboring countries [1]. Peru is the number one exporter of valuable mahogany wood [2]. Much of Peru's legal logging leads to increase of illegal logging, due to increased road to remote areas [3].
-Total forest area: 68,742,000 ha % of land area: 53.7%
-Primary forest cover: 61,065,000 ha
% of land area: 47.7% % total forest area: 88.8%
-Annual change in forest cover: -94,200 ha Annual deforestation rate: -0.1% Total forest loss since 1990: -1,414,000 ha Total forest loss since 1990:-2.0%
-Primary or "Old-growth" forests Annual loss of primary forests: -224600 ha Annual deforestation rate: -0.4% Primary forest loss since 1990: -1,123,000 ha Primary forest loss since 1990:-2.9%
-Plantations, 2005: 754,000 ha % of total forest cover: 1.1% Annual change rate (00-05): 7,800,000 ha
-Wood removal 2005 Industrial roundwood: 1,891,000 m3 o.b. Wood fuel: 8,898,000 m3 o.b.
-Value of forest products, 2005 Industrial roundwood: $4,409,000 [1].
The rainforests of Peru are abundantly rich, both in biological diversity and natural resources. Some rainforest resources include timber, energy, minerals, soil, material, bushmeat, fuelwood, and arable agricultural land. Most of the deforestation in Peru is the result of subsistence agriculture: Peru's land-tenure law that allows people to own land by occupying it for five years has a lot to do with the clearing of forests. Much of it used to be for coca leaf plantations, but is now being replaced with soy production. Farmers taking land, logging, commercial agriculture, mining, gas and oil operations, and road construction all contribute to its disappearance. Gold mining also clears trees for roads, large machinery and mining-related explosions. These roads will lead to more exploration, squatting and clearing of rainforest-covered areas [1]. This also has an impact on Climate Change in Peru, as deforestation and land use change accounts for roughly 70 percent of Peru's greenhouse gas emissions, according to the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center (CDIAC) [4], which ironically will lead to further depletion of the Amazon due to water shortages and increased temperatures.
Foreign Investment and Influence
More than 70 percent of the Peruvian Amazon is now under foreign concession [1] Although logging has been relatively less destructive in Peru than in other parts of the Amazon, foreign investment will change that. As of now, selective "thinning" is common practice as opposed to entire sections being cleared, allowing these pieces to grow back and replace the biodiversity. It is still susceptible to fires and agricultural development [5]. Sixty-four oil and gas blocks cover about 72 percent of the Peruvian Amazon, about 490,000 square kilometers or an area significantly larger than California [6]. Recently, the Peruvian government granted to the China National Petroleum Corporation in an $83 million agreement that covers 3.7 million acres (1.5 million hectares) of forest in the Madre de Dios Region, an area home to more than 10 percent of the world's bird species and a popular eco-tourist destination. Another recent project, the Trans-oceanic Highway, which will connect the Brasilian Amazon to Peruvian ports, will contribute to clearing forests in the southern part of Peru [1].
Reactions
