From the article, “Hotspot: Toward a Positive Future for Peru´s Human and Biological Riches” By Nick Engelfried
The startling implication of all this is that if we´re serious about conserving Peru´s spectacularly rich biodiversity, ensuring that traditional farmers continue their old way of life, rather than taking up industrial agriculture, is actually more important than preventing traditional farmer s from clearing more forest. Industrial activity in the Amazon is a double-barreled gun which threatens the area´s ecosystems and biodiversity. First of all, industrial activity itself obliterates vast swaths of forest, often contaminating huge areas with toxic waste that will remain in the soil and water for years. Second, industrial practices displace traditional villages, and especially indigenous peoples, who are among the most politically disempowered populations in Peru. The result is that traditional farmers give up a way of life that is relatively sustainable. They may go to work for large companies like the ones that displaced them, or they may move to the outskirts of Iquitos where expanding slum-like communities, filling up fast with former residents of forest villages, are encroaching steadily on the rainforest. Read More
