Environmental destruction in parts of the Amazon is so complete that areas of the rainforest have reached tipping point and may never recover, a major study by scientists and indigenous organizations has found.
“The tipping point is not a future scenario, but a stage already present in some areas of the region,” the report concludes. “Brazil and Bolivia account for 90% of all deforestation and degradation combined. As a result, Savanization is already taking place in both countries”.
Scientists from the Georeferenced Amazon Network of Socio-Environmental Information (RAISG) worked with the Coordinator of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin (Coica) to produce the study, Amazonia Against the Clock, one of the largest to date, covering the nine nations that contain parts of the Amazon.
He found that only two of the nine, tiny Suriname and French Guiana, have at least half of their forests still intact.
Amazonian indigenous organizations representing 511 nations and allies are calling for a global pact for the permanent protection of 80% of the Amazon by 2025.
The 80% target is a massive challenge given that only 74% of the original forest remains. Urgent action is needed not only to protect the forest still standing, but also to restore the degraded land and return to that 80% level.
“It’s difficult but doable,” said Alicia Guzmán, an Ecuadorian scientist who coordinated the report. “Everything depends on the involvement of the indigenous communities and the people who live in the forest. That and the debt.”
Guzmán said that giving indigenous groups custody of more land and, above all, providing it with state protection and removing legal loopholes that allow extractive industries to enter was the surest way to ensure preservation.
Almost half of the Amazon has been designated as a protected area or indigenous territory, and only 14% of all deforestation takes place there. Currently, about 100 million hectares of indigenous land are in dispute or awaiting official government recognition.
“Having indigenous people in the decision-making process means that we have the knowledge of those who know the forest best,” Guzmán said. “And they need budgets.”
They also need their land to be protected from land grabbers and extractive industries.
Mining is one of the growing threats, with protected areas and indigenous lands among the areas most coveted by prospectors. Much of the mining is underground and illegal, but about half in protected areas is done legally, and scientists called on governments to refuse or revoke mining permits.
Oil is another threat, especially in Ecuador, the source of 89% of all crude oil exported from the region.
Oil blocks cover 9.4% of the Amazon’s surface and 43% of them are in protected areas and indigenous lands. More than half of the Ecuadorian Amazon is designated as an oil block, according to the report, and parts of Peru (31%), Bolivia (29%) and Colombia (28%) are also of concern.
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Even more worrying is agriculture. According to the report, agriculture is responsible for 84% of deforestation and the amount of land devoted to agriculture has tripled since 1985. Brazil is one of the world’s leading food exporters, with soybeans, beef and grains that feed large parts of the world and bring in billions of dollars each year.
A key recommendation of the study is more collaboration between regional governments, international financial institutions and the private equity firms that hold much of the Amazonian nations’ debt.
Latin America is the most indebted region in the developing world and canceling this debt in exchange for preservation commitments would be important.
“They face a unique opportunity to forgive existing debt in exchange for commitments to end industrial extraction and promote protections in key priority areas, indigenous territories and protected areas,” the report says.
Among the other 13 “solutions” proposed in the report are: a total suspension of new licenses and funding for mining, oil, ranching, large dams, logging and other similar activities; greater transparency and accountability throughout supply chains; the restoration of deforested land; new governance models that increase the representation and recognition of indigenous peoples.
Although the task is enormous, there are reasons for optimism, especially in Brazil, where the president, Jair Bolsonaro, faces former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in a tense election on October 2.
Lula leads the polls. During his time in power in the 2000s, deforestation fell by more than 80%.