Peru accelerates destruction of Amazon rainforest amid worst political crisis

The Associated Press reported on the 3rd that Peru in South America has fallen into the worst political crisis ever due to corruption scandals and political battles, causing mass destruction of the Amazon rainforest due to neglect.

Peru is the second country in the world to have the most Amazon forests after Brazil. Peru has declared that it will eradicate the destruction of the Amazon rainforest by 2021.

However, Peru has been in political turmoil since 2016. Corruption scandals and government-to-parliament battles have gone to extremes, leading to upheaval in five years that have replaced four presidents with impeachment.

Pedro Castillo, a former leftist outsider, was impeached twice since taking office in July 2021, but survived.

Peru's Amazon rainforest covers 68 million hectares, which is larger than Ukraine's territory. Peru has the origin of the Amazon River and Manu National Park, the world's largest biodiversity conservation area.

Peru is a connection between the Andes and low-lying rainforests, rich in microclimates and environmental factors.

However, Peru's Amazon rainforest has recorded the largest extinction in history over the past decade, according to a report by the Andean Amazon Surveillance Planning Group (MAAP) under the non-profit organization International Amazon Conservation Association.

The basis is statistics from Merrillind University in the United States, which has been recording Amazon since 2002.

The worst loss happened in 2020. Peru lost as many as 170,000 hectares of Amazon rainforest that year. Last year, extinction figures dropped slightly, but they still marked the sixth time in history.

The official statistics of the Peruvian government, which were released only until 2020, are consistent with that.

According to the MAAP report, corruption officials who benefit from environmental destruction crimes and the government's inability to crack down on environmental crimes due to the political crisis are the biggest reasons for the destruction of the Amazon rainforest.

The report points out, "In addition, the Peruvian government has always prioritized economic development over protecting the Amazon rainforest."

The report was submitted by Igarape Research Institute under the entrustment of Insight Cry, a non-profit organization that investigates environmental crimes in Latin America.

Like Brazil, in Peru's Amazon, livestock and agriculture are the main culprits of environmental destruction to destroy rainforests and secure sites. Large agricultural companies and poor migrants from other countries illegally reclaim land in Peru's Amazon forest.

Other illegal activities such as gold mine development, timber cutting, and cocoa plantation development are also illegal activities that harm tropical forests.

"Agriculture is now firmly at the forefront of rainforest destruction," said Matt Finner, MAAP secretary general. The Amazon rainforest in central and southern Peru was almost occupied by them," he pointed out. As a result, small-scale farmers have gathered, and recently, new large-scale agricultural companies have also been located here.

The products of illegal activities here are usually exported to other parts of the world. Most of the gold is exported to Switzerland, the United States, India, and Canada.

Wood is mostly sold in the Peruvian domestic market. Most of the wood exported goes to China.

However, 28 percent of Peru's gold output is illegal mining, Insight Crime investigated. Almost all of the timber felling was carried out without permission.

Former Peruvian Environment Minister Manuel Pulgar-Vidal told The Associated Press: "The political crisis in Peru has diverted our attention from environmental issues. The COVID-19 incident and the Ukrainian war also caused the public's attention to Peru's environmental monitoring.

In particular, he criticized the current government for encouraging criminal activities such as illegal mining and logging. That is why many environmentalists have been killed, but the culprit has not been caught or prosecuted, he said.

Date: 2021-06-22

Reporter: 서화목