When I
first came out to Paraguay back at the start of 2013, I had very little
knowledge about the conservation situation in the country. The reality is that
there just isn't a whole lot of information available. It's a country that
people easily overlooked as it is dwarfed by the likes of Brazil. Over the years
I have spent following monkeys around the Atlantic Forest, this place has
worked its way into my bones in a way I could never have anticipated.
Soy fields bordering San Rafael "National Park" - the largest remaining patch of Atlantic Forest in Paraguay.
The
history of the forest is not a happy one. Until the 1940's the east of Paraguay
was covered by around 86,000km2 of pristine Atlantic Forest. However with the
explosion of industrial agriculture, mainly soy and cattle farming, this
spectacular region suffered from the second highest deforestation rate in the
world resulting in the loss of more than 90% of the forest cover. In 2004
Paraguayan Congress approved the Zero Deforestation Law making it illegal to
deforest or transform any forested land in eastern Paraguay’s Atlantic Forest.
The
deforestation rate in eastern Paraguay dropped by around 90% following the
implementation of this law. The law was then renewed until 2006, then 2008 and
from there it received two five-year increases until 2013 then 2018. In
December 2018 the law was extended for a further two years. However, it was not
a silver bullet. Deforestation still continues due to lack of enforcement of
the law. Between 2003 and 2013, after the implementation of the Zero
Deforestation Law around 6000km2 of Atlantic Forest was destroyed. This works out
at a staggering 230 football pitches per day.
WWF. who
proposed the initial moratorium and have worked for its implementation and
renewal, identified several factors among the challenges facing the performance
of the law. As with many parts of the world corruption has been a huge hurdle
for proper enforcement of the law. Some landowners identified public officials
who requested money to avoid fines or suspension of their environmental
licences. Poor enforcement of the laws is another issue. I have seen for myself
the woefully underprepared forest guards who are too scared to enter the forest
as they don’t have enough bullet proof vests or guns to go round.
I
understand how negative and depressing conservation can seem but I do think it
is also important to look at the reality of the situation. Paraguay was praised
as “an example of conservation for Latin America”. Is this really the case?
When the government passed the Zero-Deforestation Law they chose to leave the
northern half of the country, the vast Gran Chaco forests, out. The
deforestation rate may have dropped by 90% in the Atlantic Forest after the
2003 law but the Chaco now experiences one the world’s fastest deforestation
rates. In 2013 the Chaco lost 2367.25km 2 of forest, which according
to Guyra Paraguay, is roughly the area of 29 cities the size of Buenos Aires.
From January --June 2014 around 4km2 of Chaco forest were burned
every day.
It is
important for the international conservation community to understand what is
happening to Paraguay’s forest so that a real and lasting change can be made. Did
the Zero-Deforestation Law really have the effect it appeared to have? Or by
2003 had so much Atlantic Forest already been lost that what came after had to
slow? Did industrial agriculture simply turn its attention to the Chaco which
had previously been a far more hostile environment to exploit? It is important
to consider these questions when looking at large scale conservation. As we
finally begin to recognise that we are in the midst of a climate crisis,
coupled with our increased understanding of the importance of forest in
mitigating climate change, it is essential that we work to conserve what
remains, and work actively to reforest what has already been lost.
The IUCN
states that “Halting the loss and
degradation of natural systems and promoting their restoration have the potential
to contribute over one-third of the total climate change mitigation scientists
say is required by 2030.” And that “Restoring 350 million hectares of
degraded land in line with the Bonn Challenge could sequester up to 1.7
gigatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent annually.” Whether it is the
Atlantic Forest or the Gran Chaco, protecting and restoring Paraguay’s forests
could play a global role in fighting the looming climate crisis.
It is
not all doom and gloom however. I have seen change in the last few years,
Paraguay’s younger generation appear to be more environmentally aware, hopeful
and ready to work for change. Hopefully that change will not come too late.
Young Paraguayans discuss conservation and environmental education at YouthFest 4.0 in Asuncion, November 2018.
References
http://data.globalforestwatch.org/datasets/3d668cf0fbcb415bba1ec00bc6263877_5?selectedAttribute=year
Da
Ponte, E., et al. (2017). Paraguay’s Atlantic
Forest cover loss – Satellite based change in detection and fragmentation
analysis between 2003-2013. Applied
Geography. 79: 37-49.
Da
Ponte, E., et al. (2017). Assessing
Forest Cover Dynamics and Forest Perception in the Atlantic Forest of Paraguay:
Combining Remote Sensing and Household Level Data. Forests. 8: 389-410.
Hutchison,
S. (2011). Making a Pact to Tackle Deforestation in Paraguay. WWF Report.
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