Into the jungles of Peru

A Canadian gentleman calling himself JPR came to a meeting I attended online to talk about a "disappearing landscape" in the Amazonian rainforest. In the 1960s he participated in an international project to study the topology, geology, archaeology, ecology, demographics and agricultural potential of this region and has kept returning since. In 2009 he published a book about it, in Spanish: La Ceja de Montaña - Un pasaje que va desapareciendo: Estudios interdisciplinarios en el noreste del Peru. He is an "unabashed" supporter of sustainable farming and forestry. 

The Ceja de la Montaña, "eyebrow of the mountain" is a ridge that lies near the equator between the eastern lowland forests (selva alta) and the highlands of the Andes. It is an area where the only dry season in the year lasts for a mere two weeks; otherwise a tremendous amount of rain falls. The vegetation is consequently luxuriant and the unsurfaced roads, on which small pack horses constantly slip and often break their legs, are deep in mud. The virgin forest supports the richest biodiversity in the world, but to grow crops sustainably in this environment is a tremendous challenge.

Crossing the ridge is a day's journey along the upper tributaries of the Huallaga and Tonchimilco rivers. This expedition is not for tourists, although the region has a history. 600 years ago the Chachapoya people did live off the forest in sustainable ways; they were exterminated a century later by the Incas; then came the colonists who just wanted to cut down the trees and use it as farmland. This is still happening. They grow bananas, catch and sell wild pigs, use the timber of the larger trees to make houses with sloping roofs to shed the rain (one tree is enough to build a house from) and gaps between the slats of the walls for aeration, where poisonous spiders lurk. The farmers have over-fished the streams, so only rodents, mostly guinea pigs, are left to eat. There are decent schools up there but perhaps an hour's walk from where children live. Their parents work 12 hours a day, six days a week (not Sundays), making the most of the brief pauses in the torrential rain. The Indigenous people marry very young and acquire their own cabins.

Coffee growing is the main source of income here, with three harvests a year from the steep upper slopes.  The farmers can't afford the time or the money to make terraces so landslides are a constant hazard. In the 1960s, President Fernando Belaúnde wanted to alleviate the overpopulation of Lima by opening up the forest areas, constructing roads. Since then, waves of country people have been rushing into new areas in an attempt to improve their lives. They discovered that the higher they went, the more coffee could be harvested, sometimes ten times as much as in their home villages, but what happens is that when coffee prices drop, labour costs triple. People prune the plants incorrectly, leaving them improperly ventilated so that bugs infest them, and the degraded soil erodes. In 2013 coffee leaf rust hit the weakened plants, wiping out whole fields because of the level of humidity and the strict monoculture. In the lower lands papayas too have been wiped out by fungus and in any case are impossible to transport. 

 

There's a huge gap between the existing practices and what is required. JPR reckoned it would take up to 50 years to repair this damage and reclaim the exploited land. It would take perhaps 200 years to build terraces.

Peru must find new opportunities in agro-forestry. Cocoa plants won't grow at high altitudes and cocaine production is not the answer! Maintaining conservation areas seems to be the best option for the rainforest,
as it reduces the county's carbon emissions and protects fragile ecosystems, but some previous attempts to establish these have failed. The farmers ought to stop planting on 70-deg slopes. Fertilisers can't be used because they just wash away.

Forestry management is problematic, with illegal slash-and-burn areas. People aren't allowed to cut the trees down but they do, using the new roads through the mountains to transport the lumber. Because it is so difficult to monitor such activities, many get away with breaking the law, and new bridges are often destroyed by flash floods.

Recovery is costly. Where will the money come from? Peru has good leadership and a promising Plan Nacional de Acción del Café Peruano. Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) is a mechanism developed according to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Farmers participating in these schemes can redeem some credit by planting fast-growing trees. JPR mentioned the son of a Peruvian forester who has won a scholarship to university, with whom he is keeping in touch. Encouraging more of the young people in such ways might make a difference.

Stories from other Amazonian countries are much the same. Ecuador is apparently doing a little better than the others.