Man Murdered for Reporting Illegal Logging

While you are reading this article, more than 150 acres of rainforest will be destroyed.

After reporting a truck loaded with mahogany illegally logged from the Amazon rainforest, Don Julio García Agapito, a Peruvian authority who worked to protect forests, was murdered by Amancion Jacinto Maque, an illegal timber operator, on February 26, 2008. He is survived by his wife and children.

Angelica Almeyda, an anthropologist at Stanford University who had worked closely with Don Julio, called his death a great loss.

“The death of Don Julio fills me with great sadness and indignation,” she wrote in a memoriam. “Don Julio was one of the few leaders who had the courage to fight for the well-being of his town, for the forests and for that which he considered to be just.”

“It is incomprehensible that illegal mahogany can take away the life of an exemplar man in Madre de Dios,” she continued. “My hope is that his murder… will fuel needed efforts against the irrational and illegal use of the natural resources of Madre de Dios.”

Similar murders in recent years have served to catalyze forest protection efforts in the Amazon. The 1988 killing of Chico Mendes, a Brazilian rubber tapper, sparked international outcry about the destruction of the Amazon rainforest and led to the creation of more than a dozen forest reserves. The assassination of Dorothy Stang, an American nun, in the Amazon state of Pará in 2005 triggered a massive crackdown on illegal deforestation in the region.3

This is a tragic story on so many levels. First it reminds us of greed over human life. The murder of a fellow human being is a sad statement on a very personal level. Second, it reminds us of the destruction of the Amazon, which is the richest area on earth for plant and animal life. The Amazon jungle provides oxygen for the entire planet, as well as life-healing herbs, yet-undiscovered herbs and plants, water and ecological balance. In fact, several of the important herbs within our NutriPlex Formulas’ whole food supplements come directly from the Costa Rican rainforest, including pau d’arco, cat’s claw and others.

According to NatureServe, “Across the slopes of the Andes and the Amazon basin, loss of forests and other wild lands to logging, cattle ranching, mining, agriculture, and infrastructure continues at rates of up to 9,000 square miles per year.”1 There are a number of videos on the plight of the Amazon, and here on youtube.com is a good place to view a primer. You will be absolutely amazed at the destruction. It is difficult to accept

Environmentalist Lowell Greenberg said, “In a world bent on ecological destruction, the ability to think holistically and compassionately-to perceive the hidden connections between phenomena and their ethical implications- is critical for sustainability and survival. The development of critical thinking skills is also essential in an age suffused with propaganda and the false need for conformity.”2

Here are some amazing statistics that offer some insight into the tragedy of losing our rainforests, provided by Earth Renewal2:

• Brazil contains 30% of the world’s tropical forests
• 5.4 million acres (estimate averaged for period 1979-1990) of Brazilian rainforest are destroyed each year.
• If deforestation continues at current rates, scientists estimate nearly 80-90 percent of tropical rainforest ecosystems will be destroyed by the year 2020.
• According to projections by James Alcock, a professor of environmental sciences at the Abington campus of Penn State, Amazonian rain forests could reach a “point of no return” by 2011-2016 if deforestation continues at the present rate of about one percent a year. The model further shows that rain forest in Brazil could be wiped out entirely within 40 to 50 years.
• Forest destruction from 1995 to 2000 averaged almost two million hectares a year, equivalent to seven football field a minute, and is comparable to the 1970s and 1980s, when forest loss in the Amazon was catastrophic
• 6-9 million indigenous people inhabited the Brazilian rainforest in 1500. In 1992, less than 200,000 remain.
• In a four mile by four mile square of Brazilian tropical forest there are over 750 species of trees, 125 species of mammals, 400 species of birds and 100 species of reptiles. Most of these species are found nowhere else in the world. There are as many species of ants in a single Peruvian tree than in the entire British Isles.
• Distinguished scientists estimate an average of 137 species of life forms are driven into extinction every day, or 50,000 each year.
• Projected Economic Value of One Hectare in the Peruvian Amazon: $6,820 per year if intact forest is sustainably harvested for fruits, latex, and timber; $1,000 if clear-cut for commercial timber (not sustainably harvested); or $148 if used as cattle pasture. One can therefore see the unnecessary and tragic implications of deforestation to the effected nations.
• “A $40 billion onslaught of highways, railroads, hydroelectric projects and burgeoning population is overwhelming current efforts to promote conservation in the Amazon Forest of Brazil. If left unchecked, it will soon destroy the greatest tropical rainforest on Earth.” – From a 1/24/01 Oregon State University news release/report published in Science Daily entitled, entitled, “Conservation Battle Faces Long Odds In Brazilian Amazon.”

University of Michigan scientists write:

The Amazon rainforest is roughly 5.5 million square kilometers, yet this number is estimated to be 83% of what the region once was. Much of this devastation is due to the deforestation and continued encroachment upon the land for agricultural reasons, due mainly to the highly nutrient-rich soil found in former Amazonian forestland. This attractive aspect of the land makes the region ideal for current soybean production, as well as sugar cane production that could face considerable growth in the near future; this new cash crop is desired by the developed world as a cheap source of ethanol for biofuel, which they hope may relieve some of the desire for fossil fuels. Even without this additional demand for deforested Amazon land, the rainforest is still cleared in massive swathes in order to replace land degraded by overuse in agriculture. This action leads to a cycle of destruction that presses further and further into this immensely diverse region.

The clearing of the rainforest has more of an effect than a simple loss of trees and vegetation; the destruction of habitat lends threat to the organisms living there, as well. Some of the creatures are capable of moving into new regions, while those incapable face local, if not global, extinction. Even those that do manage to adapt to their new habitats now place a foreign strain on the ecosystem of the region; they may compete with native species, which can lead to a decrease in biodiversity. As biodiversity fails and the forest becomes more homogenized (those species that are better at adapting pushing out native residents), the forest loses some of it ability to heal, causing even minor damage to the ecosystem to be irreparable. In addition to the loss of diversity in the rainforest, deforestation can yield soil degradation beyond that caused by poor agricultural soil management. The Amazon’s plants have evolved roots to hold the moist topsoil in place, and if those plants are replaced by less equipped agricultural varieties (such as soybeans and sugar cane), the torrential downpours in the region can result in soil erosion, removing the topsoil as well as preventing remaining soil from becoming hydrated and nutrient rich once more.

In addition the local factors, the loss of the Amazon rainforest also causes global concern via global warming. The slash-and-burn style clearing favored by many deforesters results in the release of stored carbon dioxide, a known greenhouse gas. Complimenting this are the roads used by farmers and deforesters to get into the Amazon. The loss of canopy cover leaves more ground exposed, especially the aforementioned roads. These absorb heat that would have otherwise been reflected by the canopy to yield an albedo effect, heating the surface of the earth.

Good News. Some corporations such as Merrill Lynch, are working to help. For a list of some of the others, click here. If you would like to get just a small glimpse of the wealth of healing herbs coming from the Amazon, click here for the Raintree website.

If you’d like to have some hands-on contact with the Rainforest, there are a number of ways to do this. Here’s a place to start, called Greenforce which runs expeditions dedicated to the preservation of our world ecology.

Sources:

1. NatureServe. NatureServe is a non-profit conservation organization whose mission is to provide the scientific basis for effective conservation action. NatureServe and its network of natural heritage programs are the leading source for information about rare and endangered species and threatened ecosystems.
2. Earth Renewal.
3. Butler, Rhett A., “Amazon environmentalist gunned down in Peru,” Mongabay; March 2008
4. University of Michigan: Amazonian Rainforest: Forest to Farmland?, 2008