Peru - Lonely Planet Publications [48]
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PERU’S TOP PROTECTED & NATURAL AREAS
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THROUGH THE AMAZON: THE INTEROCEANIC HIGHWAY
One of the biggest environmental issues facing Peru is the looming completion of the Interoceanic Hwy, which cuts through the southern part of the Amazon. Beginning at the port of Ilo, on the southern Pacific coast of Peru, this transcontinental road will travel up into the Andes, through Cuzco, down into the Amazon basin at Puerto Maldonado, to the border village of Iñapari, and from there over the Integration Bridge into Brazil and onto the capital of Brasilia. Upon its completion (estimated for some time in 2010), it will go through two of the biggest protected rainforests in the area.
The project has conservationists deeply worried about a potential boom in poaching and illegal logging. Certainly, the environment has not fared well along other rainforest roads. In 2008, The Economist reported that within a decade of being paved, roads in the Brazilian Amazon typically resulted in ‘a halo of deforestation’ that extended as far as 50km on either side of a road.
The Peruvian government has voiced its commitment, on paper, to preserving the area. But its enforcement of these ideals on the ground, without adequate resources, will remain a significant challenge.
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ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES
Peru faces major challenges in the stewardship of its natural resources, with problems compounded by a lack of well-run environmental law enforcement and its impenetrable geography. Deforestation and erosion are major issues, as is industrial pollution, urban sprawl and the continuing attempted eradication (with herbicides) of coca plantations on some Andean slopes. In addition, a soon-to-be-completed roadway through the heart of the Amazon may imperil thousands of square kilometers of rainforest (see boxed text, above).
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In the early 1990s, Peru took steps to formulate a national environmental and natural resource code, but the government (occupied with a bloody guerrilla war in the highlands) lacked the funding and political will to enforce it. In 1995 Peru’s congress created a National Environmental Council (CONAM) to manage the country’s national environmental policy. Though there have been some success stories (eg flagrant polluters being fined for poor practices), enforcement remains weak (see boxed text, Click here). In addition, the federal government faces chronic problems related to poverty and public health, making money for enforcement difficult to come by.
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The Nature Conservancy (www.nature.org), the World Wildlife Fund (www.wwf.org) and Amazon Watch (www.amazonwatch.org) all keep a keen eye on Peru’s environmental and conservation issues.
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At the ground level, clear-cutting of the highlands for firewood, of the rainforests for valuable hardwoods, and of both to clear land for agriculture, oil drilling and mining has led to severe erosion. In the highlands, where deforestation and overgrazing of Andean woodlands and puna grass is severe, soil quality is rapidly deteriorating. In the Amazon rainforest, deforestation has led to erosion and a decline in bellwether species such as frogs, despite the fact that this long-running environmental cause has attracted all manner of international attention. For the government, balancing the development goals of poor, rural communities with the needs of large-scale multinational companies and the policy plans of an infinite number of nonprofit conservation groups is an ongoing dilemma. (Struggles over development of Amazon lands have even resulted in death: see boxed text, Click here, for more on this topic.)
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