Environmental Problems of Peru

1. Environmental Problems of Peru Michael Valqui Amazon Programme Director World Wildlife Fund

2. Priority environmental problems in Peru • How does WWF try to tackle them • What can you do

3. What are some enviromental problems you know of?

7. 12 general environmental problems (Diamond 2005, Collapse) 1. Deforestation and habitat destruction 2. Soil problems (erosion, salinization, and soil fertility losses) 3. Water management problems

8. 12 general environmental problems (Diamond 2005, Collapse) 4. Overhunting 5. Overfishing 6. Effects of introduced species on native species

9. 12 general environmental problems (Diamond 2005, Collapse) 7. Overpopulation 8. Increased per-capita impact of people 9. Human-caused climate change

10. Ecological footprint and human development Peru

11. 12 general environmental problems (Diamond 2005, Collapse) 10. Buildup of toxins in the environment 11. Energy shortages 12. Full human utilization of the Earth’s photosynthetic capacity

12. What are in my opinion the environmental problems of Peru?

13. Priority environmental problems in Peru 1. Deforestation and habitat destruction 2. Soil problems (erosion, salinization, and soil fertility losses) 3. Water management problems

14. Priority environmental problems in Peru 4. Overhunting 5. Overfishing 6. Effects of introduced species on native species

15. Priority environmental problems in Peru 7. Overpopulation 8. Increased per-capita impact of people 9. Human-caused climate change

16. Priority environmental problems in Peru 10. Buildup of toxins in the environment 11. Energy shortages 12. Full human utilization of the Earth’s photosynthetic capacity

17. Priority environmental problems in Peru 1.Deforestation and habitat destruction 2. Soil problems (erosion, salinization, and soil fertility losses) 3. Water management problems 5. Overfishing 9. Human-caused climate change 10. Buildup of toxins in the environment

18. What are the causes of these problems?

19. Example • Direct cause of deforestation: Pedro cuts the tree

20. What can we do? • Can we go and stop Pedro from felling the tree? Don’t cut the treeeees!!!

21. Yeah, he is in underpants! He must be kidding!! • Not very effective…

22. We have to understand the problem • What are the direct causes, what are the indirect causes, what are the root causes • To organize our thoughts we work with models

23. Not with these models!

24. Models of how we understand the environmental problems. Ok, so why did Pedro cut the tree? Because it was in my way to the gold… UH-OH

25. SO, LET US MAKE A MODEL OF INFORMAL GOLD MINING IN THE AMAZON

26. Balsa gringo Draga Chupadera Caranchera Shute - cargador frontal

27. Problem 1 created by goldmining: Deforestation and habitat destruction

28. I am Pedro

32. HUEPETUHE - CAYCHIVE

33. HUEPETUHE - CAYCHIVE

34. HUEPETUHE - CAYCHIVE

35. HUEPETUHE - CAYCHIVE

36. HUEPETUHE - CAYCHIVE 19 km. 2 km.

37. 50 km Madre de Dios, Perú 2005 • Ejemplos de carreteras en bosques tropicales

38. Problem 2 created by gold mining: Build up of mercury (toxins) Liquid mercury is added to the sand/gold mix to “pull out” the gold out of the sand, approximately 1 gram mercury per gram of gold.

39. As a Madre de Dios miner, once you have the gold/mercury mix, what do you do?

40. Bring your gold/mercury mix to the next store

41. Vaporize the mercury

42. Let the gold cool down

43. Weigh the gold and get paid 92 soles/gram

44. Cool? • A small miner can produce 1 to 2 grams of gold per day, i.e. gross income of 92 to 184 soles a day • Madre de Dios produces 16 tons of gold in a year, worth $ 600 million

45. Not cool! • Since it is mostly illegal or informal only $42,000 are collected in taxes (less than 0.06%)

46. Not cool!

47. So what about the model? 1.Deforestation: Pedro cuts trees and digs deep holes to get to the gold I am Pedro 2. Buildup of toxins: Pedro dumps mercury into the river and into the air

48. Deforestation: Pedro cuts trees and digs deep holes to get to the gold Pedro informally mines for gold Pedro informally mines for gold 2. Buildup of toxins: Pedro dumps mercury into the river and into the air

49. Highlands are environmentally degraded and forgotten by central government People in the highlands don’t have good economic opportunities Pedro migrates to Madre de Dios Deforestation: Pedro cuts trees and digs deep holes to get to the gold Pedro informally mines for gold Pedro informally mines for gold 2. Buildup of toxins: Pedro dumps mercury into the river and into the air Developing country, small and weak government

50. Deforestation: Pedro cuts trees and digs deep holes to get to the gold Pedro informally mines for gold Pedro informally mines for gold 2. Buildup of toxins: Pedro dumps mercury into the river and into the air Low costs: anybody can be a gold miner everywhere except in urban areas, no control on impacts, no taxes to be paid Developing country, small and weak government High gold prices: 1 gram 92 soles for the miner, can obtain 1 to 1.5 grams per day Global economic crisis: everybody wants gold