Peru reforestation programme 

JOIN TICOFF (TOLERANCE INTERNATIONAL CO2 FREE FORUM) - Offset your company’s annual CO2 emissions and support our environmental programme in Peru.

Climate change or global warming: has been called the greatest living threat to the survival of the human race after the nuclear bomb. Caused by increased levels of carbon dioxide (C0^₂) and other polluting gases in our atmosphere. The gases trap heat by forming a blanket around the Earth. Once released the greenhouse gases stay in the atmosphere for many years. As they build up, the planet's temperature rises. Greenhouse gases are released by burning fossil fuels - coal, oil and gas - and by cutting down forests. Rich countries have been slow to take action to stop climate change. But the most vulnerable people are worse hit. Approx. 25,000 people died in the heat wave that hit Western Europe in 2003. These were mostly the elderly, sick and very young. International action is needed now to prevent future tragedies.

The UK has less than 1% of world's population but produces 2.3% of world’s C0^₂

Help us plant trees to save the planet! Forests and forest soils, through trees and other plants, absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, store the carbon in sugars, starch and cellulose, and release the oxygen into the atmosphere. A young developing forest, composed of growing trees, absorbs carbon dioxide and acts as a carbon sink; whilst a mature natural forest, with a component of decaying material, becomes carbon neutral. When a tree is cut down and then burnt or left to rot it releases the CO^₂ back into the environment. Cutting a tree down and using it as timber means the CO^₂ is still stored in that tree whilst new planting through reforestation forms a fresh carbon sink.

Global deforestation is now responsible for over 17% of the world’s total global carbon emissions – and the situation is getting worse each year!

Companies that become carbon zero by signing up to TICOFF help us protect valuable rainforest, a necessary component in the battle against climate change whilst at the same time helping us provide alternative employment for the impoverished local people. Up to 250,000 hectares of rainforest can be saved annually by preventing deforestation with up to 600 tonnes of CO^₂ captured per hectare of newly planted trees.  

TI-UK Environmental Justice Programme in Peru

Loreto is Peru's northernmost region and covers almost one-third of Peru's territory. It is sparsely populated due to its remote location in the Amazon rainforest. The indigenous population has started using the forest as one of its few means of income. The Campesino, relatively new to the area, compete with the local population and use forested areas both for growing crops and for selective logging. This results in 250,000 hectares of forest being “slashed and burnt” each year releasing millions of tonnes of CO^₂ into the atmosphere.   

Currently in Loreto two extremes meet; on the one hand the inhabitants of the forest and the “Campesino” of the Andes living a poor, dispossessed life, with little or no schooling, no sanitation, no infrastructure or economic possibilities; on the other, international corporate business more and more in need to offset its carbon emission to reduce its carbon footprint.  

The Wider Global Picture of Deforestation
The South-western Amazonian Moist Forests have some of the highest recorded species diversity index in the world for plants, birds, fish, and butterflies. Many of these species are no longer found in other regions due to hunting pressure, destruction of intact forest communities, and expansion of “development” programmess. These forests are the habitat of emblematic species like the jaguar and harpy eagle, and are threatened by the opening and paving of roads that provide access to a growing population of small farmers, oil and gas exploration, as well as large-scale cattle ranching and agribusiness. Hunting may be threatening populations of the tapir (Tapirus terrestris) and large primates in the north. Some habitat is threatened by expansion of the agricultural and pastoral frontier, gold mining, and selective logging that erodes the genetic diversity of a few valuable timber species. The economically important palm Euterpe precatoria is being depleted in some areas by unsustainable palm heart extraction. 

Trees are being cut down for as little as 15p a day to harvest the 'heart' of the palm. These trees would absorb over 600 tonnes of CO^₂ for every hectare over their life cycle but for the local people.  This is one of their few means of income. The palms are slashed down, the heart of the ‘palm’ sold and the rest is burnt.  

Another dramatic problem is the spread of the invasive Guadua bamboo forests. Logging along major rivers and near urban centres has decimated populations of mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla), tropical cedar (Cedrela odorata), and kapok (Ceiba pentandra).  

Bio fuels - the 'deforestation diesel':  With soaring oil prices, bio fuels are seen as a renewable and clean source of energy. They are made by producing ethanol, an alcohol fuel extracted from maize, sugar cane, or other plant matter. Europe imports ethanol from Brazil, where the Amazon is being burned to plant more sugar and soybeans.  Ethanol reduces total emissions of carbon dioxide by barely 13% because of the pollution caused by the production process.  Furthermore, ethanol only gets about 70% of the mileage of petrol. Because of the competition in production, food prices are already increasing. With just 10% of the world's sugar harvest being converted to ethanol, the price of sugar has doubled; the price of palm oil has increased 15% over the past year, with a further 25% gain expected next year.  

Soya Bean: Over the past few decades there has been a massive increase in the worldwide production of soya bean. Millions of acres of land have been converted into soya bean growing plantations. Much of this land was until recently unploughed, wilderness full of wildlife. In 1961 there were a mere quarter of a million hectares (2,500 sq kms) of soya bean in the whole of Brazil, according to FAO statistics. But by 2005 there were 229,000 square kilometres (nearly 55 million acres) in production, an area not much smaller than the United Kingdom. In South America as a whole, there were some 400,000 square kilometres -- nearly the size of California, and larger than Finland. In 1961 there were a mere 1300 hectares of soya bean in Paraguay, but by 2005 this had leapt to nearly 2 million hectares, much of it from ploughing up the “chaco” and other undisturbed habitats. In Argentina, with less than 1000 hectares in 1961, the amount of land given over to soya bean plantation jumped to 14 million in 2005.

Soya is being grown in vast quantities for use as cattle feed. It takes about 12 kg of grain to produce 1 kg of beef. During the four-month burning season in the Amazon, the giant trees are felled to make space for crops and slowly reduced to ashes. Even after being slashed and burned, the trunks of the tauari and maçaranduba are so huge that their embers glow on and off for more than two years. Some are left to burn where they stand, creating giant pillars of charcoal stretching 30 metres into the sky.

Added Benefits of TICOFF & TI Environmental Justice Programme:   

• Promoting understanding of the importance of tropical forests.

• Co-operating with the Regional Government of Loreto in the protection and management of identified areas.  Assisting in ecotourism assessments.

• Developing local sustainable alternative industry whilst minimizing the impact on the forest and its wildlife.  

Call 020 7603 0062 now for details of how to go 'CO2 Free'

Hamid Bayazi, one of the trustees of TI-UK visiting the Loreto region with Yvan Vasquez Valera, President of Loreto and the team in charge of the natural resources in the region.  

The Loreto Region of Peru

Capital Iquitos
Area 368,851.95 km²
Population 891,732 (2007 estimate from http://www.inei.gob.pe/)
Subdivisions 7 provinces and 51 districts
Main resources Rice, cassava, wood, fruit trees, rubber and cebu cattle
Poverty rate 70%
Percentage of country's GDP 2.51%