Perú, te quiero verde —
Peru, I want/love you green
July 28th 2020, 199 years since liberation. This month of national celebration in Perú is marked by two debates whose legislative verdicts we impatiently await: the extension of the Terminal Portuario Paracas (TPP) in the buffer zone of the Paracas National Reserve, and the ratification of the Escazú agreement. As a Peruvian environmentalist, this month of patriotism, feels like two slaps on the face — two crude reminders that environmental conservation in Perú is a dream, a dream I no longer know if worth dreaming for.
I’ve always dreamt of Perú. After leaving the country at four years old, studying Perú allowed me to remain close to it. From primary school projects to my masters thesis, whenever I could choose the subject of study I would link it to Peru. During my environmental sciences degree I delved into the wealth of socio-environmental case studies of Peru. In medical anthropology I perused the Mochica “huacos” to understand the history of leishmaniasis, whilst in nutrition and development I broke down into pieces the economic and health benefits of the development of the sacha inchi industry. In the grand Peruvian warehouse, there was always an example waiting to be studied.
My studies eventually brought me back to Peru. As a researcher at the Universidad Cayetano Heredia I roamed the rivers of the Peruvian Amazon, floating through the veins that feed our country’s unique biodiversity. I saw first hand the abundance of the ancestral socio-cultural knowledge our indigenous peoples hold and the infinite diversity of ecosystems, species, and genetic resources — I saw and studied what makes Peru a megadiverse country.
On these travels, however, I also experienced first hand the greed that governs Peru. In the best of cases, it was dressed as an uniformed “engineer” representing the extractive industry on duty. In the worst of cases, it was covered under the veil of the night to extract the last load of illegal wood from deep within the forest. Behind both costumes lies some multinational interest to feed the insatiable appetite of globalized consumerism.
These interests feed environmental degradation in Peru — not a year goes by without socio-environmental conflicts or without hundreds of thousands of hectares of deforested Amazon due to illicit activities. In that sense, the debates of this month are not unique, but they are unique because of what they represent at this moment in time: they represent the past, the world pre-COVID 19.
On the global arena, July 2020 was a call for environmental action. On July 8th, the “Protecting 30% of the planet for nature” report showed that the benefits of conservation outweigh the cost by a magnitude of five. On July 14th, Klaus Schwab, founder of the World Economic Forum launched his new book: “COVID-19: The Great Reset,” in which he highlights that building a “nature-positive” economy could generate more than USD 10 trillions by 2030. Lastly, on July 17th, the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said: “Let’s not fool ourselves. The legacy of colonialism still reverberates. (…) We see this in the global trade system. Economies that were colonized are at greater risk of getting locked into the production of raw materials and low-tech goods — a new form of colonialism. And we see this in global power relations.”
The fact the extension of TPP was a debate in Peru shows us the lack of value that is attributed to ecosystem services. Rather than strengthening regional economic development, innovating on how to capitalize on the conservation of a fragile ecosystem through ecotourism, Peru is opting for an old-school development model based on mining infrastructure development — a model that benefits few, noticeably Brazilian and Spanish investors, rather than opting for a local alternative that takes into consideration the interests of future generations.
The fact that congress is debating if to ratify the Escazu Agreement, shows that Peru prefers to repress environmental activists. Rather than opting for a multilateral mechanism that would allow for greater transparency on environmental information and protect activists, we prefer to perpetuate colonial paradigms of repression.
Globally, COVID-19 has shown us how dangerous environmental degradation is for humankind. At a national scale, the pandemic has exposed the fragility of the economic growth model Peru opted for. Since its liberation, Peru opted for the same economic model that enriched its colonizers, remaining blind that those riches are dependent on the ecological abundance of the country — to finish with Peru’s biodiversity is to empty its safe.
Even though it is difficult to keep dreaming about Peru, I keep dreaming. I keep dreaming that that safe can be conserved, that Peru can be a global leader in breaking away from the unsustainable models of the past and that builds a new economy based on the triple bottom line. Let’s make sure those dreams do not only remain dreams. Share your stories of those businesses that are already socially equitable, environmentally responsible, and financially profitable. Let’s work together so that Peru’s next 200 years fix our current environmental legacy.
Originally published in Spanish at https://irenehofmeijer.lamula.pe.
