assignment 4: tree debate, tambopata forest management · assignment 4: tree debate, tambopata...

Name: Recitation Number:

Assignment 4: Tree Debate, Tambopata Forest Management

This assignment needs to be 1 page (no more than 2 pages), typed, double or one and one half spaced, 11 or 12pt font. It needs to be completed for recitation the week of November 7th. This assignment will also serve as a basis for a debate to be held in your recitation that same week. You will be graded both on the quality and content of your written answers as well as your performance in the debate.

ThequestionThis week you will examine the question: Can the different stakeholders of Tambopata come to an agreement on how to use the forest? What sort of plan would work best for the forest?

ThepuzzleThe Tambopata Rainforest in Peru is one of the most biologically diverse and least disturbed areas

on the planet. Ecologists want to save this area, but most local residents see Tambopata as a poor, isolated region of Peru, and they are eager to harvest the region’s timber, gold, and oil, and farm the region’s vast lands. Meanwhile, local indigenous people see their very survival threatened by both conservationists and pro‐development groups. Peruvian officials are trying to balance biodiversity protection with economic development in Tambopata via land‐use zoning and have invited the below stakeholders to a roundtable (your debate) to work out how to zone (utilize) the land. Specifically, they are zoning the 272,000 ha of land within Tambopata National Reserve (TNR), an area intended to both protect biodiversity and allow for sustainable resource use.

ThePositions(withsampleparticipants,seestakeholderdescriptionsbelow)The positions for the assignment and debate are as follows, your TA will assign you a general position, which will be your team. You will be responsible for working with this team to develop an argument for the debate to advance your interests in the forest; however, the work on the paper needs to be your own to avoid plagiarism. Your arguments should be based on the different perspectives we learned in the beginning of the course. Each perspective offers you some critique of the others that will be presented. To make things more specific and personal you can adopt the persona of one of the individuals detailed at the end of this document. They are also listed under the general team names below. You should work with other characters on your team to get your points across in the debate.

A. Conservation • Ecotourism operator from Rainforest Expeditions • Conservation biologist from Conservation International, Washington, D.C. • WE (Wisconsin Electric Power Company) executive, Milwaukee, WI

B. Indigenous


• Ese‘eja community member (indigenous person) • Ribereño community member • Agustin Achuni is a leader of (LeaderFE NAMAD) the Local Federation of Native People

of Madre de Dios

C. Commercial Farmers • Biofuel consultant • Industrial soybean producer from Brazil

D. Timber/Mining

• Owner of Madera Grande, a big logging company based in Lima • Small‐scale logger based in Puerto Maldonado • Mobil‐Exxon executive, Dallas, TX • Small‐scale gold miner

E. Colonists

• Castañero (Brazil nut harvester) • Colonist recently arrived from Andes • Leader of FADEMAD: Federation of Agriculturalists of Madre de Dios

WhatyouneedtodoTo explore this question, you will use the concepts and ideas brought up in lecture and in your textbook since the beginning of the course. This is your opportunity to apply conceptual tools you learned in the first part of the course to another real‐life puzzle. You should review and start your research for this debate by reading Chapter 10, Trees. You may also need to draw from other chapters to review perspectives we have read about such as the market approach, institutions, ethics, or population. You may also want to explore additional material from books, scholarly journals, newspapers, Internet sources, or magazine articles, to answer the following questions. You will need to cite at least 2 additional sources. You should come to recitation prepared to present and defend the position assigned to you by your TA.

Based on your character’s/teams interests, you will define your priorities for Tambopata’s future. What kinds of activities will generate income without destroying biodiversity? Brazil nut harvesting? Sustainable agriculture? Low‐impact logging? Forest carbon storage? Which of these activities should be allowed in the most fertile and scenic lands lying along the rivers? Will tourists want to watch birds amidst agriculture or mining? Should the forest be protected or used (and by whom?)? Or can the forest be zoned, with different areas set up for different kinds of uses (farming, carbon sequestration, ecotourism)? What sorts of uses go together and which ones do not? Support your position by using the perspectives as tools in your argument.

Moral Arguments (think ethics, political economy): Who should benefit from Tambopata’s forests? The area's original inhabitants (Ese'eja)? Or the ribereños (colonists), who have lived in the area for


>3 generations? Or should Tambopata’s carbon‐heavy forests be protected to benefit global humanity? Do Tambopata's forests and wildlife have rights apart from human concerns?

Then, draw on these other kinds of arguments:

Environmental Arguments (think ecology, population, social construction, markets, political economy): Why is it important to protect the forests? What is the forest and for whom? What activities will generate economic income without destroying biodiversity? Are there any negative environmental consequences of the land use you recommend? How might they be mitigated? Cite positive examples from elsewhere in the tropics.

Economic Arguments (think political economy, markets): Tambopata is poor. Some children are undernourished. Local people have less access to health care and education than other Peruvians. Should the citizens of Tambopata have to forgo economic opportunities so that biodiversity is conserved? If not, what kind of economic activities should have priority? How can carbon trading help (think markets here)? How will the benefits of economic activities (farming, mining, carbon sequestration, ecotourism) be distributed)?

Articulate how your team and/or character stands to gain or lose depending upon the land use decisions made at an open round table discussion (your debate). The objective of the round table discussion is to identify that the mix of land uses that best represents the interests of all stakeholder groups. Therefore, beyond your character’s personal interests, you will need to consider the broader compromises your character would make in order to achieve consensus.

Agoodpaperneedsto...• Lay out your team/character’s perspective using the perspectives we have learned to explain

how you see what is going on and what needs to happen.

• Talk about forest ecology when laying out and supporting you argument.

• Use at least 2 outside references.

• Talk about how at least one other team may adopt a different perspective and why that perspective is flawed in relation to your team’s position and in relation to the forest’s ecology.

• Answer the question of whether Tambopata needs economic development and what kind of development will meet the needs of all the stakeholder groups, including the ecology of the forest.

USEFUL LINKS FOR STARTING YOUR RESEARCH:

http://www.inkanatura.com/tambopatanationalreserveinperu.asp

http://www.peruthisweek.com/news‐554‐Near‐Perus‐Tambopata‐gold‐rush‐ravages‐rainforest/

http://www.wtsonline.co.uk/treesnewweb/area.htm


http://www.newint.org/easier‐english/Foodhunger/Coffee/environment.html

http://rainforests.mongabay.com/0808.htm

http://www.nelson.wisc.edu/people/treves/Pubs/9.pdf

http://www.ibcperu.org/doc/isis/12281.pdf

http://www.perunature.com/press/how‐an‐ecotourism‐company‐and‐a‐native%20community‐share‐power‐in‐peru

HOW TO WRITE A QUALITY PAPER AND RECEIVE AN “A”.

A quality paper will include the following structural elements:

1. Thesis stating your position at the beginning of your paper. 2. Following your thesis should be the supporting points for your perspective which will

also address the questions above (you should have at least 3 supporting points). 3. Each supporting point should draw from sources including the book and outside sources. 4. Argue from your perspective against at least one other perspective. 5. Closing statement that returns to your thesis statement to show how it is true. 6. Include references in your paper and attach a bibliography using a consistent reference

style.

More on how to write a quality paper:

1. Do not rely on your spell check to catch all your spelling and grammar mistakes. If you do you will end up with easily caught mistakes like “boulder” as the city you live in.

2. Please feel free to use Wikipedia as a starting place for your research, BUT don’t cite it in your paper.

In addition to the above guidance, please see the documents on the class website entitled: Paper assignment guidelines and How paper grades work.


Stakeholders at Tambopata National Reserve, Peru

1. Brazilian nut harvester: Maria Silva has harvested Brazil nuts since she was a child. Her family holds a 40‐year concession for harvesting Brazil nuts in a 500 ha area within the Reserve. INRENA has proposed opening her concession and others in the Reserve to more activities, like hunting, fruit and thatch harvest. This means that other people would be using the same land at the same time. Maria believes this is unfaithful to the Brazilian nut harvesters, as they supported the establishment of the Reserve, and have taken good care of the concession resources. She feels that by allowing others to use the Reserve, overexploitation and destruction of forest resources is inevitable. Maria is an active member of ASCAR (Asociación de Castañeros).

2. Ese ‘eja community member: Ramon Mishaja belongs to indigenous Ese’eja [ay‐say‐ha] community of Sonene. He fears that his people are losing rights to their ancestral lands. He is still grieving for his uncle who died from a hunger strike after being jailed for hunting in the park outside assigned indigenous land. He wants the Ese’ja people to regain their right to hunt and use the forest as they wish. In fact, he believes that Ese’eja reserves should be significantly expanded. Ramon is a member of FENAMAD, the Federation of Indigenous People of Madre‐de‐Dios. Some of his family members work for Rainforest Expeditions, an ecotourism company.


3. Riberenyo: Pablo Armoto has made an informal claim to 180 hectares of forested land along the Tambopata River. He’s planted crops, but he’s not making a profit. He keeps farming anyway because if he does not work the land, another colonist might claim the land. He’d like to sell timber from his land, but this is illegal. He’s considering selling his timber to a corrupt merchant, but he’d be paid just 1/3 the fair price. Pablo is an excellent hunter. Even though he knows it is illegal, he sometimes sells game meat in the city to pay for his children’s school fees and medical bills. Pablo has noticed that he has to go ever deeper into the forest to still find large game. Once he was threatened by the guards of a tourism company when they discovered him hunting by their lodge. So he turned to fishing for awhile.

4. Colonist farmers: José and Ana Herrera are recent colonists from Cuzco, a city in the Peruvian Andean mountains where there is little land and high unemployment. They arrived in Tambopata 5 years ago and made an informal claim to 30 hectares along the highway. They plant crops until the soil is ‘tired’, convert it to pasture and ranch cattle. They hope someday to buy a truck and sell food and goods to the miners. Some of their neighbors are talking about selling their land to soybean and palm oil companies, and then moving deeper into the forest to farm. Others are interested in forming a new co‐op to grow organic coffee. The Herreras belong to FADEMAD. They keep pushing their leaders to take a firm pro‐agriculture stand.


5. Leader of FADEMAD: Alan Moreno sees himself as the defender of the local poor farmers AND the forest. He grew up in the Amazon, as did his father and grandfather. He’s proud of his farm because it contains many different crops growing together in a way that protects the soil and attracts wildlife. During the 1990s, he was the key leader of FADEMAD and worked closely with environmentalists to help farmers better use their land and destroy less forest. Because of his inspired leadership, international conservationists flew Alan to Washington to speak about the positive role of local farmers in conservation. But eventually, other men in FADEMAD became more powerful, particularly newcomers from the Andes (colonists). To save his political career, Alan has had to publicly announce that the rights of local farmers to make a living are more important than biodiversity. He has also publicly criticized tourism companies for favoring indigenous people over colonists and riberenyos.

6. Leader of FENAMAD: Agustin Achuni is a leader of the Local Federation of Native People of Madre de Dios (FENAMAD), a grassroots organization entirely composed of indigenous people. Their mission is to defend their land from colonists and other outside interests, and to achieve autonomous authority to manage their lands as they choose. Some members of FENAMAD believe ecotourism is a profitable business for indigenous people, others see it as exploitative. Agustin also has to deal with the fact that some members of FENAMAD are miners, while other members oppose mining. All agree that indigenous people are the poorest group in Madre de Dios and that they must fight for any political power.


7. Co‐founder of Rainforest Expeditions: Peruvian Eduardo Nycander is passionate about biodiversity conservation, but believes that saving the rainforest must be profitable to be successful. His company is committed to sharing revenue with Ese’eja communities and eventually turning the business over to them. Eduardo is worried and angry about the surge in mining activities along the rivers. His tourists complain when they see mining deep in the forest. They paid to visit pristine Amazon forest! He has heard other ecotourism operators talk about paying for a police force to enforce the law and evict miners from Rio Malinowski. The police are reluctant to confront large groups of armed miners.

8. Conservation biologist from Conservation International, Washington, D.C. Emily Miller feels a desperate urgency to conserve tropical rainforests. She has traveled all over Latin America and has seen forest after forest cleared for agriculture and ranching. She is terribly frustrated that many parks in Latin America are not really protected. She knows that Tambopata is one of the last large blocks of intact forest on the planet and is an important refuge for biodiversity. She has successfully managed to raise $750,000 from U.S. agencies to support conservation activities in Peru. She channels this money to the Peruvian conservation organizations. She has pretty good working relationships in Peru, but it gets tense sometimes. She’d like to see the money go to more strict park protection, while her Peruvian colleagues are more open to compromising with local farmers.


9. Vicente Molino, Owner of Peruvian logging company – ‘Madera Grande’ [Big Wood]: The Tahuamanu area (east part of Tambopata) is rich in valuable hardwoods. A few years ago, INRENA (National Institute of Natural Resources) stopped Vicente’s company from logging this area allegedly because they were cutting illegally. Vicente suspects that INRENA actually wants to sell rights to these forests to Asian logging companies. Worse, Vicente suspects that INRENA has been confiscating timber from logging companies and selling it for profit. He once paid his employees to protest logging restrictions. They marched the streets, forced entry to INRENA property and torched the confiscated wood. Vicente believes logging is the best way to aid local development and it’s the right of local citizens to cut the forest. He’s angry loggers were excluded, but used his powerful connections to enter the roundtable.

10 Small‐scale logger: Ernesto Perez was granted a small concession to carry out logging in a forested area on his farm. He has to pay taxes to INRENA for the timber he extracts from the forest. This is not profitable, given high labor costs. He is thinking of working for Madera Grande, although he knows they are logging illegally and are opening illegal roads to extract high value mahogany trees. He wants to avoid any trouble with INRENA, because they could take away his concession. Although loggers were not invited to propose maps, Ernesto’s friends in FADEMAD invited him to join the roundtable.


11 Gold miner: Pedro Gomez is a gold miner in the riverbanks close to the Ese’eja [ay‐say‐ha] community of Shiringayoc. He and his partners won a mining concession in an auction at the government’s Mining Department, outbidding the Shiringayoc indigenous community. Now, Pedro is in trouble. The indigenous people want to kick him out of the area and are threatening violence. They argue that these are indigenous territories and they should be the only ones mining the riverbanks. Pedro is not surprised that he and other miners were not officially invited to make maps. After all, of the 30 mining concessions in TNR, only 2 are legal. However, he wants to fight for his rights as a miner. After all, mining is a enormous source of revenue for his country and it gives the poor a way to make a living, and maybe strike it rich!

12 Soybean producer Joao Belem is from Brazil. His father is CEO of a multinational company that buys and sells soybeans throughout Latin America. Joao hopes that with the completion of the Interoceanic Highway, he can promote soybean cultivation in Tambopata and make a fortune by trucking it to other countries and port cities. Soybean production is booming thanks to the high demand for chicken feed in cities in Latin America and Asia. He knows soybean production is blamed for severe environmental damage elsewhere, but Joao believes industrial agriculture is more productive than slash and burn farming and can be managed sustainably. He points out that soy production helped Brazil and Argentina achieve impressive economic growth and pay off international debt. He points out that the Peruvian government could tax soybeans and use the revenue to pay for protecting the park.


13 Mobil‐Exxon Executive Bill Gibson has a degree in geology and works for Mobil‐Exxon on exploration and extraction in remote areas throughout the world. He has always enjoyed camping trips in U.S. national parks. He is proud of his company's generous contributions to conservation organizations. Bill's primary goal is to find and extract oil efficiently with minimal environmental impact. He sees little conflict between oil drilling and forest conservation as long as farmers and loggers are prevented from using the new roads to enter oil concessions. He is convinced that oil drilling is ultimately less destructive than having 1000s of farmers clearing forest in the Reserve. Bill is quick to point out that international investment in Peru has increased due to the Government opening new areas to natural gas, oil extraction and gold. He also pledges that if Mobil‐Exxon were to directly damage biodiversity in the park, the company would pay for biodiversity to be conserved in some other place (see http://bbop.forest‐trends.org/).

14 Wisconsin Energy Corporation executive Molly Carter has a graduate degree in Natural Resources and works for WE (Wisconsin Energy http://www.we‐energies.com/) on environmental mitigation. She’s an avid birder and spends her vacations bird watching in the neotropics. She is eager to link efforts to slow global climate change with biodiversity conservation goals, and worked on pioneer projects where U.S. companies paid to save rainforest in Belize (Rio Bravo) and Bolivia (Noel Kempf Park) in order to store carbon and biodiversity. She is optimistic that the international initiative called “REDD” (Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation) will generate substantial funds to protect rainforest, and Tambopata would be the perfect site for such investments.


15 Biofuel scientist ‐ Colleen Janssen has a graduate degree in engineering and works for Netherlands Energy Corporation (NEC) in the Division of Alternative Energy Sources. The Government of Peru contacted her to study the socioeconomic and environmental risks and benefits related to biofuel crops production in Tambopata (soy, sugarcane and oilpalm). She asserts that planting oil palm on already degraded land would yield positive economic and environmental results. She points to Brazil’s enormous profits from biofuels. However, local conservationists fear that planting oil palm or other biofuels would displace smallscale farmers and simply shift deforestation elsewhere. Other opponents point out that oil palm plantations need to be large (>1,000 ha) to be profitable. Colleen still believes planting biofuels are an optimal choice for restoring degraded agricultural lands in the buffer zone the Interoceanic Highway.

assignment 4: tree debate, tambopata forest management · assignment 4: tree debate, tambopata...

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