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When Culture and Capital Clash: Why We Need Renewed Efforts

to Save the Rainforest This Time, From All of Us
By LAURA ELLIOTT
Published: April 12, 2016

Source: Bloomtrigger

I have been called the Earths lungs, its lifeblood.

I have stood for centuries, for millennia, eons.
But now, does mans progress mean my death?
I pondered over these ink-stained words as I lay under a mosquito net in a muggy cabin,
cast in the shadow of a lonely lightbulb, in the Talamanca region of Costa Rica, home to
the indigenous Bribri people. The family with which I was staying eked out their living
by selling eggs from the chickens that they kept in the yard, supplementing this with
money that they made by allowing tourists to stay with them. But beyond the small
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village and some of the crumbling houses of the neighbors lay the true livelihood of the
Bribri people: the forest.
The Bribri are, quite aptly, called the hidden people (OGrady). They live in one of the
most remote areas of the Costa Rican mountains, on reserve land, and have sustained
themselves through resources to which they have no formal rights. From the rainforest,
the Bribri obtain produce, medicines and wood to build their homes, and the sacred
cacao that the Bribri women make into a drink for use in religious rituals. For the
Bribri, the forest is intimately personal, even human: Bribri beliefs dictate that the
revered cacao tree was originally a woman that God, called Sibu, transformed.
However, the Bribri have seen their forest destroyed and its rivers polluted by oil and
gas explorations on their land in the 1960s, 1980s, and in 2000. Due to their status as
not owning the resources of the land, they face the constant threat of being subjected to
government-approved explorations (OGrady). Their home is where progress and
nature clash.
Unfortunately, this disturbing trend is not limited to the Bribri. Just this year, in late
January, the government of Ecuador signed a controversial contract with the Chinese oil
drilling company Andes Petroleum, allowing Andes to explore the area for four years
and drill for twenty in the previously untouched southern Amazon rainforest, the home
of the UNESCO-recognized Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity Spara
community, a tribe of less 575 remaining members. The Spara people, spearheaded by
the women of the community, have staged peaceful protests against the contract, saying
that they were not properly consulted about the deal, as Ecuadorian law stipulates.
According to leader Manari Ushigua, the terrain serves not just as a homeland, but as a
source of identity: our knowledge, our language, our history are spoken through these
elements we have in our territory, she said (Riofrio).
Although the problem of deforestation is a controversial one, it isnt isolated. It isnt just
a problem affecting the dwindling indigenous clans, or a cause of radical
environmentalists. The effects of the loss of the rainforest extend far beyond the borders
of Talamanca, and even of Latin America. Deforestation, although necessary in
moderation for the prosperity of nations, is a global cause that threatens to endanger
not only the earth itself, but also the economic, political, and social underpinnings of its
inhabitants. Continued harmful tactics make its pace ever accelerate and demand action
to save an invaluable world resource.

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Deforestation isnt anything new.

In fact, humans have shown an
innate desire to clear and claim
land since the earliest days of
recorded history. The exact
reasons for deforesting may vary in
specific situations: for example, in
the rainforest in modern times,
most deliberate deforestation
(which constitutes the majority of
all land loss as opposed to forest
fires and natural disasters) occurs
as a result of cattle farming, oil
exploration and mining, logging,
and new attempts at producing
improved infrastructure for tropical
countries (Deforestation). But all
of these activities share a common
thread: their intrinsic economic
value. As stated in an article in
British magazine The Economist,
deforestation in the early stages of
the development of a country is
first the realm of citizens seeking
out a meagre living. As that
country develops, however,
globalization acts as a catalyst in
speeding up the process,
increasing worldwide demand for
tropical products and agricultural goods (Faster), such as bananas, chocolate, gum,
and rubber (Why . . . Destroyed?). Coupled with the weak, sometimes corrupt, and
often severely indebted governments of rainforest nations (Aguiar et al), the eagerness
of foreign capitalists to invest in land speculation and export their cattle farms to where
land is cheap (Casey) , and the poverty of some rainforest migrants causing them to
sometimes resort to illegal cash cropping to support their families (Casey), careless
development of a countrys resources can result in the rapid destruction of hundreds of
acres of forest. Thus, the problem of deforestation takes on the complexity of being one
of economics and politics (Rainforests) in addition to its grounding in
environmental concerns.

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How does a country deal with the economic question of deforestation? Proponents of
deforestation argue that, throughout the whole of the human experience, the common
practice of developing the natural resources of a land and thereby improving the lives
of its people was hardly ever debated, and, that, despite the unquestionable value of
tropical rainforests as ecological entit[ies], Brazil and other developing nations should
be given the rights to develop them, as Europe and the United States were not
challenged in their use of significant portions of land for development (Rothbard and
Rucker). They cite the intrinsic economic value of the resources of the rainforests,
saying that mining of the gold, iron ore, and other precious minerals underneath the
rainforest soil generates revenue for struggling nations and creates jobs for citizens, as
does clearing of forests for the development of new infrastructure. Moreover, they
contend that a cease of logging, in particular, would result in shortages of wood and
paper products used daily by people around the world and thus would cause global
increases in the costs of these items (Deforestation). Critics go so far, even, as to say
that inaccurate methods of estimation of rainforest destruction cause environmentalists
to greatly exaggerate deforestation statistics (Rothbard and Rucker). But improved
satellite data show devastating amounts of deforestation, even if the exact amount of
loss can only be estimated: in the Amazon, specifically, nearly seventeen percent of the
rainforest has been cleared (Deforestation). Further, the aggressive development
that efforts to lift international quotas on deforestation could enable would likely
ultimately destroy those economic benefits for which the quotas were implemented:
scientists know that the land created from burnt rainforest is poor in quality and
nutrients and would surely spark more forest clearings to replace the exhausted land.
Thus, increased potential for deforestation seems to only ensure further harm to the
overall well-being of the planet as well as cause the destruction of plants and species
that could serve human needs in the future (Casey). For businesses, rainforest
governments, and citizens alike, it seems that minimal deforestation allows for keeping
forests profitable (Rainforests) without their complete destruction.
Along with its economic value, a decrease in deforestation and a minimalist treecutting policy also pose significant environmental benefits with worldwide impact.
Rainforests have been proven to contain an incredible amount of biodiversity, housing
over half of the earths animal species and at least two-thirds of its plant life, with more
species waiting to be discovered (Why . . . Important?). Rainforest clearing removes
these species homes, forcing them to relocate or risk dying, exposure to hunters, or
even extinction (Deforestation). The extinction of animal and plant species, however,
hurts more than just the species now lost forever. The more than twenty five percent of
our modern medicines derived from tropical forest plants, including leukemia medicines
from the Madagascan rosy periwinkle and anti-malarial quinine from the bark of
Andean cinchona tree, risk extinction as well (Why . . . Important?). Basic science tells
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us that the rainforest exists in a fragile balance. With the disappearance of one species
comes a threat to the stability of the whole ecosystem (Casey) an ecosystem with
humans in its reach. Will future generations never experience the beauty of an orchid,
never taste the sweetness of a banana, and only know the monkeys home as a zoo? Will
reckless pursuit of riches deprive the human race of valuable medicines known now and
rip away its chance of advancement with new ones?

Many environmentally-important animals, such as the beloved red-eyed tree frog and howler monkey, face a real threat of
extinction.

But perhaps the most

visible negative effect of a
potential acceleration of
deforestation appears in
its ability to wreak havoc
on more than just the
immediate surrounding
forest. Rainforests,
acting as sponges, play
a vital role in the earths
water cycle. Soaking up
water from the forest
floor, these trees
recycle the collected
water through
transpiration, when they
release water vapor into
the atmosphere into
swirling mists and

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clouds (Why . . . Important?). The rate of decrease in transpiration, increasing

proportionally with heightened deforestation totals, results in decreased rainfall and
drought-like conditions (Casey), which experts warn could have parallels in areas as far
north as Texas if the Amazon were destroyed (Faster).
On a broader scale, however, deforestation accounts for eighteen to twenty-five percent
of the worlds global annual carbon dioxide emissions (Why . . . Important?) more
than those of all the worlds transport, combined (Rainforests) and remains the
second major driver of climate change (Why . . . Important?). Rainforest trees,
serving as the green lungs of the planet, absorb large amounts of the harmful
greenhouse gas carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and give off valuable oxygen, thus
serving to combat the Greenhouse Effect (Rainforests). But with the burning of these
valuable carbon sinks, rainforests now stand at risk to become net carbon dioxide
emitters, compromising a carbon bomb in which the heat-trapping gas triggers a
warmer and dryer atmosphere, which results in the emission of more carbon locked in
permafrost or glaciers. This in turn accelerates the pace of climate change, a main
source of the monstrous storms, rising temperatures, and depletion of resources
happening today (Struck). But all of this could be halted, or at least slowed, with a
development plan more cognizant of the natural world.

Now is a crucial time in the future of the rainforest. Although deforestation rates have
slowed considerably from peaks in the early 2000s, all of the rainforests in the world
could vanish in as little as a hundred years due to current practices, and the thousands
of new trees replanted each year cannot alone replace those cut down (Deforestation).
Moreover, even with continuation of the current situation of [comparatively] low
deforestation rates and short life cycle of the secondary vegetation replacing lost trees,
studies show that the rainforest would remain a source, rather than a sink, of carbon in
this situation (Aguiar et al).
The deforestation of the rainforest has instead turned into a rich-poor question, a
battle between the struggling impoverished who turn to the virgin forest for their
livelihoods and the patrons of the more developed world, to whom the environmental
and cultural implications of rainforest loss can supersede those of economics
(Rainforests). As such, the developed world holds a special place in the battle for
conservation: it has the resources and sufficiently mobilized citizen base to enact
change. Its scientists have studied firsthand the risks posed to the planet, its species, its
populations, and its medicines. Its people hold an interest in the forest goods that
sustain them and the economic implications that posses the ability to alter the fate of
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global interactions. Now is not the time for complete abandonment of the forest its
ability to serve both its home nations and foreign countries cannot be ignored. Now, at
the height of globalization, is a time for responsible development. Its a time for end to
importation of illegal timber (Rainforests), for invested roles in maintaining interest
in those countries with rainforests, and for conscious individual and corporate choices
to consume or purchase only sustainably-made materials. Its a time to make sure that
the smoke from burning forests is no longer seen from space (Faster). Human
progress does not have to occur at the expense of one of the worlds most beautiful and
bountiful treasures. Instead, it can occur in harmony with nature but only with effort
from all of us.
_________________

Deep in the Talamancan indigenous reserve, amid the thundering rain drops true to the
Costa Rican rainy seasons reputation, a young Bribri boy once thanked an American for
offering him a ride home in one of the only vans in the community: thank you for
letting me breathe.
Isnt it time that we let the earth breathe?

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