Deforestation in the Amazon is on the rise. Guyana offers a brightly lit space | Natural Issues

This article was produced in collaboration with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.

Georgetown, Guyana – The only English-speaking country in South America has the best history in the world in the Amazon protection in the forest – and a surprise guard for farmers, teachers, and hunters who follow loggers and miners are among the reasons.

Sometime last year, a group of three people from the South Rupununi District Council (SRDC), an umbrella group Natural areas, he was traveling on a regular forest trip Guyana to border with Brazil.

He was impressed by a group of gold miners and threatened with weapons only, said Kid James, co-ordinator of the SRDC, the Wapichan Indigenous Council which oversees defense operations.

As members of the group fled the scene unscathed, James said the incident underscores the potential dangers posed by conservationists to protect the world’s largest forest. “Mining was near the west,” James told Al Jazeera.

After their members were threatened, the SRDC complained to the mining authorities in Guyana. He received a great answer. Guyana’s Minister of Environment visited the region later that year, James said, and pressure from civilians and residents of Guyana led to a decline in mining in the region for about eight months.

One of the advantages of guarding by groups like the SRDC is that they are more frequently found in remote areas of the forest than government officials, James said.

The SRDC works with 18 conservationists who know the rural areas and can monitor deforestation using cameras, GPS technology, drones and satanic phones. Frequently patrolled motorcycles, boats, and even pedestrians, and their findings are reported to police and other government officials.

“Wapichan District can boast of biodiversity, excellent forests, clean water and we want to ensure that this is protected,” said James. “We have a program that works, though it’s not good.”

As deforestation is rampant in the vast Amazon region, and is intensifying climate change and biodiversity loss, environmentalists say Guyana provides practical training in protecting the world’s largest tropical rain forest.

Top forest cover

About 82 percent of Guyana’s land is covered with tropical rain forest, says Liz Goldman of the World Resources Institute (WRI), based in Washington.

It is the highest rate in the world except Suriname and French Guiana, Al Jazeera reported, adding that some Amazon states account for 35 to 52 percent of the world’s population. the first forest.

Currently, prices occupy about 90 percent of Guyana’s province, Goldman said, and “the deforestation and deforestation in Guyana has been declining in recent years.”

A local driver stops to see a damaged road in the rainforest in 2017 before continuing to drive from Bamboo Creek, a small hut at the foot of the Pakaraima Mountains west of Guyana. [File: Rustom Seegopaul/Al Jazeera]

One of Guyana’s security actions comes as a result of population growth: the country has a small population and much of the interior of the Amazon is underdeveloped.

With a population of less than 800,000, Guyana has about four people living a mile, according to the World Bank, compared with 25 people per square mile in an area near Brazil where deforestation is rampant.

Known to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, deforestation and wildfires have transformed the Brazilian Amazon into a new source of carbon dioxide, according to a satellite-based study published in August from Monitoring of the Andes Amazon Project (MAAP ).

Brazil destroyed 13,235 square kilometers (5,110 square miles) of rain forest last year, an area larger than Lebanon, according to valid data published in November.

This has serious consequences for the global climate, according to environmentalists, although the rest of the Amazon region outside Brazil still carries carbon dioxide.

Another factor that helps protect security in Guyana comes from human trafficking, residents of the capital said. Although there are significant differences between races and ethnic groups, it seems that there is a strong consensus that the country is geared toward its natural beauty and that rain forests should be protected, especially by the loss of new oil costs.

“If we produce all the forest oil, it will not be good in 30 years,” said hotel manager Nicholas Blair. “That’s enough.”

These words are similar to those of Simeon Taylor, a security guard at headquarters. “Protecting our biodiversity is important,” he said, sipping soft drinks in nearby public areas over the weekend.

‘Strong affirmation’ of logs

With regard to deforestation, Guyana also has a “proven method” to ensure that trees from illegal logs are not exported or sold indoors, said Aiesha Williams, director of the local branch of the World Wildlife Fund.

“Tracking deforestation has been important,” Williams told Al Jazeera during an interview at the Georgetown conservation group’s office. “Deforestation is linked to gold mines.”

The Guyana government is doing a good job of ensuring that illegal logging does not enter the public domain, according to environmentalists. [Chris Arsenault/Al Jazeera]

Its team works with James and the SRDC, as well as other remote areas, providing technical assistance in forest protection, including satellite phones and GIS equipment used to track gold miners.

By a wide margin, miners from Brazil and neighboring countries, along with domestic explorers, have been replacing more than just Rupinuni recently, he said.

“Forest threats are on the rise and our efforts must be redefined,” Williams said.

Gold mining has devastated forests in southern Guyana [File: Rustom Seegopaul/Al Jazeera]

Guyana’s Forestry Commission, a state agency responsible for forest protection, did not respond to a series of inquiries.

Names of fields

One of the most effective ways to protect the forest is to legalize Enigenous land rights, according to scientists. And part of Guyana’s success in protecting rain forests is in line with local design, James said.

“Guyana has very strong laws to protect the rights of the region,” he said, although he wanted the process to be accelerated. Once the title is presented to the community it becomes complete, unlike other countries.

Forest rangers working with the South Rupununi district council oversee illegal logging in the Amazon rainforest [File: SRDC via Al Jazeera]

Indian-dominated rain forests have excellent results in conserving biodiversity, according to two major studies on rain forest conservation from Peru and Brazil published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

In Peru, within a two-year period after a site permit was granted to Indians, deforestation dropped by nearly two-thirds, and deforestation dropped by more than three-quarters. A 2017 survey has been found.

One of the reasons deforestation has taken place grew rapidly in Brazil in the last two years under the government of the right President Jair Bolsonaro and that the right to free land of their kind has not been respected, scientists have said.

Miners and loggers are being urged to relocate to nature reserves, which has led to the deforestation of South America’s largest forest in November.

Guyana Guyana is responsible for about 13 percent of the country’s territory, according to a UN Development Program report. Local communities are urging the government to expedite the naming of their ancestral forests, which cover large areas of rural Guyana.

“If traditional farms can be identified, having an absolute and permanent presence in the hands of the community can manage and control the areas – which can prevent risks such as mining and illegal logging in the area,” said James.