A study using technological tools available on the web determined that The lost tree cover area (trees with a minimum height of 5 meters) was 942,733 hectares (ha) in the period from 2001 to 2021That is, during the last two decades.
The surface is equal to the area of 574,837 professional soccer fields which is estimated to have 1.64 ha each. It is a sample of the magnitude of the felling of trees that still persists in Ecuador, affirms Cristian Barros, president of the Japu Foundation for Conservation and Research and author of this research.
The analysis within the country was made based on programming techniques with raw information based on satellite images and collected worldwide by the Hansen Global Forest Change group.
A greater loss of tree cover in the 2001-2021 period was recorded in 2012, 2017, 2007, 2009, 2013 and 2020, in that order, with area cut down per year ranging from 77,520 ha to 51,512 ha, according to Barros’s calculations. .
A dense red stain shows that the greatest loss of trees is concentrated in the center of Sucumbíos and in the west of Orellanaprovinces of the eastern region where there is intensive oil exploitation that leads to the opening of roads and migratory processes with the extension of urbanized areas.
Both are the two provinces in the country with the greatest loss of tree cover in the last two decades, followed by Esmeraldas, on the coast, and Morona Santiago.
The disappeared area with trees from 5 meters high totals 488,909 ha in these four provinceswhich represents 52% of the total lost throughout the country in the indicated period.
Barros indicates that these are precisely the provinces also affected by the advance of the agricultural frontier and extractive activities such as open-pit mining in the southern part of the eastern region of the country.
In the case of Esmeraldas, logging is concentrated in the primary forests in the north near the border with Colombia, but also along the coast and to the south on the borders with Manabí and Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas. The area is home to the only jungle plain with a high level of endemism that remains on the coast.
Julián Pérez, executive director of Japu, affirms that it is a sensitive issue, since there is a need for greater economic development given the increase in population, which requires a greater demand for products. “To reduce deforestation, you really have to consider how the base of Ecuador’s economy is structured. We have to change the extractivism paradigm and take stock and replace the current way of producing to cause less impact on nature”, he assures.
The increase in the number of inhabitants will in turn require an increase in the areas destined to produce food (crops and pastures), but in practice it should not necessarily happen in this way, adds the specialist.
“There are ways to do it better, such as the tactics used in developed countries with new technologies where instead of doing horizontal production, it is done vertically in abandoned buildings or on land that is no longer used and that was previously cut down, especially food. commodities that can be produced in much smaller areas.
The idea of cutting down all the native vegetation trees to replace the area with monocultures is outdated, he says. “We must think about new forms of agricultural production and focus on the variety with the cultivation of different species and try to keep them in a type of stratification, an agroforestry system, something combined with agricultural and forestry crops. These are more relevant to maintain ecosystem functionality, with this the rate of deforestation is reduced”, indicates Pérez.
The world market recognizes an added value to agricultural and forestry products that come from so-called sustainable plantations with a better price through international certifications. Ecuador exports bananas, cocoa, coffee, among others, under these characteristics, planted and produced even in protected areas.
The objective is to preserve as much as possible and change the way of producing on the soils that are already used for agricultural activity, mixing agricultural crops alternating them with forest patches, advises Pérez. “Think about developing ecosystems and leaving fully intensive agriculture.”
The use of seeds that generate a higher production per block or ha planted is also another option, but it is a sensitive situation, since in general, says Pérez, they are genetically modified organisms. Ecuador is free of these, according to the provisions of the 2008 Constitution.
“All agriculture from the beginning is based on genetic modification, crossing varieties to find a seed that is more efficient, the difference is that it is done randomly and not in a laboratory. Its use would be interesting, but with the respective care having a scientific certainty.
Urban growth also creates a greater demand for new areas to produce food. So nature must be included in the planning of cities, Pérez proposes. (YO)
Source: Eluniverso
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