Challenge
Over the last 35 years, deforestation due to logging, agriculture and population growth have resulted in the loss of over two-thirds of this region’s original forest cover. Today, much of the original forest has been converted to use for commercial agriculture or pasture dominated by invasive African grasses and commercial agriculture. Many fields have also been abandoned, leaving only highly degraded and stunted secondary vegetation. The threat of losing so many species found nowhere else in the world has grown to the point that Ecuador’s Ministry of Environment recently highlighted this region as one of the top five conservation priorities in the nation.
Response
In an effort to protect the region’s biodiversity, support local communities and combat global warming, Conservation International’s (CI) Conservation Carbon program is engaging the private sector to support reforestation projects in the coastal plain and western foothills of northwestern Ecuador which will mitigate climate change, protect biodiversity, and support local communities....
The Challenge is compounded by what may be expanding militias among the countries promoting Rainforest Biome Revitalization. The countries of South America need to reassess the importance of these regions of their country and protect them from degradation by militias. Reputations can be enhanced of all these countries if there are higher reaching values in conservation at a time when Earth's worst enemy pollutes more carbon than any other.
The countries of South America now forming economic ties need to educate their citizens in regard to conservation and the protections of such areas to promote more peace, national security and national pride.
