Comments on: Peru: It’s A Jungle Out There http://www.ruthgroup.org/2009/07/24/its-a-jungle-out-there/ Reclaiming American Democracy Tue, 31 Jan 2012 22:52:08 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Taxie http://www.ruthgroup.org/2009/07/24/its-a-jungle-out-there/comment-page-1/#comment-62748 Taxie Thu, 07 Jan 2010 04:16:10 +0000 http://www.ruthgroup.org/?p=22603#comment-62748 thanks for the tips thanks for the tips

]]> By: Ruth Downing http://www.ruthgroup.org/2009/07/24/its-a-jungle-out-there/comment-page-1/#comment-62546 Ruth Downing Mon, 10 Aug 2009 03:56:36 +0000 http://www.ruthgroup.org/?p=22603#comment-62546 Wow -- your trip sounds fantastic, and your vivid descriptions are fantastic. It reminds me of Romulo Gallegos descriptions in his book CANAIMA. Incidently,I have loved the CANAIMA book..After finishing the first go-round I have put it aside and will read it agin this year. Thank you for that gift. I look forward to more of your adventures. Cheers. Ruth Wow — your trip sounds fantastic, and your vivid descriptions are fantastic. It reminds me of Romulo Gallegos descriptions in his book CANAIMA. Incidently,I have loved the CANAIMA book..After finishing the first go-round I have put it aside and will read it agin this year. Thank you for that gift. I look forward to more of your adventures. Cheers. Ruth

]]> By: Will Kirkland http://www.ruthgroup.org/2009/07/24/its-a-jungle-out-there/comment-page-1/#comment-62506 Will Kirkland Wed, 29 Jul 2009 16:09:30 +0000 http://www.ruthgroup.org/?p=22603#comment-62506 Our native guide in the Maldonado area spoke casually about the slash and burn agricultural practice in the area, as something quite normal, indeed, part of their long tradition. Now, the Ese'Eja people were something like 10% of the Puerto Maldonado population so it seems a wrong direction to take alarm at such practices. What is of far more concern are the contracts made between the current Garcia government and international corporations for oil and gas exploration, necessitating significant deforestation and other forest-tribal endangering practices, as well as contracts for hardwoods and other rare species. We've all read of some of the protests and deaths because of the contracts, and actual corporate presence in the early weeks of July. It's unlikely they will be stopping, particularly with the disarray and lack of coherent response in the Garcia cabinet. Besides the work stoppage of the transportation workers which we witnessed and I wrote briefly about, we didn't see other activity. A good place to stay caught up with what is going on, writ large is at the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, here http://www.coha.org/. They have sections devoted to each Latin American country, with Peru being here. http://www.coha.org/category/peru/ By the way, this is an interesting article on the rise of the Inca empire in part due to climate change and increasingly favorable agricultural/economic conditions. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/climatechange/5916353/Climate-change-helped-the-Incas-build-civilisation.html Our native guide in the Maldonado area spoke casually about the slash and burn agricultural practice in the area, as something quite normal, indeed, part of their long tradition. Now, the Ese’Eja people were something like 10% of the Puerto Maldonado population so it seems a wrong direction to take alarm at such practices.

What is of far more concern are the contracts made between the current Garcia government and international corporations for oil and gas exploration, necessitating significant deforestation and other forest-tribal endangering practices, as well as contracts for hardwoods and other rare species. We’ve all read of some of the protests and deaths because of the contracts, and actual corporate presence in the early weeks of July. It’s unlikely they will be stopping, particularly with the disarray and lack of coherent response in the Garcia cabinet.

Besides the work stoppage of the transportation workers which we witnessed and I wrote briefly about, we didn’t see other activity.

A good place to stay caught up with what is going on, writ large is at the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, here http://www.coha.org/. They have sections devoted to each Latin American country, with Peru being here. http://www.coha.org/category/peru/

By the way, this is an interesting article on the rise of the Inca empire in part due to climate change and increasingly favorable agricultural/economic conditions. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/climatechange/5916353/Climate-change-helped-the-Incas-build-civilisation.html

]]> By: Bob Meyer http://www.ruthgroup.org/2009/07/24/its-a-jungle-out-there/comment-page-1/#comment-62499 Bob Meyer Sun, 26 Jul 2009 18:17:03 +0000 http://www.ruthgroup.org/?p=22603#comment-62499 We put this report at the top of our Sunday morning reading list--ahead of Frank Rich, even!--and we're glad we did. What an extraordinary adventure. One question: did you get any sense of whether the efforts to halt deforestation in Peru (including appeals for help from Western governments) are gaining any traction? Bob & Kristine We put this report at the top of our Sunday morning reading list–ahead of Frank Rich, even!–and we’re glad we did. What an extraordinary adventure.

One question: did you get any sense of whether the efforts to halt deforestation in Peru (including appeals for help from Western governments) are gaining any traction?

Bob & Kristine

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