Migration and forests in the Peruvian Amazon: a review

This paper reviews the literature on the links between migration and forests in the Peruvian Amazon. It highlights not only the complexity of the migrant–forest interface in Peru but also the relative lack of research on these dynamics. Historically, official narratives point to migrants as both the culprits of, and solutions to, the Amazon’s problems. At times, the government has promoted colonization of the Amazon as a means to integrate the region into the country as well as to encourage agricultural expansion and alleviate pressure on limited land in the Andes. In other periods, migrants are blamed for deforestation and environmental degradation in the region. These discourses oversimplify the complexity of the reality facing migrants to the Amazon and the factors that ‘push’ them away from their birthplaces and/or ‘pull’ them to the Amazon. They also treat migrants as a homogenous group, underestimating: the role of migration within the Amazon, the cyclical nature of migration, processes of urbanization and multi-site households, and the diversity of livelihoods migrants pursue upon arrival. A more detailed understanding of migrants, migration and the related conditions and processes driving human mobility in the Amazon should provide a more effective foundation for defining public policy in the region, for example, for the identification of strategies to mitigate the impacts of road construction or to support sustainable models of production in areas occupied by smallholder farm families. This review is intended as a step toward a fuller understanding of these processes by compiling existing information as a point of departure

Rethinking fuelwood: people, policy and the anatomy of a charcoal supply chain in a decentralizing Peru

In Peru, as in many developing countries, charcoal is an important source of fuel. We examine the commercial charcoal commodity chain from its production in Ucayali, in the Peruvian Amazon, to its sale in the national market. Using a mixed-methods approach, we look at the actors involved in the commodity chain and their relationships, including the distribution of benefits along the chain. We outline the obstacles and opportunities for a more equitable charcoal supply chain within a multi-level governance context. The results show that charcoal provides an important livelihood for most of the actors along the supply chain, including rural poor and women. We find that the decentralisation process in Peru has implications for the formalisation of charcoal supply chains, a traditionally informal, particularly related to multi-level institutional obstacles to equitable commerce. This results in inequity in the supply chain, which persecutes the poorest participants and supports the most powerful actors

BINGO complicity, necropolitical ecology and environmental defenders

Several big international non-governmental organisations (BINGOs) have been instrumental in increasing the attention brought to the lived experiences of environmental and land defenders and the atmospheres of violence they face. Among the many BINGOs who frame themselves as ‘supporters’ or ‘protectors’ of environmental and land defenders, several have been complicit in violence perpetrated by park guards and resource extraction companies. In this paper, we unpack the multifaceted nature of the role BINGOs play in shaping the atmospheres of violence with which environmental defenders contend. While BINGOs have acted as whistle-blowers and advocates providing legal assistance to at-risk defenders, they have also been complicit in ‘green violence’ perpetrated in the name of conservation, and more subtle relationships of ‘partnership’ with industries and specific corporations engaged in neo-colonial forms of extraction and violence against defenders. BINGO complicity with the violence against defenders replays the historical entanglement of some organisations with displacement and violence enacted in the name of colonial era conservation. We argue that BINGOs can, and must, work towards more radical forms of decolonial solidarity with environmental and land defenders who contend with atmospheres of violence shaped, in many cases, by conservation efforts and resource extraction activities with which BINGOs may be complicit, either directly, or through various forms of ‘partnership’

Environmental justice and the SDGs: from synergies to gaps and contradictions

Through their synergies, trade-offs, and contradictions, the sustainable development goals (SDGs) have the potential to lead to environmental justices and injustices. Yet, environmental justice (EJ), and social justice more broadly, are not currently embedded within the language and spirit of the SDGs. We part from the premise that “many ‘environmental’ problems are, by their very nature, problems of justice” (Lele, Wiley Interdiscip Rev Water 4:e1224, 2017). We review progress in EJ frameworks in recent years, arguing for the need to move beyond a focus on the four principles of mainstream EJ (distribution, procedure, recognition, and capabilities) towards a more intersectional decolonial approach to environmental justice that recognises the indispensability of both humans and non-humans. EJ frameworks, and the SDGs should recognise power dynamics, complex interactions among injustices, and listens to the different ‘senses of justice’ and desires of theorists, activists, and other stakeholder from the Global South. We analyze how EJ frameworks are, or fail to be, incorporated in the SDGs with a focus on the food–water–health nexus (SDG2, 3, 6); climate-energy (SDG7, 13), conservation (SDG14, 15); and poverty and inequality (SDG1, 10). We call attention to the ‘elephant in the room’—the failure to go beyond GDP but instead include economic growth as a goal (SDG8). We argue that sustainable degrowth and intersectional decolonial environmental justices would create better conditions for the transformative changes needed to reach the broader aim of the SDGs: to leave no one behind

Molecular epidemiology of sexually transmitted human papillomavirus in a self referred group of women in Ireland

Background: Human papillomavirus (HPV) causes cervical cancer and external genital warts. The purpose of this study is to document the genotype distribution of HPV in females aged between 18 and 34 who self-referred to an STI clinic with visible external genital warts (EGW). Scrapings were taken from visible external genital warts (EGW). These scrapings were analysed by PCR for the presence of HPV DNA. Positive samples were then genotyped by means of a commercially available assay (LiPA). A comparison of genotyping results determined by the LiPA assay and direct amplicon DNA sequencing was also performed. Results: Ninety-two patients out of 105 samples (88%) had detectable levels of HPV DNA. The majority of individuals with EGW (66%) showed the presence of two or more genotypes. The most common HPV genotypes present in the study population were HPV-6, HPV-11, HPV-16, HPV-18, HPV-33 and HPV-53. Potential effects of vaccination on HPV molecular epidemiology indicate that 40% of the patients could have been protected from the high risk genotypes HPV-16 and HPV-18.Conclusion: This is the first report of the molecular epidemiology of external genital warts in women aged between 18 and 34 from Ireland based on results from a LiPA assay. The study shows that most individuals are infected with multiple genotypes including those with high oncogenic potential and that the newly available HPV vaccines could have a significant impact on prevalence of the most common HPV genotypes in this study population

Epistemological Justice: Decoloniality, Climate Change, and Ecological Conditions for Future Generations

In this article, we reflect on the work of contemporary Brazilian indigenous artists and philosophers who have developed an Amerindian critique of the Anthropocene and the climate emergency. Based on research co-produced by the Another Sky research project, poetry, performance, and orality are discussed as routes of an emergent epistemological turn in the face of the inevitable challenges that lie ahead. Through indigenous thought expressed in aesthetic manifestations, we discuss critical analysis of the current situation, as well as imaginaries of future social and ecological conditions needed for climate justice, epistemiological justice, and protection of life in the broadest sense.IDS Strategic Research Initiative on Climate and Environmental Justic

Climate change mitigation in forests: Conflict, peacebuilding, and lessons for climate security - Position Paper

Climate change mitigation in forests: Conflict, peacebuilding, and lessons for climate security III There is growing awareness of the link between climate change and security. Most of the climate security debate has focused on the ways that climate change exacerbates geopolitical and state security matters through ‘threat multipliers’, especially in terms of intra-state, inter-group and sub-national conflicts. At the same time, 64 per cent of climate finance was allocated to mitigation and 25 per cent to adaptation between 2013 and 2019 (OECD 2020; OECD 2021). Despite this, the dynamics between climate change mitigation and security remains a less-explored topic. As climate security attracts increasing attention in research and policy, our entry point into reviewing the links between climate change mitigation and security is rooted in studies of conflict and peace in environmental governance. Because forests are a global focus of climate change mitigation, we focus our review on initiatives that directly affect, or are implemented in, forest areas in low- and middle-income countries. Forests have complex governance contexts and are prone to conflict due to histories of colonization and ongoing resource extraction that lead to disputes over who has authority to make decisions, how different actors are compensated, and whose priorities and claims dictate actions in forest areas. CCMIs related to forests are often inserted into these long-standing conflicts. Many of these tensions over rights and resources are located in fragile states and some in armed conflict and post-conflict contexts. Conflict and weak institutional governance are often associated with deforestation but have also been shown to protect forest resources when insurgent forces are compelled to do so

Climate change mitigation in forests: Conflict, peacebuilding, and lessons for climate security

Forests in low and middle-income countries are at the centre of climate change mitigation efforts. But these forests are also areas of high levels of insecurity and are found in fragile states with weak governance, especially over forestlands. Nations affected by conflict hold 40 per cent of the world’s tropical forests (Donovan et al. 2007). No fewer than 25 of 64 countries with REDD+ initiatives are experiencing or emerging from armed conflict (Castro-Nuñez et al. 2017; UN-REDD 2017). The debate about ‘climate security’ has focussed on the way climate change can exacerbate threats and dangers, but less attention has been placed on the security issues associated with the responses to climate change such as mitigation. Climate change mitigation initiatives can have a significant impact on peace, conflict and security by reinforcing existing inequalities or influencing new forms of forest governance and relations among forest actors. When CCMis contribute to peacebuilding through improved land tenure security for marginalized and Indigenous peoples, enhanced livelihoods opportunities, equitable benefit distribution, and fair processes for governance and conflict resolution, CCMIs can play a constructive force in stabilising security contexts. However, when these dynamics are lacking, they can destabilise forest areas and lead to escalated conflict and insecurity

Oil Extraction and Local Social Development in Ecuadorian Amazon

Large oil reserves were discovered in northern Ecuadorian Amazon region in 1967. In 1972 the country became an oil exporter, and ever since crude petroleum has been the backbone of the national economy. According to different studies, the national effects of oil extractivism have been detrimental for socially inclusive and sustainable development. Economic growth has been unstable and low, achieved economic diversification is minimal, poverty still affects to about a third of the population, underemployment accounts for about half of the labor force, and the environmental effects of oil extraction (deforestation, pollution, biodiversity loss, oil spills) have been severe. Most of the research about oil and development in Ecuador has been done from national or internationally comparative perspectives, and some studies were focused on local social conflict in extractive areas. This article complements former research, by focusing on local social effects of oil extraction, using census data and other geographical sources with a high level of spatial resolution. An initial analysis was based on the 1990, 2001 and 2010 population censuses as the main social information source. A social development index (SDI) was elaborated, using principal components analysis, from 19 social indicators on education, health, housing and gender differences, broken down by parishes, the smallest administrative division in Ecuador. The Amazon consistently has been the most socially deprived region in Ecuador, both in the urban and rural areas. Moreover, differentiating between oil extracting zones and the rest of the Amazon, the social index remains lower in the oil extraction region, both in urban and rural areas. The most critical social indicators regard child mortality and access to health services, while differences in education are less severe. A deeper analysis was done on explanatory factors leading to social distribution, breaking down the SDI at the census track level, and performing a spatial autoregressive multiple regression model with the SDI as the dependent variable, and selecting as independent variables oil extraction proximity, soil fertility, access to markets, proportion of deforested areas, a dummy for rural tracks, and 3 indicators of employment structure (proportions of agriculture, wage earners, and tourism in the labor force). All independent variables reached statistically significant coefficients. The oil proximity indicator had a negative effect on social wellbeing, and deforestation, included in quadratic form, presents an initial small positive effect on social conditions, which vanishes as deforestation increases over 65% of the area. All the remaining regression coefficients had the expected signs. The main regression findings are: a. After controlling for all relevant variables with available information, oil has a net negative effect on the local social development index. b. The social improvement linked to deforestation, other things being equal, is small, subject to decreasing returns, and disappear in advanced stages of the process. c. Economic diversification towards tourism has a high social redistribution effect. As remaining oil reserves in Ecuador are low, and the environmental impact of deforestation is severe, a strategy towards alternative development paths in Ecuador’s Amazon is a priority