Biodiversity – Hunger Series

“If we run our cars on bio-fuels produced in the tropics, chances will be good that we are effectively burning rainforests in our gas tanks.” Holly Gibbs

Biodiversity – the complete and complex web of life; trees, insects, birds, people, plants and how they relate to one another in an inter-dependent web that necessitates holistic mutuality.

Colombia is one of the top five countries in the world for biodiversity. It is first in birds and amphibians, second in vascular plants and third in mammals. Twenty five percent of the species that exist in the Colombian rainforest, exist only there, and are found nowhere else in the world.

Between 1995 and 2002 environmental spending in Colombia declined 81%. Deforestation is occurring at a rate of 1.5 – 2.2 million acres a year, at this rate Colombia will be completely deforested in about 40 years.

The Uribe administration is lobbying hard to be able to put a swath of the Pan- American highway right through the middle of the Choco region, the region that holds the majority of rainforest lands and is home to many of the communities in Colombia that farm and gather as a way of life. Coupled with this are large “agro-business” projects that want to deforest the region to plant crops for the burgeoning market of bio-fuels.

Bio-fuels are being marketed as a way to “save” the environment from the heavy burden created by fossil fuels. While in theory running cars on diverse fuel sources helps one side of the environmental equation (carbon emissions, finite sourcing etc.) it unbalances the other side of the equation (land use, mono-crops etc.) Alternative fuels require huge tracts of lands to grow the crops. The current trend is to create the land for those crops by razing the rural, undeveloped areas of countries that often include old growth forests, rain forests, wetlands etc. So as Holly Gibbs states above, in shifting toward bio-fuels we will essentially be burning endangered land in our gas tanks.

Along with the environment are the people who live in these areas. Sister Dorothy Stang, who was martyred in Brazil, worked with communities resisting the appropriation of their land. The control and take over of the land impacts in two directions. It is typically destructive to the environment and displaces the diverse communities that inhabit the region creating situations of hunger and poverty.

Food supply in the last century has doubled and yet over 12% of the world suffers from hunger. Hunger related deaths outnumber deaths from civil conflict five to one. Much of this increase in hunger is due to the displacement of farming communities from their land and the imposition of mono-crops aimed at export. Communities that previously may have farmed plantains, yucca, corn and coffee now only plant coffee that is exported and provides no food source for the very people who grow the crop.

Hunger and environmental destruction are intimately linked in Colombia. The majority of the land in Colombia that is targeted for bio-fuel production or the extension of the Pan-American high way is in the rainforest. This coastal region has been the home of Afro-Colombians, indigenous, and campesinos communities for decades. They lived by farming and were the caretakers of the incredible rainforest that they knew as home. Today this forest is disappearing along with their way of life and ability to feed their own families.

The conservation of land and the protection of the right of communities to have their land are two faces of the same coin. We can see the intimate relationship between protecting Earth rights and human rights and how each may contribute to the issue of hunger. Continue to journey with us as we learn about hunger!

Video
Experience the amazing diversity of wildlife from the nature reserves of Fundacion ProAves, situated across Colombia. Watch this video to experience firsthand why Colombia is so precious for the planets biodiversity.

Action
Write a letter to help keep biodiversity by preserving an endangered species or to protecting clean water or other actions. Make your voice heard!

Calculate your impact! To make responsible choice you need to know your impact. Every choice you make has an impact on the Earth. Use these tools to calculate your ecological footprint or your carbon emissions and then make daily changes based on the information!

Meditation
The Lord’s Prayer