Peru

Date: 4 March 2017

Time: 3:00pm

Temperature: 30°F

 I sit beside my tree again today. My tree, much like the other around our yard, have started to bud. The trees in my mother’s garden (I think she said they were part-violet), are close to blooming. Beginnings of tulips and daffodils and crocuses have popped from the frozen dirt. I think about spring, about summer, about last summer. I think about Peru.

Last May, I visited Peru with a dozen or so other Chatham students. My absolute favorite part of the trip was the Amazon Rain Forest. It was nothing like I expected it to be. I pictured all those scary advertisements of deforestation and pollution. I saw only a tiny bit of the latter. Then again, we were in a very secluded part of the forest that was a national reserve (the Area de Conservacion Regional Comunal de Tamshiyacu-Tahuayo).

There are more species of flora and fauna found in this area of the Amazon Rain Forest than any other natural area on the planet. New species of plants and animals are being discovered and investigated every year. Land spanning only 6.7 million square kilometers, about twice the size of India, is relatively small in comparison to the rest of the world. However, this land contains more than ten percent of the world’s known biodiversity. From 1999 to 2009, more than 1200 species of flora and fauna were discovered. These discoveries include: 637 plants, 257 fish, 216 amphibians, 55 reptiles, 16 birds, and 39 mammals. Some people refer to the Amazon Rainforest as a “green paradise,” and it is not hard to see why. The trees are thick and abundant with leaves. It is a different kind of green than the flora we have in Pennsylvania; it is darker, thicker, and more ominous—more beautiful.

Amazonia Expeditions’ Research Center contains a trail that extends about 52 miles—1000 acres—behind research center that researchers and interested tourists hike to survey primates and other fauna. ACRCTT has about sixteen species of primates. In the past, the center recorded 95 squirrel monkeys, 170 tamarins (2 species), 90 titi monkeys (2 species), 25 brown capuchins, 15 white-fronted capuchins, 25 pygmy marmosets, 25 night monkeys (2 species), and 35 saki monkeys (2 species). Researchers also spotted coati, tamandua, giant anteater, tapir, peccary (2 species), deer (2 species), ocelot, jaguar, paca, agouti, armadillo, pygmy tree squirrel, Amazon tree squirrel, opossum (many species), rat (many species), sloth (2 species), kinkajou, tayra, bat (about 70 species), and so much more.

I could go on and on for ages about Peru, about the Amazon Rain Forest, About the Tahuayo River Lodge. I could talk about the plants, the animals. I could talk about the exploring, the memories. With what little space I have left, I want to go back to deforestation and pollution. Just because I did no see the deforestation and pollution, doesn’t mean it’s not there.

We are constantly reminded on social media, in primetime news specials, or at your local zoo that man is destroying the natural rain forests. Some people look the other way, but it is hard not to stare at the charts and time-lapse photographs. More than seventeen percent of the rainforest has been lost. Most of the trees cut down are used for firewood by local cities and villages—not necessarily for paper. We are misinformed about exactly how we are destroying the forests; however, they are still being destroyed. We need to be informed about how exactly we are effecting the natural environment to rightfully stall and stop the destruction for good. As the ones causing this environmental and biological devastation, we are responsible for preserving this sacred and abundant environment.

However, the people who live in and use the Amazon Rainforest, as I experienced it, are very aware of the jungle’s importance and fragility. The people who live in El Chino Village used only what they needed from the environment. Moreover, what they did have to take from the natural world, they used as much from that animal and/or plant that they could. For example, when villagers fish for piranha, the people eat all that they can from the body—including the brain—and then sell the teeth at the market to tourists. When we hiked into the forest one day on a guided excursion, we made sure to stay on the trails, as so not damage more than necessary. One of our guides, Javier, pointed out small plastic containers tied to trees. They are to imitate different epiphyte plants where poison dart frogs lay their eggs. This is to try to assist these amphibians in repopulating the species, because this species, like many in the rain forest, are experiencing habitat and population decline from logging and farming. Our guides, natives of the area, are attempting to seek sustainability in how they live and work in the Amazon Rainforest.

As I learned during my time in Peru, the people of the Amazon Rainforest as are dedicated—if not more—as we are in North America to preserving the natural wonders that life and breed there. I only saw litter on one of the excursions; besides that the rainforest was incredibly clean, except for certain areas close to the city of Iquitos. This is most likely because of all the recycling opportunities throughout the different cities in Peru. No matter where I went, I was able to recycle the plastic water bottles I bought to stay hydrated. In several restaurants we visited, as well as in the Amazonia Expedition jungle lodges, there were glass bottles instead of plastic bottles for soda and beer; these bottles were kept and refilled in the city, reducing what waste was produced and keeping these bottles out of the landfills.

Every time I go to the Pittsburg Zoo and PPG Aquarium, I stop at the end of the monkey house to watch the number of destroyed rain forest acreage rise. The ticker is one of those old-time looking counters. However, it does not act old; it moves quite fast. There is more to this exhibit than just the counter. From the front side of the exhibit, one would see a beautiful, thick forest filled with trees as green as imaginable. As one moves to the far right of the exhibit, one would see a very apparent lack of green. The trees, or what is left of them, are dead logs; much of the portrait is dirt and bulldozers cutting down trees. The exhibit, though often ignored by zoo-goers excited to see gorillas, shows how the world’s rainforests are being destroyed. It is a powerful visual aid for everyone who passes by; even the young children who visit the zoo can begin to understand what is happening to our jungles. Although the entire exhibit is out of date in many ways, it shows the reality that our generation is saddled with and needs to take steps into fixing.