Ecotrackers' recommendations for the reforestation of forests in Ecuador
Background.
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During the 70s with the boom or economic cattle fever, after the banana fever, which was followed in the 80s with the arrival of the BOOM of shrimp fever, followed by the BOOM or WOOD fever, the BOOM of AFRICAN PALM FEVER, and with global warming of the Andean summits, the fever of grazing lands in the páramo, have reduced the Andean summits, the main biomass that captures atmospheric water from mountain clouds.
During the beef cattle boom, on the coast, and in the Amazon, what was important was a land occupation with livestock production that required few workers, unlike banana plantations, which had many, but after the end of the banana boom in the 1960s, due to the departure of the United Fruit Company, which had plantations of hundreds of hectares, especially in Esmeraldas, and the Standard Fruit Company, which bought bananas from producers in the provinces of Guayas, El Oro and Los Ríos, where the main banana exporters were born, such as Luis Noboa Naranjo, when the North American companies left, because an agrarian reform arrived in 1968, they recovered the plantations and production in Central America, destroyed by climatic catastrophes, and a great social upheaval, after the World War II, leaving Ecuador saved them from paying for the expensive Panama Canal, for the transit of their banana boats.
During the oil boom, which began in the 1970s, the governments on duty changed the country's roads with the construction of large paved highways, especially on the coast and the Sierra Centro Norte, this, plus a new agrarian reform , to colonize the Amazon, with the US support of the Peace Corps, since oil came from the Amazon, immediately resulted in deforestation in cantons such as Santo Domingo, today the Province of Santo Domingo, in the Qunindé canton, in the province of Esmeraldas, where the oil pipeline and the new paved road to the Refinery and the Oil Port went, or in the Amazon provinces, where deforested lands were converted into 50-hectare cattle farms, for which cattle were brought from India, such as Brahaman and the Zebu, including Siboney from Cuba, or patent leather from the United States, which gave rise to the production of meat, and from the crossing of these cattle with brown swiss, or Holstein cattle, allowed the new farms, be producers of milk and meat at the same time.
Unlike cattle raising on the coast, which was done on large surfaces, to such an extent that until now, a cow or a bull occupied one hectare per head, in the Amazon, especially in places with mountains such as the province Morona Santiago, which has the Tercera Cordillera and the Cordillera del Cutucú, where there is less heat, allowed the settlers more than the indigenous, the possibility of occupying the 50-hectare plots that the government gave them through the Reform Agria from the 70s, through institutions such as the Austro Rehabilitation Center, which created towns such as Pablo VI, Huamboya, Don Bosco, Taisha, or San José de Morona.
Due to the little space available to the settlers in the Amazon, unlike the huge farms on the coast, the settlers did and still do grazing cattle, as the indigenous people of the Sierra do, on their huasipungos, or parcels, this it is, that the animal rotates from one place to another, where it can only eat the grass that is within the length of the ropes that hold it by the leg or neck.
But just like grazing in the cloud forest, where also ranchers deforest the cloud forest jungle on the slopes of the Andes Mountains. In the western cordillera especially, the cattle roam the pastures that are very steep and with their hooves erode or tear the soil, which with the copious rains, are degraded, and dragged by the rivers to the sea, which is about 200 km away. .
Intensive grazing in the Amazon, with cattle tied to stakes, ensures that cattle are not easy prey for boas, poisonous snakes, electric eels in puddles, vampires, which transmit bovine rabies, cats, spiders, toads, or insects. very dangerous, and even toxic plants, this produces less erosive soil degradation than on the coast or the cloud forest, but as it is preceded by deforestation and the Amazonian trees are the only source of humus, of black earth, which is a much thinner layer than the black soil layer of the Sierra or the Cloud Forest, so erosion is faster.
In addition, the soil of the Amazon is a salty soil, under the black earth, since it was semi-occupied by the Atlantic Ocean, before the movement of the tectonic plates changed the direction of the Amazon rivers, with the rise of the Andes, that changed the direction of the rivers from west to east, when before it was the other way around.
In the 80s there was shrimp fever, Ecuador became the world's largest producer of this crustacean, but for that, it destroyed more than 300,000 hectares of mangroves, which had disastrous effects on the coastline, since the fertile land it could no longer be retained at the mouth of the rivers or estuaries, this affected the biodiversity of the mangrove swamp, fishing on the coastal edge, which was reduced, drastically decreased marine life on the beaches, due to fishing with micrometric nets to capture shrimp larvae, but which trapped all small animals close to the beach, this complicated with the disappearance of marine microflora, due to the use of antibiotics in shrimp farms, to combat shrimp pests. For this reason, in the 1990s, the plague of the white spot arrived, which, in addition to bankrupting the shrimp farms, bankrupted the banks, which had lent to shrimp producers, so they earned more than drug traffickers, which produced the Holiday Banking, the end of the sucre, the adoption of the dollar as currency and the worst economic crisis, which produced the largest wave of Ecuadorian emigrants in history, due to the massive bankruptcy of the population, due to the great bank fraud that stole their savings, paralyzing the economy.
After the end of the Shrimp Fever, timber became the next economic boom, devastating Esmeraldas and the Amazon provinces, especially Sucumbios. Ecuador also began to export wood chips, especially equator, which came mainly from forests in the Andes. Japanese companies planted tropical Eucalyptus in Esmeraldas since they were the main buyers of wood chips, which had a terrible ecological impact since it is a predatory tree of other plant species. Large road construction companies such as Hidalgo Hidalgo began planting teak, an Indian tree, and African palm. These trees, plus the deforestation of Esmeraldas, turned the coastline of this province into an extension of the parched coasts of Manabí, or the Santa Elena Peninsula, which makes us think that an extension of desert off the Peruvian coast is invading Ecuador.
Meanwhile, in cantons such as Quinindé and San Lorenzo, as well as in the Province of Sucumbíos, they became huge plantations of African palm, which came to devastate the tropical forests of the Amazon, Esmeraldas, Santo Domingo, Orellana, Sucumbíos, and Napo. Meanwhile, both the indigenous and retired military, the sawmills, the logging companies, especially from Quito, razed the forests of the provinces of Napo and Sucumbíos or Esmeraldas, to have farms, cattle ranches or African palm plantations.
THE FUNDAMENTAL PROBLEM OF REFORESTATION AND FOREST CONSERVATION
The government of Rafael Correa, implemented since 2008, the so-called Forest Plan, which paid indigenous communities and people who own forests to conserve trees. This plus a policy of zero tolerance for timber trafficking, which was carried out by large companies such as Codesa, Tadesa, Robalino, drug traffickers such as the Choneros Cartel, who launder money by buying and selling illegal timber, financing trailers, buses, shrimp boats, boats, shrimp packing plants, mini-submarines, the owners of the trailers, allowed the creation of cartels for timber trafficking, linked to the forestry police, and inspectors from the Ministry of the Environment, Ecuador experiences police corruption.
The forestry police had checkpoints on the highways where they collected bribes from timber transporters, while ministry inspectors received bribes for logging, especially in protected forests.
With the end of the government of Rafael Correa, the forest plan fell apart, and deforestation returned to being a problem of uncontrollable corruption.
With the pandemic, followed by the economic crisis we are experiencing, deforestation is unstoppable, there are coca and marijuana plantations in protected areas, and its medicinal use is already legal in Ecuador.
The protected areas add up to more than 50,000 km2 of the continental surface, with the protected areas of Galapagos, which are 200,000 km2, making the country the country with the most protected areas in South America, in proportion to its continental territory.
Protected areas have become the center of trafficking in timber, cocaine, gold, and even human trafficking to cross from one country to another. But the forests and mangroves where the drug traffickers hide laboratories, boats, mini-submarines, and coca, are untouchable, they are still safe.
THE MAIN PROBLEMS OF REFORESTATION
It is easier to plant and maintain trees in the cities than in the fields. The planting of timber trees is like putting gold in an open chest, for thieves or timber traffickers, who are the biggest beneficiaries, whether it is planted on private property and even more so if it is in a protected area. Protected areas, as long as they are not guarded by the army and the navy, are places where traffickers of wood or animals do their thing, violating the law, and even illegal gold launderers do it. Wood traffickers and rustlers are the most common criminals in the fields of Ecuador.
HOW CAN REFORESTATION BE DONE IN ECUADOR?
In the first place, it is clear that reforestation should be done with fruit and medicinal trees above all, because these trees are worth their fruits, or their resins, for example with rubber, dragon's blood or sande, and permanent medicinal shrubs, such as medicinal piperaceas, coconut, star, papaya, banana, green, cocoa, coffee, or all other fruit trees.
The most profitable timber trees are those that do not disappear if they are cut, such as eucalyptus and teak, mangrove, bamboo or reeds, tagua, and palms.
Expensive timber trees that take many years, such as mahogany, tropical ebony, medronio, cedar, calade, fermín sánchez, tangaré, red manzano, are trees that may not reach full maturity and size before being stolen.
Shelter trees such as matapalos, guarangos, alders, guaduas, or carizos, pencos, etc., are more necessary because they retain the black earth and maintain humidity and in their birds' nests or animals take refuge
It is possible to plant trees to make living fences in agricultural or livestock lands, but on slopes with slopes greater than 40 degrees, it is advisable to plant forests with trees, but it is also necessary to restore secondary forests simultaneously.
The reforestation has to be done with the students of the schools, and in the schools or private properties, the seedbeds must be made.
The reason for making the students and their parents the ones who plant and then guard those trees is that it is necessary to turn the students and their families who receive free education and health care from the state into economic actors, including prisoners because students and parents can be paid with school lunch and breakfast for their children's education in exchange for a certain number of trees planted, with which we can improve the nutrition of students and their families, a fundamental cause of crime and violence in Ecuador because in Ecuador most of the families and students cannot eat well and even less have three meals a day every day.
Malnutrition, child and youth malnutrition, and the abandonment of the elderly have worsened with the pandemic, the economic-social crisis, violence, family fracture, and the massive emigration that we are experiencing.
Turn students into economically active people from children to old people, who can feed themselves daily and even feed their parents, thanks to the planting and care of trees.
Turn the thousands of non-criminal prisoners into people who protect nature, who do not suffer horrible years in dangerous prisons, in a forced uselessness, away from clean air, sun, and life in tree planters, protectors of forests, something better than spending billions of dollars to have them as easy prey for the cartels, vices, and murderers in our prisons.
The students and their parents, the relatives are the ones who will be able to benefit from the fruit and medicinal trees planted on their properties and the inmates exclusively in the protected areas, while the timber trees would benefit, when they are cut down due to old age. The schools and prisons that with the sale of these trees can buy microscopes, computers, gyms, and more equipment to improve the education and health of students and prisoners.
PLACES WHERE THIS REFORESTATION PLAN CAN BE STARTED with school and college students.
1. ON THE COAST Cabo San Francisco and Reserva Galera San Francisco with the two schools and 9 rural schools. In that place, it is possible to plant mangroves, plant fruit trees, timber trees, medicinal trees, and useful shrubs, restore the primary forest and allow secondary forest, while protecting marine fauna, and wildlife, and develop tourism as an alternative. livestock, palm plantations, shrimp farms, timber trafficking, or overfishing. THIS IS THE LAST PLACE IN THE SOUTH PACIFIC TO HAVE PACIFIC FRONT TROPICAL FORESTS that can provide seeds.
2. IN THE TOACHI PILATON RESERVE OF THE PROTECTED FOREST OF LOS ILINIZAS, where deforestation directly affects the large dams of the hydroelectric power station, which now has many difficulties to have the necessary flow, to move the turbines that still cannot work due to this problem, Deforestation to make pastures, which is accelerating rapid soil degradation. there is a much lower capacity of the forest to convert the clouds into streams and rivers, which are the origin of rivers such as the Esmeraldas, one of the largest on the Coast. Reforestation here can be done with the Tandapi College, and the schools of La Esperie, El Atenas or Sarapullo. In this place, it is possible to develop tourism to the Waterfall and the Mines of Atahualpa and the Marquesa de Solanda, the wife of Mariscal Antonio José de Sucre, do mountain biking or tracking from the Ilinizas in the Andes, to the Devil's Face in the Quito Santo Domingo highway, where it is possible to observe snow-capped mountains, the great biodiversity of the cloud forest, archaeological remains, rivers, and waterfalls.
3. Reforestation of Taisha and especially San José de Morona, Puerto Morona, on the banks of the Santiago and Morona rivers, the Kutucú and Cóndor mountain ranges, deforested by settlers, miners and the 1995 war, which since the construction of the highway to Puerto Morona, its forests have been devastated. In this canton, it is possible to carry out reforestation with the schools of San José de Morona, Taisha, and other schools in some of the communities along the highway. It is possible to develop in a complementary way tourism along the Morona River to the Marañón or Alto Amazonas River, in the Pacaya Samiria Reserve, the largest in the Amazon, Peruvian territory, but which, according to the Itamaratí Treaty, allows free navigation to Ecuadorians, in a place where the famous movie Panteleón and the Visitors was filmed.
NOTE It is necessary to reforest and at the same time develop tourism, the production of fruit pulp, tea sachets, aromatic or medicinal oils, or other medicinal products, develop the production of handicrafts, handicrafts, handicrafts, art, painting, and music. dancing, sponsoring athletes or artists, as new economic resources, to replace oil, mining, livestock, shrimp production, or agro-industry such as the African palm, in the hands of transnationals and the state. If there is no change in the economic income matrix of the population, reforestation is an initiative destined to fail.
It is possible to create the most interesting tourist trail of biodiversity and cultural diversity in South America, from the Galapagos, and its Caves on Santa Cruz Island, ideal for a museum of peace and biodiversity, to the Galera San Fransisco Reserve, where the currents of El Niño and Humboldt coexist all year round, and whales arrive at the Ilinizas Reserve, at the Ilinizas, at the Quilotoa Lagoon in the crater of the volcano, at Chimborazo, the highest place in the world in relation to the center of the Earth, to Guamote, the most indigenous market in the northern Andes, to the Devil's Nose Train, the most difficult train in the world, to the Amazon River, the largest river on the planet, via Morona, which is only 7 hours away by boat.
NOTE The Ecotrackers Foundation is a foundation registered on September 19, 2000, at the Ministry of Tourism, RUC1791818687001, address Av. Amazonas N21.217 Y Ramon Roca, corner, in front of Sweet and Coffe, diagonal to the Mercure Hotel in the Barrio y Area Especial Turística La Mariscal de Quito, which can carry out the economic activities registered in the SRI with the N79900401, such as provision of assistance services to tourists, provision of information to clients, travel. In addition, the activities registered in the SRI with the number 084121401 of public administration of programs aimed at promoting personal well-being, the environment, administration of research and development policies adopted in this area, and the funds corresponding to environmental protection programs
RECORD
The Ecotrackers Foundation has worked in 14 indigenous communities and 10 protected areas through smart tourism, with volunteers, students, and researchers, who have reforested, and protected species, mangroves, forests, languages, arts, and ancestral knowledge, now through visa tourism. works and holiday between Australia, France, and Ecuador, or digital nomad tourism, wants to create internet content to develop responsible tourism, the protection of biodiversity, cultural diversity, and health in the Amazon, the Andes, and the Pacific Ocean. We have offered free medical and psychological care to Venezuelans since 2019, we cultivate medicinal plants and their use as medicines, spices, or oils, and we believe in the rebirth of a La Gran Colombia without borders.
THE ECOTRACKERS FOUNDATION has taught Spanish to more than 2,000 foreign students, through the one-on-one modality and over the internet, has published its reports, photos and papers, and has also produced documentaries on Health and Life in the Middle of the World, which focuses on The health of indigenous and afro-descendant nationalities, from the Spanish conquest to the present.
We have worked in the area that is now the San Francisco Galera Reserve, with the Cabo San Francisco Agricultural College and the schools since 1982, as well as in the Ilinizas and Toachi Pilatón Reserve, where we also have 100 hectares to reforest and to make nurseries, in the community of El Atenas, 3 km from the Quito Santo Domingo Highway, and 5 km from the parish head of Tandapi, or Cornejo Astorga. We have worked since 2005 with San José de Morona and its College, with Puerto Morona and the Ecomorona Foundation, to open the route to the Amazon River through the Morona River, we have an office in the Mutualista Vargas Torres, in the center of the city of Esmeraldas, in front of the government, to coordinate the actions of placing the internet with or without solar panels, in the protected areas and remote places of the province, which includes training in tourism, environmental protection, cultural protection, telemedicine, tele-education and telecommerce. We work in the Galera San Francisco reserves, the first marine reserve in South America, with 50,000 ha, Mache Chindul with 250,000 ha, between the provinces of Esmeraldas and Manabí, Muisne and Cojimíes Mangroves with 50,000 ha, the Cayapas Mataje Reserve, and Las Golondrinas on the border with Colombia, Santiago Cayapas, from the Andes to the Pacific, highly conflictive areas due to earthquakes, floods, droughts, deforestation, illegal mining, shrimp farms, African palm plantations, drug trafficking, timber trafficking, trafficking of gold cross-border human trafficking or pests, in the province closest to the Panama Canal, which has the most protected areas, but is now the one that registers the most deaths in proportion to the population of all of South America, due to the War on Drug Trafficking that began Live since the year 2000.
