Friday, May 30, 2014

Madre de Dios: Infrastructure Development, Agricultural Frontier, Extractive Activities, and Ecosystems

Madre de Dios

Overview
According to the Peruvian National Statistical Agency (INEI)
85,301 square kilometers
130,876 Inhabitants

According to Central Bank of Peru the economy in Madre de Dios totals 245 million USD or $1,884 per capita

The economy is represented by the following sectors:
71M (28%) mining
44M (17%) "other services"
29M (11%) commerce
28M (11%) government services
23M (9%) Agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting
15M (6%) Restaurants and hotels

Of the agricultural production

26% of the value is from brachyaria grass for cattle
18% is plantain production
16% is corn


Gold-mining: Formal, Informal, and Illegal

Price of gold rose from ___ per ounce in ____ to a peak of ___ in ____driving 50,000 hectares deforested over the last decade.

Mercury is spilled during production of mercury gold amalgams and enters the aquatic ecosystem where it is converted by sediment dwelling bacteria into toxic methylated mercury.  Once it enters the food chain and undergoes the process of biomagnification it poses a special threat to human health through degradation to the nervous system.  In order to free the gold from the amalgam it is burned to vaporize the mercury.  This process is conducted in the mining zones or in Puerto Maldonado and is another source and vector for mercury to enter the human nervous system.  The rapid and unregulated wealth generated by legal and illegal mining, suspected participation of mafia-like elements and narco-traffickers, and inability of the state to establish order has led to a lawless zone in which human trafficking, prostitution and bonded labor are commonplace.

According to the Ministry of Mining and Energy formal mining produced 16 tons of gold in 2013.


Swidden Agriculture: Slash and Burn



Interoceanic highway and the completion of the _____ Bridge




The agriculturalist: 6,641 farms that are titled 660,000 hectares of land of which 44,000 are devoted to annual crops such as yuca, corn, pineapple, rice and beans.

According to the 2012 Agricultural Census
    hectares of abandoned and fallow land
    % use herbicides
    % use chemical fertilizers
    % own or rent tractors



MINAG

Agricultural land
1975 - 194,405
1995 - 80,876
2000 - 274,197

Deforested land
1975 - 45,501
1995 - 80,876
2000 - 203,879

INEI

Of the 23 million USD of agricultural production
26% is from brachiaria grass for cattle
18% is plantain production
16% is corn


Selective logging: positive and negative impacts.


It's not all bad news: Brazil nut concessions & Ecotourism


Manu-Tambopata Biological Corridor



Land use mosaic embedded in forest matrix.  Part of larger Vilcabamba-Ambore Mega-Corridor

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