In my first blog I wrote of the excitement I felt about arriving in this incredible place and about how it seemed that people here were at least aware of the importance of rivers and river issues. I also predicted that the situation would be far more complicated than that, and after my initial interviews and exploration of the rivers here I have found that to be incredibly true! What follows is an initial discussion of the complications of river conservation here.
Through interviews with people along the Río Tena in the center of Tena, I learned that overwhelmingly one of the main issues here is employment. People told me there are very few sources of work here and many people work part time or simply attempt to sell their wares on the streets. I am beginning to see that it would be quite difficult to ask people here to spend time, money, and energy on protecting their rivers when they are worried about finding the funds to feed their families. This really hit home when I learned that 1 out of 5 pregnant women here are under 18.
However, it is obvious that there has at least been one successful river protection effort here in Tena. The people here are proud of how clean their rivers are, but that has not always been the case. People told me that the rivers are much cleaner now that they were 4 years ago because of a very successful recycling program that was put into place by the local government, a program that I have been told is also nation wide. The program seems to consist of three basic aspects: 1. Put up signs along all major roads and trails, especially at river crossings, that state for example “No botar basura al río. No lo contamine” (Don’t throw garbage in the river. Don’t contaminate it). 2. Place trash and recycling cans in major public areas like parks and trails along the river. 3. Provide compensation for returning plastic bottle to recycling centers, an income that has become important for the poor in this area. It seems like this program has been successful; unlike other developing countries I have visited, the rivers here are quite empty of garbage. People here are proud of this, when asked if their rivers are clean and healthy they confidently state yes and cite the lack of trash as evidence.
But other forms of impact on the rivers like mining and forestry are far less simple. In small communities along the river where a lot of small scale, but persistent, deforestation occurs. In addition, artisanal gold mining operations erode the banks and pollute the river with petrol. In both cases there is very little enforcement of existing environmental laws or thought towards caring for the rivers. The reasons are not clear but I can guess at one. For one, these communities are small and everyone knows everyone else. In one area along the Piatura river, where there is a protected area with park rangers who are supposed to patrol the area and protect it, how can you expect the park ranger to enforce laws and arrest those who are illegally taking wood and mining when those loggers and miners are their immediate family and friends? Lack of education is another educated guess. From what I have learned from people here, there is a large proportion of the people in the region who have not graduated from high school and very few who attend a university. In addition, there is not a strong biology or resource management curriculum. Therefore it is possible that people do not know the impact the are making when they cut down riparian trees all the way to the bank of the river, don’t clearly understand the impact of the diesel gas that leaks from their dredges. Finally, to refer back to my earlier observation, much of the mining and forestry here is for subsistence and feels necessary to the lives that the people lead here.
In addition to gold mining, the other form of mining present is gravel mining. When a new road is built, all of the road base is mined from the closest river. When a new house is built, the sand and materials needed are mined from the closest river. Something important to note here is the fact that the materials come from the closest location; there is no central gravel mining location, but rather for each new project there is a new zone of impact on the local rivers. Gravel mining is a complicated issue here. For a town that has near to no local industry or locally produced products, gravel is pretty much it. This makes gravel an important product here, one that the local government is unlikely to enforce environmental restrictions on or work towards mitigating impacts. But one can imagine that the impact on the river can be enormous. Heavy machinery doesn’t usually gently move through riparian corridors and carefully remove rocks from the river at easily managed locations. Instead you see large bacos flattening hundred meter stretches of river bank foliage as they pass back and forth with huge scoops of gravel, dramatically changing the riverbed and river hydrology and causing huge amounts of sediment to choke the river.
Most of these challenges simmer down to the basic fact that conservation doesn’t pay. As a biologist, an environmental scientist, and a river activist I know all of the arguments against this, from ecosystem services to the economic importance of resource management. But the fact of the matter is, when you tell a family that they have to stop mining gold along the river and that in return you will give them a clean and healthy river, why would they stop? In their minds a clean river, although it is nice to bath and swim in, won’t feed and clothe their family that month. The people here have immediate needs that need immediate support. Yes the people here do seem some of the long term benefits of clean and healthy rivers, ie people have noticed much more fish in the river since the effort to remove trash from the rivers began and fishing in the area has increased, but making the choice to throw garbage into a garbage can instead of the river is much different than losing important income when you make the choice to stop logging along rivers.
It seems to me there there must be ways to compromise. People here love and are proud of their rivers, they know that these are important resources; every person I interviewed emphatically told me that conservation of rivers is important. People here also need incomes to support their families; most people I interviewed identified this as the most important issue in Tena. Governments here want to promote clean rivers for resource and tourism reasons. Governments in these areas also want to help these towns develop and to improve local infrastructure. In a time when freshwater resources around the world are being lost and environmental degradation is rampant, we need to look at these balances more closely. It is essential that we not always take the most obvious, easiest solutions that provide the most immediate positive outcome for development and income. I hope we can work towards finding more creative solutions, that might be a little more challenging to come by; solutions that can be mutually beneficial for our rivers and our people.
