User:Seskaff/Reforestation

5.17 Peru
'''Approximately 59% of Peru is covered by forest. A history of political turmoil and the government's inability to enforce environmental regulations has led to the degradation of the forest and environment in Peru. A military coup in 1968 caused a loss of economic mobility in the Talara region and sparked a boom in illegal logging due to the lack of alternative economic opportunities ***(EcoSwell Brief, 2020-21). Illegal mining and logging operations are responsible for a great deal of Peru's deforestation and environmental damage. The Peruvian government has not been able to enforce an environmentally conscious mining formalization plan to protect the Amazon forest in the Madre de Dios region. The 1980s were known in Peru as the “lost decade” due to a nationwide internal conflict and severe economic crisis almost destroying the country and resulting in the state losing control over several regions ***(Damonte, 2016). Many areas in Peru, including Madre de Dios, had no state presence until the government initiated a movement to ‘conquer and populate the Amazon,’ with the hopes of minimizing illegal and informal mining operations that had expanded in the region and were polluting the Amazonian rivers and the destroying of its forests *change to footnote citation* (Damonte, 2016).'''

Reforestation initiatives have expanded in the country since *year/decade*. '''In Peru, reforestation is essential to preserving the livelihoods of rural communities because much of the population relies on the forest in some way. Deforestation also disproportionally affects indigenous communities in Peru, which is why reforestation efforts are essential for the protection of many communities' livelihoods.'''

Competition with other land uses[edit]
Reforestation competes with other land uses, such as food production, livestock grazing, and living space, for further economic growth.[citation needed] Reforestation can divert large amounts of water from other activities.[citation needed] A map created by the World Resources Institute in collaboration with the IUCN identifies 2 billion hectares for potential forest restoration. It is criticised for including 900 million hectares of grasslands.

Environmental risks[edit]
Reforestation often has the tendency to create large fuel loads, resulting in significantly hotter combustion than fires involving low brush or grasses.[citation needed] Reduced harvesting rates and fire suppression have caused an increase in the forest biomass in the western United States over the past century. This causes an increase of about a factor of four in the frequency of fires due to longer and hotter dry seasons.

* new paragraph on your research of risks of some reforestation efforts*

Effects on biodiversity[edit]
Reforesting sometimes results in extensive canopy creation that prevents growth of diverse vegetation in the shadowed areas and generating soil conditions that hamper other types of vegetation. Trees used in some reforesting efforts (e.g., Eucalyptus globulus) tend to extract large amounts of moisture from the soil, preventing the growth of other plants. The European Commission found that, in terms of environmental services, it is better to avoid deforestation than to allow for deforestation to subsequently reforest, as the former leads to irreversible effects in terms of biodiversity loss and soil degradation.