A cartographic exhibition that illustrates the present day threats and pressures on the Amazon.
Melanie Dizon
March 3, 2024
AMAZON UNDER PRESSURE
MAPPING THE THREATS AND PRESSURES IMPACTING THE AMAZON REGION
*Join us for the inaugural event and presentation of Amazon Under Pressure, on the 15th of March @ 6pm, to meet the representatives Maria Rosa Montes and Carla Soria of IBC Peru as we share about their cartographic work in conjunction with RAISG and MapBiomas Perú.
As a representative of RAISG in Peru, the Instituto del Bien Común - IBC is honored to offer the citizens of Cusco this infographic exhibition Amazon Under Pressure, based on the homonymous work of RAISG; a consortium of civil society organizations from Amazonian countries oriented to the socio-environmental sustainability of the Amazon.
Through maps, statistical data, and socio-environmental information, this exhibition addresses the threats and pressures that loom over the Amazon region and that over time have generated major transformations to the landscape, the population contour and the outlook for the future, endangering the maintenance of the natural and cultural elements that characterize it. The RAISG analysis focuses on Indigenous territories and natural protected areas, which act as barriers to the advances of deforestation and degradation of Amazonian forests, but are not exempt from pressures.
An example of such impact of pressures on the land cover can be seen in the changes of land use that have occurred over the last four decades across the Peruvian territory, according to mapping efforts carried out by IBC within the framework of MapBiomas Perú - a collaboration between RAISG and MapBiomas Network.
We celebrate this collaboration with Xapiri Ground and hope to contribute to the recognized diversity of this space through the power of mapping as a tool to generate compelling evidence and novel narratives.
Renzo Piana
IBC Executive Director
"More than half (65.8%) of the protected natural areas and Indigenous territories in the Amazon are subject to some type of pressure: presence of extractive industries (fossil fuels, mining), road and hydroelectric infrastructure development, and agricultural / livestock activities. These pressures generate impacts that cause a high level of deterioration to the region's environmental conditions.
Most of the countries in the region of the Amazonian territory are under some type of pressure. Seven percent of the Amazonian territory is under "very high" pressure and 26% under "high" pressure. The most pressured areas are found on the periphery of the biome: in the mountainous and piedmont areas located to the west, especially in Ecuador; to the north, in Venezuela; and to the south, in Brazil.
It is necessary to emphasize the importance of the illegal economy that devastates the Amazon rainforest. It moves billions of dollars per year and has structures that exceed the surveillance and control capacity of state agencies. Timber extraction, mining and illicit crops are three of the most prolific economic activities in the rainforest, sustained by the demand for their final products in international markets." ~IBC Peru
Amazon Under Pressure will be on exhibition at Xapiri Ground from March 15, 2024 - July 31, 2024.
We would like to thank the Instituto del Bien Común - IBC, RAISG, and MapBiomas Perú for allowing us to share their in-depth work with our public, to Maria Rosa Montes (IBC Communications Coordinator) and Carla Soria (IBC Map Specialist and RAISG liaison) for their support in making this show possible in Cusco.
