We have seen in the news recently of the “great Fires of the Amazon Rainforest,” the largest rainforest in the world, there are other tropical rainforests on this planet of course, places that include Africa and south East Asia, everywhere in the world forests are being mowed down at an alarming rate, both legally and illegally, they are continually being exploited for their timber and agricultural land, the recent forest fires in the Amazon have raised deep concerns both in the scientific community as well as the general public. Being the largest tropical rainforest in the world and spanning more than a dozen countries, this natural treasure rich with biodiversity of both plant and animal life amazes the globe with its infinite beauty, nearly everyone in the world knows the amazon and the little people than live in it, the indigenous communities that depend solely on the rainforests are the ones to be impacted the most if the bush is going to be cleared.
It plays a very vital role in our worlds atmospheric system, in terms of water vapor and breathing air regulation, a fact proven time and time again by the scientific community, so when it’s threatened, the whole humanity is threatened, A few years ago, it was the illegal loggers that were posing a serious threat to the nature reserve, they secretly set up camps in the forests and cleared thousands of hectares of pristine woodlands, their work done mostly at night, they brutally killed anyone that got into their way, both the locals and the environmentalists that got into their way fell victim, as a result of these brutal cartels wreaking havoc on the local communities, there was an international outcry, financial aid poured in from all over the world, conservation efforts were increased and security was beefed up, this led to a great deal of reduction in the rate of destruction of the forests, countless innocent lives were also saved in the process.
The kind of challenge Amazon is facing now is a new one, more difficult than what it was before, previously it was the illegal miners, loggers and traffickers that were posing a threat to its existence, now there is a controversial leadership in power that threatens to undo the successful work of ten previous governments, critics argue that the current Bolsonaro Administration has given green light to the farmers, miners, loggers and traffickers alike to do whatever they want to with the precious rainforests in the name of development. Farmers are critiqued to have intensified their deforestation activities, clearing millions upon millions of hectares of forests for agriculture, specifically growth of Soy beans and the grazing of livestock. An incident that led to an exchange of harsh words between Brazilian President Bolsonaro and French President Macron.
from the perspective of the farmer its easy to understand their plight, these are just poor farmers that are trying to make a living off their country’s land, with no alternative source of income, they have no choice but to turn to the virgin forests and harvest them for a living, they will scrape off anything they can find. When a government comes to power that approves their actions, they will not hesitate to put on the gas pedal. Now this is where environmentalists become unreasonable, conservationists often put too much emphasis’s on the nature and forget the people that live near those reserves, people need to be taken care of just as much as nature needs to. Not unless the locals are provided with an alternative source of income, they will continue to wreak havoc on nature if they find nowhere to turn to for economic emancipation.
We have seen this incident repeating itself in many parts of the world over and over again. In nature conservation areas, be it national parks, game reserves, or wildlife sanctuaries, we have heard of local communities who have turned into poaching and killing the very animals that their governments are protecting, making the conservation of endangered species even more difficult, in their argument they would claim that their own governments have been pouring billions of cash to protecting nature while the locals are completely ignored, there are no jobs, no schools no hospitals anywhere near them, so they see a better way to get quick cash and justice as well is to sell the very animals the state has abandoned them for. In cases of human wildlife conflicts, when park rangers show up for a killed animal that has strayed into human settlements, angry locals would storm their jeeps fighting back, “Why do you show up here when an a lion or leopard is killed, but if its our fellow human beings or livestock that get killed by these wild beasts you are nowhere to be seen? You are always rushing here for their defense” they would ask the rangers, the locals have taken to the understanding that their governments prefer taking care of wild animals and trees than their own people. Why should they care for nature when their state doesn’t seem to care about them. Not unless conservation funds are delivered in split ways, one for protecting nature and another for helping the local communities in development. It all comes to socio-economics and proper management of funds where it appears that Nature will always loose, all these trillions that are being pored into conservation every year would be nothing but a waste of time and resources, eventually everyone will loose, both NATURE AND Humanity.
When all the trees would have been cut down, when all the top soils would have been eroded away, and when there would be no more rain, then will we know that we have no hope left, unless nature fight for itself now, and stop relying on its human well wishers it will continue to suffer, trees should stand up for themselves and cut down the same humans that have been cutting them down for countless generations,
Yeah! Come baby come, you have been chopping us down for ages, now its your turn to taste the chainsaw.
“Man has been chopping wood since the beginning of time, he uses it for all sorts of things, everything in his house is made of wood, he cannot live without us,” they say to one another, “he has cleared all the trees of the forests of the world till now there is not a single tree left standing, come on here baby!” The trees would say, “now its your turn to taste the axe, we will chop up your skulls and pile them as high as a mountain, just the same way you pile logs ready for transport”
We will surely get our revenge soon enough! You shall bear witness to the massacre of man by angry nature!
The Above Text contains an excerpt from the book named… ”Sweep Thy Planet”