California and the rest of the world have much to learn from how scientists and policymakers are rethinking how to protect the Amazon, the world's largest rainforest, from deforestation, mining, biodiversity loss and climate change.
"We were recently contacted by a group in California who were inspired by our work to obtain legal rights for wild stingless bees; they were the first insects in the world to obtain rights thanks to our work. That is one way in which we are seeing a global impact," said Dr. Rosa Vásquez Espinosa, chemical biologist, National Geographic explorer during the video conference "Ancient Wisdom and Ancestral Science" organized by American Community Media (ACoM).
"It's not just California; we've heard from Poland, the United Kingdom, several countries in Africa, India, Ecuador, Colombia and Bolivia. Some have the Amazon rainforest and some don't, but they are all looking for innovative ways to protect their wild pollinators, and the associated ecosystems or food systems that depend on them."
So – he considered – that this is just one of the ways in which the rest of the world can connect with the lessons that the Amazon leaves behind.
He emphasized that no matter where you are, whether in the northernmost point of Europe, in Australia or in North America, you are affected by what happens in the Amazon rainforest.
“Our climate is influenced by fluctuations in the amount of water that occur in the Amazon rainforest, which, in turn, is affected by deforestation.”
He explained that the interesting thing about the Amazon is that it not only has the physical rivers and water systems that we see with the naked eye; It also houses “living rivers” among the treetops, as it retains and contains enormous amounts of water through evaporation and constant movement.
For this reason, he indicated that when a tree is cut down, we are really affecting all the water that ends up being released into the oceans; This, in turn, influences the temperature, as well as the volume and amount of sediment that moves from there to the rest of the world, generating various phenomena and storm patterns, and even contributing to changes in marine fauna, something that many people do not usually talk about.
“There are also food systems: we have crucial production of coffee, cocoa, açaí and many medicinal plants that end up becoming medicines approved by the FDA (United States Food and Drug Administration).”
He mentioned, for example, the Croton lechleri plant, known as the “dragon's blood” tree, which in 2012, one of its components became the key ingredient of a drug approved by the FDA; so access to that medicine depends directly on the trees of the Amazon rainforest.
"The same goes for the availability of wood for commercial use, gold and other materials, where sometimes we don't even stop to think about where they come from. Many of them have their origin in the Amazon rainforest."
So – he said – there are many aspects of any person's life that are affected daily by the Amazon.
family history
Dr. Vásquez Espinosa, also author of the book The Spirit of the Rainforest and founder of Amazon Research International, awarded by Rolex and UNESCO, and recognized in the BBC's 100 Women list, who was born and raised in Peru, said that her grandmother always told her the stories associated with medicinal plants, and how to care for the soil, leaves and flowers.
"So, in reality, I learned by observing their relationship with nature: their way of acting and talking about it, with the conviction that it is alive. Over time, especially as I reached adulthood, I understood that this is precisely the indigenous worldview: the idea that nature has life."
He said that this is not exclusive to the Andean, Quechua or Amazonian cultures but is present in many other parts of the world: from the Inuit and the Australian aborigines to many other peoples.
“That common trait, which I now see reflected in various movements, such as the Rights of Nature, a conservation initiative that seeks to grant legal rights to the natural environment, or in the scientific field, where systems are required to be updated to integrate indigenous knowledge.”
An intrinsic relationship
What does it mean that nature is alive?
From indigenous perspectives, we believe that a bee is a life, a spirit, a guardian, a teacher. Some indigenous cultures believe that when a person dies in the physical world they can return to the natural world and come back to life as a tree, a river, a bee or any other type of animal.
But there is also the inherent belief that we all have equal rights. So, if I, as a human being, have the right to access a healthy forest and clean water, the animals and plants around me do too. Because if they are not healthy, I, as a human being, am not healthy either.
Therefore, there is an intrinsic understanding that nature is alive; This is manifested in various stories and practices, such as caring for the harvest, ensuring that there is enough for those who will come after and so that the land can regenerate, as well as in stories in which a grandfather who passes away comes to live in a tree that then provides us with medicinal plants.
