Giving Compass' Take:

• Nicole Gieselman at GlobalGiving talks with Sophia Rokhlin on how the Chaikuni Institute is revitalizing traditional knowledge to support the plants, animals, and humans who call the Peruvian Amazon home.

• What are the most prominent environmental threats to forests that would disturb sustainability?

• Read about the importance of forest restoration. 

Across the Peruvian Amazon, pristine rainforest—and the incredible biodiversity within—is threatened by widespread deforestation and commercial resource extraction. Sophia Rokhlin works with Chaikuni Institute, an intercultural grassroots organization combating unsustainable agriculture in the heart of this ecological wonder by elevating techniques based in traditional knowledge.

“The Amazon basin is the world’s most biodiverse terrestrial ecosystem; in 2 hectares of land, we find more plant and animal species than we find in the entire continent of North America,” she shared.

However, this astounding biodiversity faces an uncertain future.

“Amazonian communities rapidly integrating into the market-economy opt for an unsustainable agricultural method called slash-and-burn or swidden farming, where a piece of pristine forest is razed to the ground, burnt, and replaced by one or two crops,” Sophia said.

The more farmers adopt slash-and-burn farming, the more widespread its impact. “This method is largely responsible for the frequent fires and loss of wildlife habitat we find in the Amazon basin,” according to Sophia.

Read the full article about food forests in the Amazon by Nicole Gieselman at GlobalGiving.