Breaking Barriers: A Call to Integrate the Peruvian Amazon into Global Development

Ocho Sur CEO Michael Spoor advocates for integrating the Peruvian Amazon into the global economy to combat poverty, reduce deforestation, and promote sustainable development.

Michael Spoor, CEO of Ocho Sur, has issued a powerful call to action to break the isolation of the Peruvian Amazon and integrate it into the global economy. He emphasizes that such integration is essential to protect the forest, alleviate poverty, and support sustainable growth. “The Amazon’s future depends on breaking its isolation. By integrating it into the global economy, we can protect the forest, fight poverty, and promote sustainable development,” Spoor states.

The Peruvian Amazon, historically neglected and the least developed region in the country, continues to struggle with economic stagnation, deforestation, and illicit activities. Spoor, whose company Ocho Sur is dedicated to the sustainable production of oil palm products in Ucayali, highlights that decades of ideological, legal, political, and financial isolationism have hindered the Amazon’s progress.

In his opinion piece published in Perú 21, Spoor challenges misconceptions surrounding deforestation in the region. He references data from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), showing that global deforestation has significantly declined over the past 30 years, with net forest loss dropping from 78 million hectares in the 1990s to 47 million hectares in the 2010s. He also cites Our World in Data, noting a 55% decrease in greenhouse gas emissions from land use change and deforestation globally, from 0.33 tons per person in 1990 to 0.15 tons per person in 2020.

However, Spoor contrasts this global progress with Peru’s stagnation, where greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation have not decreased by even 1%. “Some stakeholders try to deceive the public and make them believe that agribusiness, particularly oil palm, is the main culprit. However, the data show the opposite,” he argues. Over the past three decades, Peru lost 4.5 million hectares of rainforest, yet the entire oil palm sector covers less than 100,000 hectares, with over half cultivated by small farmers, many of whom previously grew coca leaves.

Spoor emphasizes that even in a worst-case scenario where oil palm plantations replaced primary forests, the sector would only account for a maximum of 2% of total deforestation. He criticizes long-standing policies that have isolated the Amazon, arguing that these isolationist strategies have led to more poverty, informality, illegal activities, and increased forest loss.

“Certain problematic non-governmental organizations (NGOs), which benefit from the current status quo and promote conflicts, complaints, and false narratives against formal and responsible private investment, hinder development and formalization opportunities in the Amazon,” he states.

Spoor, a civil engineer, advocates for building bridges rather than walls. He believes that past punitive policies failed to protect the Amazon and that a new approach focused on integration and sustainable development is needed to preserve the region and uplift its communities.