CONSERVATION THREATS
Privatization has typically targeted such resources as forests, minerals, and oil. People are leaving rural communities to go where jobs are — in the cities. While almost half of the population of Bolivia, Ecuador, and Paraguay still lives in rural areas, 70 per cent of Colombians and Peruvians and some 85 per cent of Venezuelans, Argentinians, Chileans, and Uruguayans now live in urban areas. As a result, natural resource management is increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few land-owning elite eag er to make quick profits. There are also fears that nature's bounty may be further depleted as urbanization and consumption patterns chip away at natural resources. Elsewhere, colonization has led to deforestation and new roads open up yet more agricultural frontiers. Next in line is Chocó, one of the most threatened regions in Colombia and Ecuador. The economic spin-off is obvious. Colombia's Chocó forests provide m ore than half the nation's timber, its marine resources are under-exploited, it has potential mineral wealth and vast water resources believed to be sufficient for a significant part of the country's energy needs. Several roads and hydroelectric projects are already underway. Political and civil unrest, fuelled by the drugs trade and guerrilla insurgency, are still a problem in certain areas, especially in Colombia. Peru has been improving its situation lately. The drugs trade has also led to massive deforestation, especially in Colombia where fragile cloud forests have been destroyed to make way for the more lucrative poppy plantations that feed the heroin trade. In Bolivia, forests have been felled for coca leaf plantations for cocaine production. In another development, some countries in the region, including Paraguay and Peru, have been implicated in the contraband trade in wildlife and wildlife products. Nearly a third of all wildlife exports from the developing world comes from South America, d espite the fact that all the countries involved are members of CITES. The Uruguay-based office of TRAFFIC South America monitors this illegal trade, in liaison with governments in 12 countries.
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Copyright 1996, The World Wide Fund For Nature