Shihuahuaco, the Amazonian giant that we all must protect

Its wood is heavy, resistant and much in demand, both at home and abroad. The shihuahuaco It is a tree of the Amazon, which reaches 40 meters in height and a meter and a half in diameter. But, due to overexploitation, it has been disappearing from Loreto and Ucayali. Now more than 90% of the shihuahuaco that is extracted is from Madre de Dios.

However, continuing with its exploitation is unsustainable, since it takes hundreds of years to reach the cut dimensions.

“Sustainability is talking about time: that what you are extracting is going to exist in the future, that you are not going to put the species at risk. That does not happen with the shihuahuaco. It takes at least 300 years to reach the minimum cutting diameter in its natural environment. What they are cutting is not going to be replaced and that is scientifically proven. he says Trade Tatiana Espinosaexecutive director and co-founder of Arbio Peru, an NGO dedicated to the protection of more than 900 hectares of forest in Madre de Dios since 2010.

Espinosa, who is also a forestry engineer, points out that mahogany found itself in a similar situation, until it obtained legal protection. Despite this, the mahogany population has not yet recovered.

According to Espinosa, this threat to the shihuahuaco It has quite a few consequences. “In addition to being a carbon accumulator par excellence, giant trees pump water from the subsoil, take it to the sky in the form of humidity, creating flying rivers, taking it to the Andes, where they will generate the rains that feed snow-capped mountains and glaciers that give rise to to the rivers, which serve the mountains and the coast. In other words,

key deal

This week, Arbio Peru signed an alliance with Grupo AJE, which aims to contribute to scientific research, preservation and protection of the shihuahuaco.

“. Fortunately, in this pandemic the message has permeated that deforestation must be stopped. Now, the AJE Group has adopted 100 shihuahuacos, each with a code and a personalized certificate. But not only that, they are also supporting us with the subject of the investigation. With that we will continue with the census and study of shihuahuacos”Spinoza explains.

For the expert,

THE DATA

• In evaluation process. Sources from the National Forest Service (Serfor) told this newspaper that they are in the evaluation and discussion stage of a study done on the two species of shihuahauco identified in Peru, “to assign them an appropriate category, according to the risk of extinction.” .

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