Tatiana Espinosa: The Voice Behind the Shihuahuaco
The value of a tree is not the same for everybody, and when we say ‘tree,’ we don’t mean its timber or its value. We mean an old companion that carries with it part of human history. If you ask Tatiana Espinosa, an Amazon forest conservationist, what does a 500 year old shihuahuaco represent? – she will probably say a grandparent with hundreds of children and thousands of grandchildren.
Photo by: Gianella Espinosa
Tatiana is a forestry engineer and founder of Arbio since 2010, a 1000-hectare reserve that strives to protect the Amazon from intrusive and destructive land use, galvanized by development. In Peru’s Madre de Dios region, the forest is completely lawless – illegal invaders and lodgers rule the land while forest conservationists are constantly threatened for defending the environment. Tatiana is one of them.
Recognized by the IRF (International Ranger Federation) with the Jane Goodall Hope and Inspiration Award for her work as a park ranger – and recently nominated for the Landscape Heroes competition organized by the The Global Landscapes Forum (GLF), for Tatiana, safeguarding one of the oldest majestic trees of the forest is worth the risk. Human survival depends on forests, and trees are not “organic robots designed to produce oxygen and wood.”
Photo by: Gianella Espinosa
Like people, trees wrinkle as they age. It takes a thousand years for the shihuahuaco to reach its full grown height. In the forest, shihuahuacos are social beings – they work together in networks, communicate, and pass wisdom down to the next generation through their seeds. But they can be cut down and reduced into wooden planks in a matter of hours. Illegal logging not only leaves a palpable scar of destruction on the Madre de Dios region, cracking holes where elderly trees once stood, but it also wipes out a rich biome that provides a livelihood for local communities.
For Tatiana, since the state of emergency provoked by the COVID-19 pandemic began in Peru, the situation has gotten worse. Waves of illegal miners, ranchers and loggers have continued operating, evading justice and showing the world that – despite lockdown measures ordered nationwide – the Madre de Dios forests are no man’s land. After the murder of environmental defender Roberto Pacheco, a tragic result of a long series of inactions by local authorities and corruption issues, Tatiana fears that the great amount of illegal logging will continue to destroy the forest while the critically endangered shihuahuaco will be exterminated in at least two regions of Peru by 2025.
Photo by: Gianella Espinosa
Today, Tatiana struggles to spread the message of promoting the conservation of these natural forests, which will continue to be ravaged by people searching for the perfect tree. And once they find it, they will ruthlessly chop it down, transport it, process it, and sell it to local and international buyers in the U.S or China to make opulent parquet floors and decks. It’s time to start paying attention.