Biocan program: Interview with Richard Pasquis in the show Tiempo después

The "Regional Biodiversity Programme of the Amazon members of the Andean Community," or BioCan Program is administered by the General Secretariat of the Andean Community and in coordination with the Ministries of Environment of the member countries as focal, point to "contribute to sustainable development in the Amazon regions of the country while allowing to improve the quality of life of their Amazonian populations and reduce poverty by strengthening environmental management".
The BioCan Program is a contribution to the conservation and sustainable management of biodiversity at the regional level through the consolidation of existing coordination processes and exchange between environmental authorities and local actors and the positioning of the Amazon of the Andean Community.
BioCan aims to contribute to the sustainable management of biodiversity at local and national level, to learn and propose regional guidelines that should be applied in the four Andean countries, and contribute to the objectives of the "Regional Strategic Plan of the Andean environment" and "Regional biodiversity Strategy for the Andean countries". The regional approach provides added value to the extent that countries share the Amazon biodiversity and pressures and similar threats.
The program focuses on strengthening institutional capacity, management of information on biodiversity, land use and sustainable use of biodiversity. In addition, it has a financial mechanism to support local initiatives in the areas of management, operations, sustainable use and conservation of biodiversity, as well as cross-cutting issues of multiculturalism, gender, profit distribution, ecosystem approach and regionality.
In total, 24 projects distributed between civil society and pilot projects distributed in four countries.
In addition, the program also covers the strategic positioning of the Amazon of the Andean Community, both at international and sub-regional and national levels, to promote the adoption of regional guidelines that can influence public policy in the region and public awareness of the importance of the Amazon to the members of the CAN countries through a communication plan and visibility.
This is why the program has launched a campaign "Ours Amazon, a privilege that we must preserve" under which were conducted many interviews and TV shows like the show " Tiempo Después " TV Perú attended by Richard Pasquis (4 videos) to discuss the Andean Amazon.
The mainland of the member countries of the Andean Community is primarily Amazon. Although they are commonly referred to as "Andean" for these countries (four in number : Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru) the Amazonian regions represent three quarters of the territory of Bolivia and Peru, more than half of Ecuador and one third of Colombia. Although the Amazon of the Andean Community is less than 30% of the continental Amazon, it offers an extremely rich and varied mosaic of ecosystems. This is mainly due to the Andes, which has a climate marked altitudinal zonation and a succession of deep valleys that are local pockets of high biodiversity depending on the orientation of their slopes and long, steep slopes in geodynamics active and which introduces heterogeneity in the landscape conducive to great biodiversity. All this leads to recognize Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru as countries " megadiverse".
The Andean Amazon region is also a key sector for the maintenance of hydro-biological cycles of the basin, with hundreds of streams that converge to form the largest river in the world. The Amazon River has its source in Peru and more than half of its tributaries from the Andes and contributes to global climate regulation .
The Amazon of the Andean Community is also characterized by a great diversity, ranging from indigenous peoples, some of whom still live isolated settlers and major cities such as Iquitos, Peru, Leticia, Colombia and Santa Cruz de la Sierra in Bolivia.
Bolivian Amazon 25 % of the space is occupied by indigenous territories corresponding to more than 25 indigenous peoples. In Colombia, indigenous reserves covering 45% of the Amazon territory, while in the Ecuadorian Amazon, considered the national center for cultural diversity, new resident nationalities and indigenous peoples (Shuar, Kichwa, Achuar, Huaorani, Siona, Secoya, Cofan and Záparos Shiwiar). The territories of these groups occupy about 70 % of the territory of the Ecuadorian Amazon. In Peru, some 1,500 indigenous communities are registered and have an area of influence of more than ten million hectares, equivalent to more than 17 % of the Peruvian Amazon.
In addition, the Amazonian Andean is evolving at a rapid pace and impacts on ecosystems are profound. The change in land use due to the growth of economic activities, infrastructure development and human settlements are only a small part of this transformation.
Because of its large size, its hydroelectric potential and the richness of its basement, the Andean Amazon is the seat of unbridled exploitation of non-renewable resources and traversed by numerous routes, including from east to west, causing deforestation processes that result in accelerated fragmentation of the landscape and a significant loss of biodiversity.