“Peace with Nature” is the emblem of the United Nations Conference on Biodiversity (COP16 on Biodiversity) that will be held between October 21 and November 1, 2024, in Colombia. COP16 on Biodiversity is a meeting in which the Government of Chile must bring proposals to address critical problems that the planet has in the conservation of biological diversity.
The importance of this meeting lies in the possibility that it can set precedents to direct actions at the national level to stop and reverse the loss of biodiversity before 2030. COP16 on Biodiversity is the first intergovernmental conference after the adoption of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework for 2022, in which the participating countries (including Chile) committed to meeting its 4 objectives and 23 targets.
One of these goals is to “conserve at least 30% of the world’s land, marine and coastal areas.” In light of this goal, it is relevant to ask: Which ecosystems should be prioritized? How do we achieve this goal? Where should we conserve this 30%? These are key questions to achieve the committed result in 2022.
The COP16 Biodiversity emblem invites us to reflect on how to improve our relationship with nature. Protecting our forests could be a path in this direction, since the role of forests as a support for life is invaluable. Forests are home to 80% of all living things on land and support a quarter of the world’s human population. Their crucial roles for life include providing oxygen, regulating the water cycle, nutrients and climate.
In Chile, there are forests that have histories that are much longer than the history of our country. If we imagine ourselves on a journey into the past, we would find the presence of extensive forests that covered what is now Chile. Some forests that exist in the country are remnants of these ancestral forests, which have resisted the passage of time and have witnessed how humans have made use of the territory. We can recognize these forests as our ancestral forests, since they have been present in our territory even before the first arrival of humans to these lands.
Among the components that make up our ancestral forests, ancient and centenary trees stand out, which challenge our perception of the time necessary for these forests to acquire the state they have today. Forest dynamics are related to the extensive life cycles of trees, with Chile’s ancient forests having seen species turnover over millennia. The coexistence of trees such as coihue and araucaria, or mañíos and alerces, reveals the complexity of life cycles in the forest, with periods of dormancy, growth and resistance that defy our understanding.
When a forest reaches an advanced stage of development, it enters into a self-sustaining and self-regulating cyclical dynamic. This dynamic ensures permanent cycles of life, growth, death and regeneration of multiple organisms. Without human interference, this cycle persists, maintaining biodiversity and the balance of the ecosystem.
Ancestral forests are home to a multiplicity of species that interact in highly intricate processes. Mutualisms, symbiosis, facilitation, competition are some of the relationships that allow coexistence between plants, animals, fungi and microorganisms, including humans, which influence the persistence of forests. Thus, ancestral forests represent the life of the living beings that have lived and live in them. They represent life, of life, of life.
The importance of ancient forests and their role in the evolution of multiple living beings seem distant from our hurried way of life.
Despite being part of the web of life that forests represent, Chileans have drastically altered our forests and few ancient forests remain in the country. Since European colonization, we have destroyed 50% of the country’s original forest area and many tree populations are at risk due to climate change. It is estimated that 10% of Chile’s forest surface are mature forests without intervention, and it is on this surface where our ancestral forests are found..
The advance towards the extinction of unique ancestral forests in Chile is evident, and it is urgent that we reconcile and make peace with the nature that fortunately still surrounds us. Coexisting harmoniously with our forests allows us to understand our deep interrelation with the cycles of life, and the constant renewal of life that occurs in them.
As a way of reaching peace with nature, Chile should promote the priority preservation and protection of ancestral forests at COP16 on Biodiversity, and thus advance in concrete actions to meet the goal of 30% conservation of terrestrial areas. Although ancient forests seem forgotten in Chile’s collective memory, we still have time to reverse their receding trends. History tells us that we must reverse the trends of forest loss and ensure the persistence of our forests, as they sustain life in the future.
