Juanchi Perez
Wildlife Artist, Illustrator, Animal Rights and Indigenous Rights Advocate
Juanchi Pérez is a #wildlife artist and #animalrights advocate from #Ecuador who uses his paintbrush to fight 4 #Ecuador’s animals against #palmoil and #gold mining. Here is his inspiring story @ZIGZE #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife
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Juanchi Pérez is a #vegan #animalrights advocate and #wildlife artist who paints species of #Peru #Ecuador in his exquisite art. He discusses why #animals should matter more to us all than #greed @ZIGZE #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife
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Bio: Juanchi Pérez
Juanchi Pérez is a talented and well-established designer, illustrator and artist from Ecuador who captures the soulful presence of rare rainforest animals near his home.
He is passionate about sharing the magnificent animals and plants of his bountiful homeland with the world. Together with his beautiful wife and daughter, he founded Zigze several years ago. They create eco-friendly homewares and clothing in Ecuador. This features Juanchi’s signature illustrations of plants and animals. In this way, Juanchi shares the emotional lives of animals and plants in one of the most biodiverse hotspots on our planet. After seeing the devastation of palm oil firsthand in his country, Juanchi is a passionate advocate for the #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife.
Palm Oil Detectives is honoured to interview to Juanchi Pérez about his beautiful, powerful and impactful art featuring animals on the knife-edge of survival in South America.
I admire the beauty in all creatures. There are fascinating worlds in all scales, from the minuscule to the enormous
It would be very hard to choose only one or a few favourites. It is mind-blowing to watch nature’s creativity, there isn’t a single creature who does not possess an inherent beauty, it depends on humans to see it, or not.
We are often so immersed in our lives that we don’t take the time to appreciate nature
It is kind of sad to see how many of us have forgotten to appreciate or just to contemplate the beauty all around us.
My principal motivation to paint is nature and the love I have for it. I love all the magnificent creatures we have in this amazing planet we live in and which is our only home.
I paint animals to make them visible
I have always been attracted to drawing and painting animals. To show them to the world and hopefully change the way we should see nature- as a part of ourselves rather than apart from it.
I believe that all species deserve the same rights to exist
Humankind has lost it’s values. Sadly money is the only driving force nowadays.
We are destroying our own planet and the only place that we call home.
This isn’t just a problem with big companies, but also with our personal choices regarding our consumption habits – what we buy as consumers.
Science has shown that tuna and other big fish populations have decreased more than 90% in many cases
Yet many people still choose to ignore this fact and eat fish rapaciously. If we don’t intervene, in a few years everything will be lost forever.
We should stop eating sentient beings
So yes, right now it’s every person’s responsibility and duty to critically analyse our food choices and to stop eating the sentient beings who deserve to have a life of their own and who do not have a voice.
You can purchase my art through my brand Zigze.com
My art can be found through my brand Zigze http://www.zigze.com or you can visit @zigze_arte_salvaje , or my other more personal IG @juanchi_illustration
In Ecuador where I live, palm oil has replaced vast areas of rainforest
Just like in other parts of the world, palm oil companies exist to make money. They won’t stop with their endless expansion, because corporate greed doesn’t care for anything other than profits.
A recent report by Insight Crime revealed that the major driver for deforestation in Ecuador is palm oil
Most forest loss in Ecuador’s Amazon results from land being cleared for palm oil cultivation. Meanwhile, Venezuela’s, Suriname’s, and Guyana’s forests are most affected by gold mining.
Palm Oil and Land Grabs in Ecuador
As in Bolivia, deforestation in Ecuador’s Amazon is mainly driven by agroindustrial interests. Sixty-five percent of land use across Ecuador’s Amazon is designated for pasture, according to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). A lack of economic incentives for farmers discourages them from being sustainable and efficient in their practices, according to the UNDP. Meanwhile, the expansion of industrial agriculture has reduced possibilities for small-scale agriculture. As access to land has become scarce, the illegal grabbing of small plots has ramped up.
Agricultural interests often drive the unconstitutional eviction of communities from territories that have belonged to them for centuries. In many cases, intimidation and falsified documents are used to expel them from their homes. Otherwise, agricultural activities linked to land grabbing are fomented by judicial decisions and rulings issued by authorities.
Extracted from: ‘Insight Crime: Fueling Forest Loss: Motors of Deforestation in the Amazon’, published November 8, 2022.
Huge biodiverse parts of Ecuadorian coastal areas have been replaced by this devastating monoculture
Now huge areas of the Ecuadorian rainforest are suffering the same fate. For a cheap and crappy ingredient in supermarket products, we are losing our greatest treasure of Ecuador – our biodiversity.
It is doubtful that any palm oil company or palm oil investor can see the value of conserving this richness. Instead, they are creating a barren and dead land where no other species can thrive. They are disrupting all of the natural balancing systems that have supported humankind and animalkind for many millennia.
Palm oil companies are blind. There is no worst kind of blind person than those who refuse to see!
There is no sustainable way to produce palm oil. When you visit a palm oil plantation, the only thing you are guaranteed to find is kilometres and kilometres stretching far beyond the horizon or palms, palms and more palms.
Recently I had the opportunity to visit a palm oil plantation in Ecuador
“It surprised me to see vast expanses of dead palms. At first I though perhaps they were in the process of being replaced. However, I later discovered that they were dying from some strange disease. The owners didn’t have a clue what was killing them.”
Inside I rejoiced because this was nature fighting back!
As the forgotten father of environmentalism Alexander von Humboldt advised us more than 200 years ago when he glimpsed nature’s vulnerability and the devastating environmental effects of colonial cash crop cultivation:
Monoculture and deforestation made the land barren, washed away soil and drained lakes and rivers.
Alexander von Humbolt as quoted in Los Angeles Times “Op-Ed: Alexander von Humboldt: The man who made nature modern“.
I support the boycott of palm oil and the #Boycott4Wildlife
I believe that our personal choices or actions regarding our consumer habits have way more effect than our words. We as consumers can drive the companies toward better habits.
I support any boycott that will bring greedy companies to their senses and to help stop the devastation of rainforests in Ecuador and other parts of South America and the world.
As a conscientious person, I have become aware of my choices. As far as it is possible, I choose to refrain from purchasing things with palm oil and to buy products with as light environmental footprint as possible.
I admire environmental activists so much
If I could speak to them directly, I would encourage them to keep persevering with their work.
In Ecuador and in many other parts of South America, being an activist carries the risk of being killed
More than 1700 activists have been killed over the past decade. In Ecuador we hear more and more frequently about activists being murdered.
I encourage journalists, activists and leaders to use every tool at their disposal to show what is happening
The voracious companies in Ecuador are devastating our nature and environment. If I could speak to the CEO’s of these companies I would tell them to take their blindfolds off. Their greed and stupidity is no excuse for what they are doing to all life on our planet.
What corporations do for industrial-scale food today will make all of us hungry tomorrow
All systems are collapsing at an alarming rate, mainly because of multi-national corporations and their reckless way of exploiting the natural world. They need to heed the science, logic and their own hearts instead of their bank balances. They need to stop pretending that their actions are not harmful.
All of the fortunes in the world won’t serve us anymore if the earth’s support systems collapse
Money won’t serve any purpose if we can’t breathe and don’t have clean water to drink. What these people will discover is that we can’t eat and drink money and we will see them in hell!
The fight is an unfair one
Palm oil giants, allied with the governments have infinite resources, if you compare this with the resources of indigenous peoples.
It is a David and Goliath battle.
An orangutan against a bulldozer
A single person against the machinery of death
Reason against stupidity
Love against hatred
Communities against the egos
Reason against madness
In defence of nature it will take a brave and valiant effort to resist this sort of power. We should support these activists and demand that their voices are heard throughout the entire planet.
ENDS
Learn more about animals endangered by palm oil in South America
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Contribute in five ways
1. Join the #Boycott4Wildlife on social media and subscribe to stay in the loop: Share posts from this website to your own network on Twitter, Mastadon, Instagram, Facebook and Youtube using the hashtags #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife.
2. Contribute stories: Academics, conservationists, scientists, indigenous rights advocates and animal rights advocates working to expose the corruption of the palm oil industry or to save animals can contribute stories to the website.
3. Supermarket sleuthing: Next time you’re in the supermarket, take photos of products containing palm oil. Share these to social media along with the hashtags to call out the greenwashing and ecocide of the brands who use palm oil. You can also take photos of palm oil free products and congratulate brands when they go palm oil free.
4. Take to the streets: Get in touch with Palm Oil Detectives to find out more.
5. Donate: Make a one-off or monthly donation to Palm Oil Detectives as a way of saying thank you and to help pay for ongoing running costs of the website and social media campaigns. Donate here
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Congratulations Juanchi
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