When the first rays of dawn filter through the Amazon canopy in Colombia, something remarkable stirs—not just the birds, but a cautious sense of relief. After years of conflict, smoke, and shadow, many forest-guardians say they can finally hear the forest exhale.
In recent years, Colombia has seen a drop in deforestation to its lowest level in over two decades. Yet this respite is fragile. Behind each measurement are stories of people, policies, and power, many of them overlapping in unexpected ways.
Peace Opened The Doors — Literally
The peace agreement with the FARC in 2016 cracked open territories long closed off by conflict. As guerrilla control receded, scientists, conservationists, and government patrols ventured into lush, biodiverse regions that had been off-limits for safety’s sake.
As one botanist, Oscar Alejandro Perez-Escobar, recalled, “I was nervous entering with soldiers guarding our expedition in 2018… but nature revealed treasures we didn’t even know we’d lost.”
This access led not only to new species being documented—three times more plant and animal species annually since peace than before—but also to increased attention on how those regions might be stewarded.
Measurable Progress: 2022-2023 Saw Gains
By 2022 and especially into 2023, the numbers told a hopeful story:
Colombia’s total forest loss dropped about 36% in 2023 compared to 2022, reaching the lowest deforestation level in 23 years—about 792 square kilometres of forest lost. Most of that decline was centered in the Amazon.
These gains were attributed to stronger governmental policy: payment-for-conservation programs, improved surveillance, negotiations with armed groups to discourage tree-clearing, and especially greater involvement of Indigenous peoples and local communities.
Cracks Begin To Form: 2024 And Warning Signals
But nature more often whispers than shouts before something breaks. By 2024, the early calm was giving way to rising alarms.
- Negotiations with armed dissident groups like the Estado Mayor Central (EMC) broke down. In some areas, these groups had previously enforced rules against deforestation; after their shift, not only did those protections weaken, some even started encouraging clearance.
- Government efforts to destroy illegal roads—critical pathways enabling forest destruction—stalled or were suspended in certain cases, sometimes because of concern that taking action might disturb delicate peace talks.
- Climate pressures worsened: drought and wildfires forced by changing weather increased the vulnerability of forested areas. Even during 2023’s positive trends, officials had warned that the El Niño phenomenon could undo much of the progress.
Real Lives, Real Voices: Communities In The Amazon
In Guaviare, villages border the forest. Farmers who once feared conflict now assert they want both peace and protection for their land.
“We believed peace would mean safety—for our children, our soil, our trees,” says María, a smallholder in Meta. “But when the roads come, when the money comes for cattle or coca, it’s hard to choose forest.”
In the department of Caquetá, Indigenous leaders report mixed outcomes. In some zones, community patrolling has helped stop illegal mining and logging.
In others, absence of state presence means armed dissidents or traffickers fill the vacuum. One leader, Luis, recalls weeks when the nearest government ranger station is so distant, a single raid can go unreported.
Scientists tell similar stories. Perez-Escobar describes discovering new orchids in territory recently opened up, but also visiting some sites now scarred by clear-cut patches or unregulated roads. The contrast is vivid: forest teeming with life one season; soil exposed and river sedimented the next.
What’s Still Working — Pillars Of Hope
Despite those pressures, several strategies are proving themselves, and may offer models if scaled or reinforced:
- Payment For Conservation: Programs where farmers or local communities are paid or otherwise supported to not clear land have shown measurable success. Where incentives are clear and backed with monitoring, the forest holds better.
- Stronger Surveillance And Law Enforcement: In parks like Chiribiquete, Tinigua, La Macarena, improved monitoring and operations against environmental crimes are reducing intrusion. Cooperation between environmental agencies, defense, judiciary helps.
- Community And Indigenous Leadership: Forest defenders on the ground often know terrain, biology, and local dynamics better than external agencies. Recognition, legal protection, support for Indigenous land titling, inclusion in decision-making are essential.
- Linking Peace And Environment: Treating environmental protection as part of the peace process—not just as a collateral benefit—has opened doors to negotiate commitments from armed groups in deforestation zones. Even goodwill gestures (like agreeing to limit tree-cutting) have helped build trust.
Urgent Priorities: What Must Happen Next
To ensure the fragile progress does not backslide, these urgent actions are needed:
- Restore peace negotiations with dissident groups, particularly EMC. Until they accept enforcement and transparency, large tracts will continue to escape state regulation.
- Ensure the removal of illegal roads proceeds, even if sensitive, with care for peace concerns. Roads are often the first entry point for logging, mining, and expansion. Delays in dismantling them cost forest.
- Boost climate resilience: Prepare for droughts, fires, and changing rainfall. Fire prevention, reforestation, water management, and maintaining ecological corridors will help buffer forests.
- Protect funding: Both domestic and international investments must be sustained. Freezing, cuts, or delays in environmental programs risk derailing gains.
- Uphold accountability and transparency: Clear reporting of forest loss, public access to data, follow through on policy commitments, and legal consequences for illegal deforestation will all build trust and power to act.
Conclusion: Guarded Optimism For Colombia’s Amazon
The story of Colombia’s Amazon in recent years is one of paradox. Peace has opened possibilities—for science, for communities, for protection.
At its best, this peace has allowed forests to reclaim ground, both literally and metaphorically. But nature’s recovery is never guaranteed, and power, economics, conflict, and environment are intertwined in ways that easily pull back.
Yet there is reason for hope. Every hectare preserved, every community leader empowered, every law enforced strengthens what has been fragile. If Colombia can sustain its recent gains, navigate the tensions, and keep forest wellbeing central in both peace and development agendas, then the Amazon there may not only survive—it might thrive.
Because ultimately, preserving trees isn’t just about the forest. It’s about the people who draw life from it, the species we may never know, the rivers still clear, and the air still rich. Colombia’s next few years will tell not only if peace can protect forests—but whether humanity can choose renewal over ruin.
Sources:
The Guardian
AP News
