Once again, deforestation in the Colombian Amazon is rampant. The phenomenon, aggravated by the umpteenth crisis in the negotiation with the FARC dissidents led by Iván Mordisco, has once again set off all the alarms. The Minister of the Environment herself, Susana Muhamad, launched an SOS this month about the possibility of a “historic peak” of forest loss, which occurs just at the worst moment of the Gustavo Petro Government's dialogues with the self-proclaimed Central General Staff. a divided organization that is perceived more outside than inside total peace.
In the first quarter, deforestation increased 41% in the Amazon region, according to early warnings from the Ministry of the Environment, a figure that reverses the notable achievements of 2023, when it had a drop estimated between 25 and 35%, waiting for the official figures that are presented between May and June. It is the lowest annual figure since 2013. To the phenomenon of The boy, with droughts and fires that favor the burning of the jungle, adds the “significant coercion” of dissidents, which translates into the murder of indigenous people and peasants, in addition to threats and displacement of communities. They have also prevented access to environmental authorities, which hinders all types of initiatives.
“It is miserable, the psychological pressure that the armed groups are exerting against the communities,” lamented Minister Muhamad when launching that cry for help. “Nature is being put in the middle of the conflict and this is a violation of international humanitarian law,” the official denounced. “Our response has not been to abandon the area, nor have the leaders, on the contrary, we have the support of the communities and I want to tell them that they count on the Government, we are in this together.” President Petro has shown himself to the world as an environmentalist convinced of fighting climate change in one of the most biodiverse countries in the world.
But the Government has encountered a formidable obstacle in the fragmented Central General Staff, which is the dominant armed actor in the departments of Meta, Caquetá, Guaviare and Putumayo, which coincide with the so-called arc of Amazon deforestation. In other words, the places where deforestation devours huge chunks of forest every year. The conservation of these ecosystems is key to guaranteeing, among many other things, the regulation of the climate and the supply of water in the Andean zone, including distant Bogotá – today subject to rationing –, through the so-called “flying rivers.”
Efforts to stop slashing and burning in the Amazon are linked to the search for total peace with different armed groups, and especially with the EMC. They are also related to the implementation of the 'greener' aspects of the peace agreement signed with the FARC at the end of 2016, which include stopping the agricultural frontier, reintegrating ex-combatants into sustainable rural economies, illicit crop substitution projects or projects of rural development in the municipalities hardest hit by the war. All these purposes are seriously hindered by the actions of the EMC, which in many regions has ordered or prohibited logging to set the pace of the dialogues and pressure the Government.
When in arms, the FARC guerrillas tended to restrict deforestation in the areas where they operated, largely because the dense tree canopies made it difficult for the Army to identify their camps from the air. Since its disarmament, deforestation has increased, promoted by new and old armed actors, often in fierce competition between them, the International Crisis Group (ICG) explained at the time. The phenomenon is driven by livestock farming, land grabbing, illegal mining and coca crops, among other causes. The forests and tropical jungles that cover half of Colombia's territory have never stopped being under siege.
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In the first approaches, the Government asked the dissidents led by Iván Mordisco to stop the logging as a gesture of good will. The decline was noticeable, but those days seem distant. To make matters worse, last week the Government itself confirmed the fracture of the EMC, acknowledged that it is only negotiating with less than half of his men and that Mordisco abandoned the process. The main problem occurs in the department of Cauca, but the complex geography of this distribution of positions is not entirely clear, nor who is really in charge in the armed group. “We must not play with peace, if it is war it is war,” President Petro reacted to news about the military operation that left 15 dissidents dead in Algeria (Cauca).
In the departments of the Amazonian deforestation arc, there are fronts that remain at the table, others that have withdrawn from the negotiation and even one – the Carolina Ramírez front, which has been one of the most problematic – that is divided on the matter, as a study showed. recent report from the CORE foundation. “The division can also have consequences on the environmental governance of dissidents in the Amazon,” warns the think tank, with consequences that are currently unforeseeable. “For us it is not good that there are fractures in these organizations and that interlocutors multiply,” Camilo González Posso, the Government's chief negotiator, admitted this week in an interview. Deforestation is also played out at the fragile dialogue table with dissidents.
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