From Illegality to Rights: Environmental Governance and Peacebuilding in the Colombian Amazon

Beth Sua Carvajal, WWF Colombia (Colombia)

Illegal mining and deforestation are among the most pressing socio-environmental challenges in Colombia’s Amazon region, driving conflict, deforestation, degradation, and violence against environmental defenders. This presentation explores how environmental governance can serve as a pathway from illegality to rights, linking ecological protection with justice and peace. Drawing on WWF Colombia’s field experience and advocacy efforts, it examines cross-border conflict dynamics, the role of natural resources used to finance armed groups, and innovative approaches such as gender-sensitive governance, community-led restoration, and the promotion of the Escazú Agreement. It highlights how strengthening participatory governance, alongside legal and policy reforms, rises as an alternative to environmental crimes while empowering local communities. Reframing environmental protection as both a legal and peacebuilding endeavor, this work contributes to rethinking governance in contexts of extractivism and conflict.