And Now Who Governs the Forest? State and Rebel Environmental Governance in the Colombian Amazon
Publisher: Latin American Perspectives
Author(s): Juan Corredor- García
Date: 2026
Topics: Governance, Renewable Resources
Countries: Colombia
The 2016 Peace Agreement between the Colombian State and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People’s Army (FARC-EP) sought to end a sixty-year civil war, yet unexpectedly accelerated environmental damage in the Colombian Amazon. Following the power vacuum left by the demobilized guerrillas in Southern Colombia, an area that coincides with the tropical rainforest, new armed groups emerged to fill the void and engaged in various illicit activities, driving high levels of deforestation. Surprisingly, some of these groups also implemented forms of "rebel environmental governance" by managing natural resources and protecting the biome. This paper examines the environmental governance configurations of both state and non-state actors ten years after the signing of the Peace Agreement, analyzing these dynamics through changes in deforestation rates.