A Dangerous Climate: Deforestation, Climate Change and Violence against Environmental Defenders in the Colombian Amazon
Publisher: World Wide Fund for Nature Germany
Date: 2021
Topics: Climate Change, Conflict Causes, Extractive Resources, Livelihoods, Peace Agreements, Renewable Resources
Countries: Colombia
New in-depth study identifies worsening spiral of environmental destruction and violence since 2016 peace treaty between government and FARC.
A twin human rights and environmental crisis in Colombia has intensified since the government and rebel army FARC signed a peace treaty in 2016, finds a new study by WWF in collaboration with the thinktank adelphi, the Colombian NGO Fundación Ideas Para la Paz (FIP) and the Frankfurt Zoological Society. The demobilisation and disarmament of FARC created a power vacuum in the Colombian Amazon that has allowed increased exploitation of natural resources and illegal economic activities, in particular the cultivation of coca plants, unregulated gold mining, livestock and agriculture. This has led not only to more environmental destruction and deforestation, but sparked a new spiral of violence.
With the sharp increase in illegal activity, local communities, NGOs and state institutions that strive to protect the Colombian Amazon are increasingly coming into conflict with the interests of powerful and heavily armed groups.