Greening Peace in Colombia
Publisher: Nature Ecology and Evolution
Author(s): Brigitte Baptiste, Miguel Pinedo-Vasquez, Victor H. Gutierrez-Velez, Germán I. Andrade, Pablo Vieira, Lina M. Estupiñán-Suárez, Maria C. Londoño, William Laurance, and Tien Ming Lee
Date: 2017
Topics: Land, Livelihoods, Peace Agreements, Renewable Resources
Countries: Colombia
As peace consolidates in Colombia, can biodiversity survive development? We discuss challenges and opportunities for integrating forest biodiversity conservation into developing, war-dilapidated economies of post-conflict regions, paving the way for a green economy and climate resilient society.
If the peace agreement that was recently approved by the Colombian congress holds after 50 years of civil war, what might be the fate of forest biodiversity? Concerns were raised by the scientific community following the narrow rejection of the Colombian peace agreement in a referendum1. Colombian forests are known to contain 10% of the planet’s biodiversity and a great number of these forests are found in regions that have suffered from the conflict, leaving them in vulnerable condition2,3. It has been estimated that half a century of war has led to 1 million hectares of forest loss in Colombia (Fig. 1). Most areas that have been historically affected by conflict coincide with fragile natural forest ecosystems4. Forest biodiversity has been shaped by cycles of gun-point land grabbing and abandonment that have resulted in complex mosaics of spontaneously regenerated vegetation and patches of natural forests2. The extended post-conflict forest regrowth areas are heterogeneous and inter-linked by networks of riparian vegetation along streams, remnants of old growth in slopes as well as clusters or patches of forests in grasslands5.