Colombia’s Former Guerrillas Need New Jobs. Why Not in Conservation?

Jul 18, 2016 | Clare Fieseler
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The government of Colombia and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, declared a ceasefire after 50 years of fighting. Almost 7,000 FARC guerrilla-style fighters will abandon clandestine jungle hamlets, demobilize, and re-integrate into a new Colombia. Almost 30 percent of them are women, many of them commanders. Twenty percent have some form of higher education.

This available workforce is a rare gift to a rural landscape that could use one. Among them are working, independent women with proven leadership skills now resettling into a landscape where teenage pregnancy and pay inequality proliferate. The average time rural girls spend in school is less than five years. Conservation biologists would be quick to mention the other chronic problem plaguing this landscape: illegal deforestation. Why not utilize this available workforce to help Colombia reach its conservation goals?