Colombia: Colombia’s New Anti-Deforestation Law Provokes Concern for Small-Scale Farmers

Jan 10, 2022 | Christina Noriega, Mongabay
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Last year, when Colombia’s parliament approved a reform of the nation’s environmental crime laws, the legislation received stark opposition from a surprising assortment of environmentalists, human rights activists and smallholder farmers. The environmental crime bill, which went into effect in August 2021, tacks on longer jail sentences and heftier fines for five environmental crimes already in the penal code and creates six new crimes altogether. It covers a wide gamut of environmental offenses, from wildlife trafficking to fossil fuel pollution, and lays out specific provisions targeting the deforestation crisis, an issue that has been exacerbated by the reconfiguration of the armed conflict in recent years.