Colombia: The End of Colombia's Civil War Had an Unintended Effect: Deforestation

Sep 25, 2020 | Megan Janetsky and Steven Grattan, Vice
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Colombia’s armed conflict, which lasted more than 50 years, fueled bloodshed in remote zones like these, as leftist guerrillas, right wing paramilitaries and armed forces clashed. But after the signing of the 2016 peace agreement between the Marxist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the Colombian government, guerrillas laid down their arms and left those spaces unoccupied. But the exit of the FARC - which acted as something of an arbiter in these areas -  also left a power vacuum, and those natural resources exposed. Sterling has watched as swathes of the forest he works to protect get sliced or burned down by the patchwork of groups that have taken the rebels’ place.