Colombia: Land Grabbing, Cattle Ranching Ravage Colombian Amazon after FARC Demobilization

May 30, 2019 | Taran Volckhausen, Mongabay
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In 2017, the first year following the FARC’s demobilization, deforestation in the Colombian Amazon region exploded, more than doubling from 70,074 hectares (173,000 acres) the year before to 144,147 hectares (356,000 acres), according to climate monitoring agency IDEAM. Between October and December 2018, IDEAM reported that the Amazon accounted for 75 percent of deforestation alerts, and that close to 43,000 hectares (106,300 acres) of rainforest were lost over three months in the three contiguous departments of Caquetá, Guaviare and Meta in the northwestern Amazon region.