Colombia Sees Deforestation Fall To Lowest Level In 23 Years

Deforestation in Colombia has fallen by 36% in 2023 – its lowest level in 23 years, with most gains being made in the Amazon rainforest and this is according to government figures.

In total, deforestation fell from 1,235sq km in 2022 to 792sq km last year.

It is the second successive sharp decrease in deforestation, and it means tree loss fell by 54% between 2021 and 2023, well above the national target of 20%.

This comes after Colombian president Gustavo Petro launched an ambitious strategy in 2022 to fight deforestation by working with indigenous groups to improve economic conditions in 22 deforestation hotspots.

You can also read: Exploring Amazon Theatre, In The Heart Of Amazon Forest, Brazil

The government also increased surveillance to stop logging and limited agribusiness expansion into the forest, as well as creating reserves where indigenous communities could harvest rubber, acai and other non-timber forest products.

Key to this is paying farmers to protect the land and speaking to armed groups who are the de facto authority in deforestation hotspots. 

You might be interested: https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/deforestation/

To keep up the momentum, the government has also called on rich nations to cancel foreign debt in order to help the country in its fight against deforestation. 

Colombia, the world’s second most biodiverse nation, after neighbouring Brazil, is due to host the Cop16 biodiversity conference in Cali.

Deforestation is the purposeful clearing of forested land. Throughout history and into modern times, forests have been razed to make space for agriculture and animal grazing, and to obtain wood for fuel, manufacturing, and construction.

Deforestation has greatly altered landscapes around the world. About 2,000 years ago, 80 percent of Western Europe was forested; today the figure is 34 percent.

In North America, about half of the forests in the eastern part of the continent were cut down from the 1600s to the 1870s for timber and agriculture.

China has lost great expanses of its forests over the past 4,000 years and now just over 20 percent of it is forested. Much of Earth’s farmland was once forests.