I took a trip into the Colombian Amazon.
Here’s what I learned.
Colombia is one of the most biodiverse countries on the planet — second only to its neighbor Brazil — and around 10% of the plant and animal species in the world can be found there. Today, this dazzling biodiversity is under threat, for reasons listed in a U.N. report, published on May 6th, that estimated that 1 million plant and animal species on the planet are at risk of extinction in the coming decades due to human activities. The report was much in my mind during my trip to the Colombian Amazon last month, where I met with local farmers, indigenous peoples and environmentalists.
I travelled to Florencia in the Caquetá region, where the Amazon forest starts, to understand the scale and scope of the deforestation problem, and to understand what is being done to address it. The most immediate thing I noticed was the number of armed military and police in the area. Caquetá was a hotbed of the 53-year conflict between the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the national Colombian government. The conflict came to an end in 2017 with a peace treaty, in which the FARC rebels laid down their weapons. While the area is much safer than it was before the truce, Caquetá is still recovering.
Peace has brought about discoveries and deforestation
With the end of the conflict, the tightly-controlled regions within FARC’s domain suddenly became open lands, and this has become an opportunity for scientific research. During FARC control of the Amazon, scientists had to gain permission from the rebel group to conduct research projects. Many foreign scientists stayed away for fear of being granted access, only to be kidnapped later for ransom. Since the region has opened up, scientists have been discovering new plant and animal species, and have been catching up on how ecosystems are shifting due to climate change.
While the peace treaty makes life safer for local Colombians, it has also brought about an enormous amount of deforestation. The FARC restricted logging and land clearing in the areas they controlled, but as FARC rebels demobilized in the year prior to the 2017 peace treaty, Colombian deforestation jumped 44% in 2016 to 178,597 hectares (690 sq miles) compared to 2015. In the wake of the FARC’s exit, illegal logging, mining, and cattle ranching has soared, and the national Colombian government seems ill-prepared to respond to this challenge.
Ecological corridors are being disrupted
My guides from Fundacion Pichachos and Universidad de la Amazonia explained that the edge of the Amazon continually shifts as more and more land is cleared and roads are built. These activities have had a devastating effect on the ecological corridors — the natural areas that connect plants, animals, and water across different parts of the region. These corridors are necessary for ecological services such as carbon sequestration, water filtration, and nutrient provision that maintain the biodiversity of the region, and therefore the health of the local communities as well.
Old and new tech for restoration, conservation and agroforestry
To protect and restore ecological corridors, local groups have been working with farmers and landowners to restore degraded and deforested land. For the last 12 years Fundacion Pichachos and agricultural engineers from Universidad de la Amazonia have restored over 1100 hectares of land, and have worked to reconnect forests that have been cut off from the Amazon by deforestation. They use 33 native species of plants to optimize the chances of germination and growth, and to minimize the impacts of invasives. The agricultural engineers know the local ecosystem better than anyone, so they know which species grow well next to others, what soil types to plant certain species in, and what conditions give the new forest the best chance of growth.
Newer technology is also being put to use. NASA Landsat satellite monitoring is helping to track new growth, manage the forest, and identify developing areas where deforestation may happen in the future. For example, local indigenous peoples and environmental groups can use freely-available satellite imagery to chart new roads and developments to more accurately predict where deforestation will happen next, and to create a strategy to intervene before deforestation occurs. It’s a lot more effective and economical to conserve trees, rather than plant new ones after the fact. Drone technology is also being used to quickly monitor local areas for newly cleared land. By identifying deforestation in its early stages, local groups can work with landowners to come to mutually beneficial agreements for keeping land intact. The local authorities have provided tax incentives to farmers and landowners who are conserving forest and restoring degraded land, and many just don’t know about these and other incentives.
In addition to restoration, these groups are also involved in agroforestry — integrating agriculture within the forest landscape. Before monoculture and land clearing became the norm, food was harvested from plants growing within the natural environment, and cattle grazed amongst the trees. These traditional practices are back in play, as farmers begin to see the benefits — better weather patterns, richer soil with less erosion, and healthier cattle — when they integrate their crops and cattle into the forest
Taking a jurisdictional approach
This multi-stakeholder, jurisdictional approach in Caquetá is starting to take hold, as more farmers see both the ecological and economic benefits of conservation, restoration and agroforestry. The wider world is starting to take notice too. The Tropical Forest Alliance has highlighted the region, and the Governor’s Climate and Forests Task Force recently held its summit here. Government officials and forest experts from the world over descended on Caquetá to get a first-hand look at how jurisdictional approaches, in which companies, government and local stakeholders work together to create new sustainable development models, work on the ground.
I’m inspired by this work, its potential to scale and to spread to other jurisdictions. In particular, I’d like to bring jurisdictional best practices to Mato Grosso, Brazil. The agricultural powerhouse of Mato Grosso produces nearly 30% of Brazil’s soy and has the largest cattle herd in Brazil, with more than 30 million cattle. Mato Grosso’s jurisdictional initiative, Produce, Conserve, Include (PCI), set aggressive statewide sustainable development goals in 2015. By 2030, the PCI aims to reduce deforestation of the Amazon and the Cerrado woodland by 90 and 95 percent respectively, regrow natural forests on 6.7 million acres of land, increase the production of soy and cattle and provide technical assistance to all of the state’s 104,000 small-scale farmers. To aid in corporate action within Mato Grosso, the PCI launched the PCI Pitchbook, which provides a menu of on-the-ground programs that are ripe for corporate engagement.
Restoring degraded lands helps, but isn’t the full solution
Trekking through a secondary forest — flanked by military personnel — it is quite impressive to see what kind of growth can happen in just over a decade. A tall, full canopy, a thick forest floor, and diversity of plant species intermingling. Couple that with rubber and native nut trees, and I’m inspired by the potential that restoration can have on local areas.
But restoration isn’t a panacea for the deforestation problem. The new growth forest carbon sinks are slow to form, and aren’t nearly as robust as old growth forest. The GHG emissions that come with clearing land far exceed the potential carbon sequestration of restored forests, and the sheer scale of easy, cheap deforestation dwarfs that of land recovered through the hard work of reforestation. In short, we need to keep old growth forest and peatland intact NOW. We need to value the trees more alive than dead so that farmers and landowners have a bigger incentive to do the right thing for the planet.
Indigenous peoples are protecting the forest
One group that knows how important protecting the forest is to the stability of the environment and humanity are the Inga. These indigenous people live in the southwest of Colombia and number about 20,000. They invited me into their village to show me their traditions and rituals, their use of plants for sacred medicine, and their way of life. They also wanted to communicate to me the challenges they faced during the conflict between the government and the FARC, as well as the continual conflict they face with the developing world.
Recently, the Inga have also had to be vigilant against illegal land seizures. The Inga, like many indigenous groups, have tenuous land tenure rights. These are traditional lands with little documentation of ownership, which leaves them vulnerable to outside logging and land clearing. To combat this, they monitor and protect their lands on a near-daily basis, grow saplings to plant on cleared landed, and their traditional plants within the forest. In short, they are doing in microcosm what we need to do at the macro level: conserve and protect the land we have, grow food sustainably in harmony with the land, and work to restore what we’ve previously altered. The Inga’s connection to Nature is the essence of their culture, and it was palpable when I visited them just how threatened that connection is at the moment.
We all have a role to play
Ultimately, deforestation is a human problem. What I learned in the Colombian Amazon is that humans are impacting the natural world, both positively and negatively, and that becomes a feedback loop. Negative actions to the environment will have negative consequences to humanity, and positive actions to the environment can lead us to an ever-deepening respect for our symbiosis with nature.
I also learned that technology, applied to protecting nature, can be a powerful force for good. Satellite imagery and drones allow us to track deforestation, and old school botany and agronomy can reintegrate crops back into the natural landscape.
I’m inspired by the progress that has been made in the jurisdiction of Caquetá, and I’m energized to take the lessons learned there and apply them to other jurisdictions like Mato Grosso. By working together and learning from one another, I’m hopeful that we can turn the tide on deforestation, and find the way that works for farmers, businesses, governments, communities and the planet. My trip to the Colombian Amazon left me with a feeling of how lucky we are to live in this beautiful world, and how much responsibility we have to protect it for future generations. Let’s get to work.
