Context:
With its high biological diversity, Colombia is regarded as one of the 17 ‘megadiverse countries’ – those that hold the greatest number of species on earth. Forests cover over 60 million hectares of Colombia. Because of the armed conflict, many forests were inaccessible for years. They have been accessible again since the 2016 peace agreement and the withdrawal of armed groups, but that exposes them to uncontrolled deforestation.
Objective:
Forests in the Amazon regions of Meta, Caquetá and Guaviare are being sustainably managed. Forest-based value chains have been expanded and interministerial policy provisions are being implemented.
Approach:
Together with the Colombian Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the regional environmental authorities, the project works to reduce deforestation by bringing forests in the regions of Meta, Caquetá and Guaviare under sustainable management. The consultancy company GOPA is supporting this effort.
It promotes value chains and services that originate from environmentally friendly and integrative forest management. The aim is to enable people who live in and depend on the forest for their livelihood to earn higher incomes from more diverse sources. These include timber, cacay nuts, the moriche palm and honey, but also tourism. The project provides capacity development to women and young adults in particular by training them in production, processing and marketing.
It also improves the coordination and capacity to act of the most important decision-makers. To achieve this, the project has created tools such as the online platform ‘ExpoBosques’, which links important national actors.
In collaboration with decision-makers, the project contributes to implementing policies and strategies for proper, sustainable and integrative forest management, such as a gender-equal forest extension system.