The deforestation in Colombia and the Amazon skyrocketed in the first quarter of this year with an increase of 40% and reached a “historic peak”as reported this Monday by the Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development, Susana Muhamad.
In the presentation of the balance of Early Deforestation Warnings, the minister said that this figure contrasts with the positive downward trend of recent years in the country.
“We may be at a historic peak,” which even exceeds the deforestation data for the first quarter of 2022, “a period that was terrible”, according to the minister, who did not give figures of the devastated hectares.
Muhamad warned that the forecasts for this year are very worrying: “We expected that deforestation would increase, but not at the levels it is increasing”.
Conflict and deforestation
The increase in deforestation is due, on the one hand, to the dry season aggravated by the El Niño phenomenon, but also largely due to coercion by armed groups in rural areas, something that for Muhamad represents a “violation of International Humanitarian Law (IHL)”.
Specifically, the minister blamed the Central General Staff (EMC), the largest dissident of the former FARC guerrilla, because they are not allowing the application of natural control and conservation initiatives of the National Development Plan, and in turn they are “promoting the felling of forests as a mechanism to put pressure on the peace agreement negotiations” with the Government.
According to data from the ministry, the increase in deforestation has been seen in areas where the EMC has a greater presence, such as the departments of Meta, Guaviare and Caquetá, in the south-central part of the country, where, according to Muhamad, “nature is being put in the middle of the conflict.”
The minister took the opportunity to show her support for the presidents of the communities that are being attacked: “I want to tell the presidents of these community boards that they have the support of the Government, we are not going to leave them alone.”
Forecasts for the end of El Niño
On the other hand, the Ministry of the Environment sees with hope the beginning of the rainy season, which they hope will last throughout the month of May.
In November of last year, the Colombian Government declared the beginning of the El Niño season, at which time 354 municipalities had water supply problems, which is why, according to Muhamad, the Risk Management Unit took the affected cities to and in rural areas more than 15 million liters of water.
El Niño is characterized by a warming of the waters of the Pacific Ocean, which can lead to droughts in different regions of the world and cause an increase in temperatures for a prolonged period of time.
In Colombia, this meteorological phenomenon has intensified droughts and caused the proliferation of forest fires that took place at the end of January and beginning of February at their peak, even burning part of the eastern hills of Bogotá.
The lack of rain due to El Niño has dramatically reduced the level of the reservoirs that supply drinking water to Bogotá and other cities, which is why the mayor of the Colombian capital, Carlos Fernando Galán, said this Monday that rationing will begin next Thursday. indefinite in the city.
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Source: Gestion
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