Colombian President Ivan Duque’s environmental policies have “failed,” according to experts who dispute the outgoing right-wing government’s claims that it has reduced deforestation.
With the conservative Duque handed over to his left-wing successor Gustavo Petro on Sunday, the new government must find solutions to the problem.
The South American country is one of the most biodiverse in the world, according to the United Nations, but lost an area of forest larger than the Gaza Strip (7,000 square kilometers, 2,700 sq mi) between 2018 and 2021. to official information.
The Duque government “focused on military and judicial operations” to combat deforestation, particularly in the Amazon rainforest, but these “failed,” according to former Environment Minister Manuel Rodriguez (1991-96).
And although the deforestation figure is worse than in the previous four years, from 2014 to 2017 (6,500 square kilometers), the government has defended its record.
“This phenomenon has decreased by 34 percent compared to the trend model,” said Environment Minister Carlos Correa when presenting the deforestation figure for 2021 of 1,741 square kilometers.
But instead of comparing that figure to 2020’s 1,717 square kilometers, the government compared it to a projection model based on the trend between 2008 and 2017, when deforestation was out of control.
“So, given a hypothetical disaster scenario, is 1,700 square kilometers of forest good to be lost? I don’t think so,” said Rodrigo Botero, director of the Conservation and Development Foundation.
According to Botero, the authorities’ own figures show that rainforest loss increased between 2019 and 2021.
“We are still at a very high point on the deforestation curve,” Botero told AFP.
“The fact that we have had an increase three years in a row means that there is no control over the structural variables, which is an alarming sign.”
Colombia isn’t the only South American country struggling to stem forest loss.
Neighboring Brazil, which is home to most of the Amazon rainforest, posted a record loss in the first half of 2022.
The figure of 3,750 square kilometers surpassed the previous record for the first half of 2021.
– “Modest” government success –
President-elect Petro, who will be Colombia’s first left-wing leader, has announced that he will prioritize the fight against climate change and protecting the environment.
Petro says he will suspend oil exploration to gradually switch to clean energy and limit agricultural expansion in the Amazon.
He also wants to create environmental reserves where indigenous and farming communities can develop sustainable projects.
But before that, the new president must decide what to do with his predecessor’s strategy.
In April 2019, eight months after taking power, Duque launched Operation Artemisa, a military operation to combat deforestation, with 23,000 troops.
Since then, around 100 people have been arrested and a similar number of machines confiscated.
“Artemisa had 20 surgeries, over four years that’s a pretty modest number,” Rodriguez said.
“You have to create a state presence in terms of education and job creation.”
Farmers have complained that the military operation has targeted the weakest links in the chain rather than the large-scale architects of deforestation.
Agriculture, land grabbing and the cultivation of drug crops are the main sources of deforestation.
As part of the Paris Climate Agreement, Colombia has committed to ending deforestation by 2030.
To that end, the Environment Department projects a reduction to 1,550 square kilometers of lost forest in 2022 and just 1,000 square kilometers per year by 2025.
The Norwegian government, which like Germany and the UK is sending millions of dollars in aid to Colombia to conserve its forests, has expressed concern over the likelihood of Colombia missing its first target.
And it could cost the country.
“We’re not seeing a steady decline in the rate of deforestation… the country could lose up to $260 million by 2025 if it’s not slowed down,” Ole Bergum, Norway’s climate and forests adviser in Colombia, told El Tiempo newspaper.
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