The protection and care of the Amazon must be at the center of the negotiations that world leaders will hold at COP16 (Conference of the Parties) of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), which will be held in Cali, Colombia, between October 20 and November 1, 2024.
The Colombian Amazon, vital for the hydroclimatic balance of the country and the planet, as well as for sustaining the well-being of the entire population, faces serious risks due to forest loss related to changes in land use. According to the georeferenced information platform Mapbiomas, between 1985 and 2023, this region went from 42.3 million to 39.4 million hectares of natural forest, which represents a loss of almost 7% of its vegetation. What can be done to stop this trend?
The Alliance Listens to the Amazon (ELA), made up of eight civil society organizations from Colombia1, presents the “Decalogue of Peace with Nature for the Amazon”, a series of recommendations addressed to the Colombian Government, the governments of the Amazonian states and society in general, with the aim of assuming political and ethical responsibility for the care of this region. to guarantee the well-being of its inhabitants, to advance in the construction of peace and to avoid the point of no return that would lead this territory to be transformed, gradually or abruptly, into a tropical savannah. COP16 represents a unique opportunity for Colombia to expand its commitment to the care of life in its multiple expressions, advance the commitments of the National Development Plan (2022-2026) and become a global actor that articulates the biodiversity and climate change agendas.
This decalogue is a call to the Colombian Government to guarantee an intercultural State that recognizes the contributions of indigenous peoples, peasant communities and Afro-descendants in the protection of the forest and its biodiversity; to end deforestation through ambitious and concrete strategies and targets; to achieve a participatory territorial planning that protects the rights of those who inhabit and manage this territory; and to close the gender gaps that affect Amazonian women.
It is also a call to citizens to understand the dependence of their well-being on the health of the Amazon, that the balance of the rainfall regime in other areas of the country, such as the Andean region, depends on it and to link up and support the demands of social movements, indigenous peoples and NGOs that work in the protection of the Amazon. In addition, it is a call to the countries of the Amazon region to establish cooperation agreements in the fight against transnational crime.
Colonization processes, which have led to the expansion of extensive cattle ranching, land grabbing, the installation of agro-industrial crops, and the construction of legal and illegal roads, are generating accelerated pressure and destruction in one of the most biodiverse regions on the planet. Added to these are legal and illegal extractive economies (mining, drug trafficking, wildlife trafficking, hydrocarbon extraction), which not only contribute to deforestation and forest degradation, but also profoundly affect the human rights of local communities, and collective well-being for the ecosystem services that depend on the Amazon (such as, for example, the satisfaction of water needs or the generation of electricity)
Consequently, the Alliance Listens to the Amazon (ELA), which was born more than two years ago in order to position the Amazon region on the national public agenda, in its “Decalogue of Peace with Nature for the Amazon” calls on the Amazonian states and society in general to:
- Materialize an intercultural State that respects the knowledge systems, autonomy, forms of governance and biocultural and territorial rights of indigenous and Afro-descendant communities. This includes formalizing the Indigenous Territorial Entities (ETI) according to Decree Law 632 of 2018 and enacting the Decree of the Indigenous Environmental Authority.
- End deforestation and promote forest restoration by integrating local knowledge. This includes reporting in the reports of the IDEAM (Institute of Hydrology, Meteorology and Environmental Studies) the impact of deforestation drivers and approving the livestock traceability law to avoid the consumption of meat from deforested areas and national natural parks, among others.
- Regulate the financial mechanisms that seek to mitigate climate change and conserve biological diversity, responding to the orders of the Constitutional Court that require regulating initiatives to reduce emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD+), and guarantee the free, prior and informed consent of the communities involved.
- Achieve participatory planning and land use (in more than 47 million hectares that make up the Colombian Amazon), with an emphasis on water governance and land use. This presupposes adequate coordination with the authorities of the indigenous territories and their own management instruments (Life Plans).
- Promote the creation of an environmental awareness that gives a place of preponderance to the Amazon within the climate crisis and biodiversity loss, strengthening a national environmental education policy focused on transforming social, economic and cultural practices that degrade nature.
- Close the gender gaps that affect women, incorporating a cross-cutting approach in programs aimed at the Amazon. Women are key in caring for biodiversity, but also the most affected by violence and climate change.
- Guarantee citizen participation and oversight to monitor official strategies for biodiversity conservation and the fight against climate change. It is also key for the monitoring, incidence and dissemination in the reports of the Scientific Panel for the Amazon.
- Combat transnational crime through regional cooperation agreements between Amazonian states. Strengthen coordination among the authorities of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO) and activate the Center for International Police Cooperation of the Amazon (CICC-Amazonia).
- Establish diplomatic cooperation agreements for the care of the Amazon biome and its people, in order to create monitoring systems and observatories with reliable, timely, and updated information, which allow the evaluation of pressures and threats to this biome in order to carry out preventive actions or to counteract them.
- Follow up on the agreements of the summit of Amazonian presidents in Belém do Pará (2023), which seek to mobilize economic resources for the protection of the Amazon, strengthen the institutional capacities of the states of the region, cooperate on environmental crimes, and promote a sustainable economy. Accountability for progress is critical.
Read the Spanish version of the “Decálogo de paz con la naturaleza para la Amazonia colombiana”.
