The amount of forest loss fell from 1,235 sq km in 2022 to 792 sq km in 2023 – a 36% decrease, official figures revealed. Most of the environmental gains were in the Amazon rainforest, where the Colombian government is focusing much of its conservation efforts.
Deforestation in Colombia falls to lowest level in 23 years Read more
Following 17 years of legal proceedings, victims of paramilitary violence in Colombia have obtained justice, as a jury found the banana company Chiquita Brands International liable for financing the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) paramilitary group. The ruling is historic because it’s the first time an American jury has held a major U.S. corporation liable for complicity in serious human rights abuses in another country. Victims’ families will receive $38.3 million in compensation.
Colombian victims win historic lawsuit in U.S. court over banana giant Chiquita Read more
More than 700 campesinos from the municipality of Cartagena del Chairá have started restoring more than 11,000 acres of degraded rainforest in one of Colombia’s deforestation hotspots. In collaboration with researchers from SINCHI, the Amazonian Scientific Research Institute, and the Association of Community Action Boards, the families have recorded more than 600 plant and more than 100 animal species in the area.
Campesinos plant nearly a million trees in deforestation hotspot in the Colombian Amazon Read more
In the 1990s, more than 60 people per 100,000 were killed in homicides each year, according to data from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. Homicide was the cause of 15% of all deaths at the time. The homicide rate has fallen significantly since then, as the chart shows. In 2021, it was around 27 homicides per 100,000 people. The country’s rate is now much closer to the regional rate of the Americas, at 15 homicides per 100,000 people.
Colombia’s homicide rate has more than halved since the 1990s Read more
Since the 1980s, the combined populations of river dolphin species have plummeted by 73%. With the Global Declaration for River Dolphins, 14 countries are expected to join forces to protect six surviving species. So far, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Brazil, Cambodia, Colombia, Ecuador, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Peru, and Venezuela have signed the declaration.
11 countries sign global pact to protect endangered river dolphins Read more
The $3.7-million project could take several decades because of the severity of the environmental damage done by illegal mining, which has deforested the park and polluted its rivers with mercury. The 485,226-acre national park is an important biological corridor along Colombia’s Pacific coast.
Forest restoration planned for Colombia’s Farallones de Cali National Park Read more
Since taking power last year, leftist President Gustavo Petro has enacted a slate of new policies aimed at protecting Colombian forests, including paying locals to conserve woodland. The recent gains in Colombia mirror similar advances in the Brazilian Amazon, where leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has cracked down on forest clearing.
Deforestation in Colombia down 70% year-on-year Read more
“This is really dramatic,” conservationist Rodrigo Botero told The Guardian. “It’s the highest reduction in deforestation and forest fires that there has been in two decades.”
Deforestation fell 26% in Colombian Amazon last year Read more
The wooden objects are highly revered by the country’s Indigenous Kogi mountain people, and their return is the latest in a string of cultural restitutions by Germany and other European nations.
Germany hands back centuries-old masks to Colombia Read more
Since last August, thousands of Awá have been forcibly displaced or suffered threats, intimidation, torture or forced recruitment by organized crime groups participating in drug trafficking and illegal mining.
Colombia and Ecuador create alert system to protect Indigenous Awá from armed groups Read more
