BOGOTA (Colombia) Environmental groups are alarmed at the sharp rise in Amazon fires. They blame illegal road construction, cattle ranches and coca farms for the increase.
More than 150 activists and academics representing Brazil, France, Spain and Colombia sent a Tuesday letter to President Ivan Duque urging him to be more aggressive against deforestation. They asked that the military be used to extinguish the fires and create economic alternatives for those living in the Amazon region. They also requested that he arrest those who finance the clearing of forests.
Sandra Vilardy (a biology professor at Los Andes University, Bogota) said that this tragedy could have been prevented. She also leads an interdisciplinarious group that monitors the deforestation of Colombia’s national forests.
The dry season in Colombia’s Amazon region generally runs from January through March. This leads to an increase of forest fires. However, environmental groups warn that the number of forest fires this year is quite impressive.
The Foundation for Conservation and Sustainable Development monitors deforestation and leads projects that prevent it. It reported that it detected more than 1,800 fires within the Colombian Amazon in January. This is an increase from the 65 fires it found in the same month last years. It was the largest January fire count since 2012.
The foundation uses data from the Global Forest Watch app to calculate heat points and then compares it with satellite images and data collected on its own flights over Amazon.
Alejandra Gomez is the coordinator of the foundation’s monitoring program. She said that the fires indicate growing deforestation in Colombia’s Amazon, particularly along the rainforest’s northern rim where agriculture is rapidly expanding.
Gomez stated, “These areas that are currently burning were most likely cut down in Nov.” Farmers will burn the downed plants once the dry season begins.
Late last month, Colombia’s Environment Ministry reported that the heat point count over the Amazon in Colombia was the highest ever recorded for January. However, Nicolas Galarza (vice minister for territorial development) cautioned that heat levels are not always comparable to fires. He stated that data on January deforestation will be released later in the year.
Galarza stated that 170 fires have been put out by Colombian firefighters in the Amazon this year.
According to government statistics deforestation reached its peak in Colombia in 2017. The country lost 219,000 hectares (815 miles) of forest cover in 2017. In 2020, which was the last year that figures were available, Colombia had lost 171,000 hectares.
Colombia’s government has attempted to curb deforestation through military operations against illegal loggers in national parks and by making financing or cutting down forests a crime punishable with 15 years imprisonment.
Galarza stated that the government has also provided subsidies to families for forest preservation programs and increased funding for firefighters.
“Deforestation can be a huge challenge,” the vice minister said. “But it’s not something we have neglected.”
Critics argue that programs promoting sustainable forest use, such as harvesting natural crops like Acaiberries, only involve a few hundred families, while the region’s dependence on cattle ranching seems to be increasing.
The Colombian Institute for Agriculture reported that the number registered cattle in three Amazon region provinces doubled between 2016-2021. The Foundation for Conservation and Sustainable Development supported an investigation that found that the number of cattle in three villages bordering national parks increased from 80,000 in 2016 and 194,000 in 2020.
The largest rebel army in Colombia, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia abandoned large swathes of the Amazon after a peace agreement with the government. Analysts believe their departure has encouraged cattle ranchers, and other groups, to move in and clear foresta that the rebels had relied upon for cover.
Vilardy stated that the inability of the government to prevent the fires makes sustaining the country’s recent commitments at the Glasgow global climate conference to reduce carbon emissions and preserve the country’s natural areas more difficult.
She said that deforestation will continue, and some parts of the Colombian Amazon may stop capturing carbon emissions. Instead, they will become net producers. She pointed out that Tinigua national parks has lost 45% of its original forest coverage.
Vilardy stated, “This area of the earth is vital for regulating world’s climate.” “The levels of deterioration in the northern Amazon cannot be sustained.”
