Reconciling peace and the environment. A Comprehensive Policy Toolbox to Fight Deforestation in the Colombian Amazon.

The recent peace process between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) has led to radical changes in the country's Amazon region. These include a change in patterns of violence and a dramatic increase in deforestation. In response to the latter problem, the Colombian state is implementing policies that focus on coercive measures to combat the phenomenon. This strategy is generating new forms of violence that tend to increase local populations' historical distrust of state authorities, undermining the ultimate goal of peace. Anti-deforestation efforts that largely ignore local demands could reproduce the problems generated by anti-drug policies that have excluded crucial local actors, aggravated violence, and failed to effectively combat its causes and effects. In light of this problem, this project focuses on the urgent task of improving understanding of the relationship between deforestation and violent conflict in the Colombian Amazon, as well as designing conceptual and methodological tools that will enable a wide variety of actors to mitigate deforestation conflicts. In this way, the project has the potential to contribute to the overall challenge of achieving lasting and sustainable peace in the region.

Deforestation, post-conflict, Colombian Amazon, peacebuilding