[{"bbox": [96, 151, 1133, 206], "category": "Text", "text": "laundering and illicit activities thus deforesting in an uncontrolled manner. This illegal land seizure involves displacement of communities."}, {"bbox": [96, 216, 1133, 324], "category": "Text", "text": "Protection and sustainable use of forest areas is strongly linked with the policies and investments supporting the peace agenda, in particular the Comprehensive Rural Reform (point 1 of the Peace Agreement), since 60% of the Development Programmes with Focus on the Territory (PDET)'s municipalities, overlap with environmentally sensitive ecosystems and in particular with deforestation hotspots."}, {"bbox": [96, 335, 1133, 496], "category": "Text", "text": "Last, it is important to recognise Colombia's efforts towards deforestation-free production in selected commodities. Colombia formally entered the Tropical Forest Alliance²⁷ global initiative in 2017, becoming the first Latin American country to join. In 2018, Colombia also joined the Cocoa and Forests Initiative - led by the World Cocoa Foundation (WCF) and the Sustainable Trade Initiative (IDH). “Cocoa, Forests and Peace Initiative”, acknowledging cocoa's role in advancing the historic peace process by providing rural employment to farmers and communities previously involved in the conflict."}, {"bbox": [85, 521, 340, 552], "category": "Section-header", "text": "## 2.2 Problem Analysis"}, {"bbox": [96, 565, 1133, 726], "category": "Text", "text": "In Colombia, as in several low-income countries, forests have been historically considered as a limitation to economic growth, mainly based on agriculture. Within the specific context of political violence, it turned to be a hostile ecosystem, harboring illicit activities and armed groups. This negative perception of forests as well as the prolongation of the internal conflict has delayed the spread and adoption of a new culture of sustainable development and social sensitivity towards forest preservation for two decades. As a consequence, most actors ignore the real social and economic value of forests."}, {"bbox": [96, 738, 1133, 819], "category": "Text", "text": "Long periods of political violence, lack of State presence, and the need for economic opportunities have accelerated the concentration of rural population in urban centers, reinforcing the separation between the urban context and forests, and deepening territorial and socioeconomic inequalities."}, {"bbox": [96, 829, 1133, 911], "category": "Text", "text": "Between 2000 and 2019, the country has lost more than 2.8 million hectares of natural forest landscape due to deforestation. While the average annual deforestation had been 131,500 ha in the ten years prior to the Peace Agreement, in the last five years it reached 170,000 ha per year and a peak of 220,000 in 2017."}, {"bbox": [96, 922, 1133, 1055], "category": "Text", "text": "Deforestation and forest degradation is threatening the natural heritage of Colombia, hampering the possibility to meet international commitments under the 2030 Agenda and the Paris Agreement, as well as the post-COVID-19 recovery. Keeping deforestation and forest degradation under control is therefore essential not only to preserve the country's biodiversity but also to meet the NDC targets²⁸ of Colombia, as the CO₂ national emissions of the AFOLU²⁹ sector represented 55% of national emissions³⁰."}, {"bbox": [96, 1067, 1133, 1174], "category": "Text", "text": "Over the last three decades, five major drivers – which vary among the regions- have been identified: i) extensive cattle rising and ranching, ii) conversion to pasture for land grabbing purposes³¹, iii) installation of new areas for coca cultivation (17% of annual deforestation average), and far less iv) agribusiness crops (oil palm) and v) basic food. Other deforestation drivers include mining, expansion of infrastructure and illegal wood extraction."}, {"bbox": [96, 1185, 1133, 1290], "category": "Text", "text": "The drivers of deforestation and forest degradation act in a context of conflict over occupation, use and ownership of land and renewable natural resources. Limited institutional presence in the territories is both cause and consequence of the internal conflicts taking place in large parts of the country, often leading to violence against environmental and social leaders."}, {"bbox": [96, 1304, 1133, 1358], "category": "Text", "text": "Public Policy CONPES 4021 considers 11 High Deforestation Hotspots (HDH), which account for 64% of the total national deforestation. Five of these Hotspots are in the Amazon region."}, {"bbox": [96, 1370, 1133, 1425], "category": "Text", "text": "As institutional capacities and local “social assets” also vary from one region to another, centrally-conceived public policies yield to differentiated impacts. Therefore, confronting deforestation, forest degradation and reaching the"}, {"bbox": [85, 1467, 1142, 1515], "category": "Footnote", "text": "²⁷ The TFA is a multi-stakeholder partnership that supports the implementation of private sector commitments to eliminate deforestation in agricultural and forestry value chains(https://www.tropicalforestalliance.org/)"}, {"bbox": [85, 1514, 1074, 1559], "category": "Footnote", "text": "²⁸ Umweltbundesambt 2018. https://www.umweltbundesamt.de/sites/default/files/medien/1410/publikationen/2018-11-01_climate-change_25-2018_country-report-colombia.pdf"}, {"bbox": [85, 1559, 425, 1580], "category": "Footnote", "text": "²⁹ Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use"}, {"bbox": [85, 1580, 901, 1602], "category": "Footnote", "text": "³⁰ Government of Colombia, 2015. Intended Nationally Determined Contribution. Ministry of Environment."}, {"bbox": [85, 1602, 1042, 1646], "category": "Footnote", "text": "³¹ Gobierno de Colombia, DNP. Bases del Plan Nacional de Desarrollo 2018-2022 (https://www.dnp.gov.co/Plan-Nacional-de-Desarrollo/Paginas/Bases-del-Plan-Nacional-de-Desarrollo-2018-2022.asp/)"}, {"bbox": [1038, 1681, 1144, 1705], "category": "Page-footer", "text": "Page 7 of 28"}]