[{"bbox": [96, 151, 1133, 259], "category": "Text", "text": "Rural violence targeting social leaders increased markedly during the preelectoral period. For the last four years, Colombia has registered -on average- two murders of social leaders every week. During the week previous to the elections, five were killed, including rural community leaders who had fled to the cities under the threat of illegal armed groups. The NGO Indepaz reports almost 90 murders of this kind since the start of 2022."}, {"bbox": [96, 269, 1133, 457], "category": "Text", "text": "EU relations with the government of Colombia have been of a very close collaboration and gained a higher profile with the signature of the Memorandum of Understanding on an Agenda of enhanced political and sectoral dialogue and cooperation for the next decade (Sept 2021)⁹ and the Joint Declaration for a Dialogue on Environment, Climate Action and Sustainable Development (Feb 2022)¹⁰ Both documents, as well as the high level political dialogue, the dialogue on human rights, both held in February 2022, and the visit of the EU Commissioner for Environment in May 2022, highlighted the common commitment to strengthen cooperation in a large number of areas, with a particular emphasis on environment."}, {"bbox": [96, 467, 1133, 655], "category": "Text", "text": "This action is aligned with key EU policy frameworks. It contributes to achieve the five priorities of the *EU Communication (2019) on Stepping up EU Action to Protect and Restore the World's Forests*¹¹ and the *EU Deforestation Due Diligence Proposal*¹². In addition, the action is linked to the *EU Gender Action plan* (GAP) III ¹³priority of bringing the gender perspective to new policy areas, in particular, the green transition. Lastly, the action is coherent with the *Global Strategy for the European Union's Foreign and Security Policy*¹⁴, in particular, EU policy approach to resilience that implies shifting from crisis containment to upstream measures to address the underlying vulnerabilities and structural causes of conflicts linked to the control of forest resources."}, {"bbox": [96, 692, 1133, 800], "category": "Text", "text": "Given the new political scenario, alignment of priorities will be sought with the new government. Preliminary assessments seem to confirm the EU as a great ally to support the new administration on peace, environment, gender equality and human rights, relations with the business community and some of the comprehensive regional dialogues that Petro has announced."}, {"bbox": [96, 811, 1133, 891], "category": "Text", "text": "There is also great cohesion and coordination among the 16 EU Member States present in Colombia, with alignment of priorities under the two selected Team Europe Initiatives (TEI), Peace and Environment, which coincide with the two focal sectors of the EU Multi-Annual Indicative Programme (MIP) 2021-2027."}, {"bbox": [96, 903, 795, 931], "category": "Text", "text": "Some emblematic cooperation initiatives, complementary to this Action are:"}, {"bbox": [134, 943, 1133, 1022], "category": "List-item", "text": "* Vision Amazonia, an initiative of the Colombian government and financial support of USD 366 million from **Germany**, Norway and the United Kingdom, which seeks to achieve zero net deforestation in the Colombian Amazon."}, {"bbox": [134, 1037, 1133, 1142], "category": "List-item", "text": "* Fondo Colombia Sostenible (FCS), financed by Norway, **Sweden**, and Switzerland aims at consolidating peace whilst ensuring environmental sustainability. It is operated by the IADB and implemented by several partners (NGOs, United Nations agencies, research institutes etc.), with donor contributions currently estimated at USD 35.7 million."}, {"bbox": [134, 1158, 1133, 1235], "category": "List-item", "text": "* In 2021, the IADB approved an USD 800 million policy-based loan to support sustainable and resilient growth in Colombia. The French Agency for Development co finances with EUR 200 million and KfW with EUR 150 million."}, {"bbox": [96, 1250, 1133, 1330], "category": "Text", "text": "At regional level, the TEI Amazon will intervene in the Amazon area and will address fire detection and prevention in Colombia. Other programmes will also complement the Action. In particular, El PAcCTO might address actions linked to environmental crimes and EUROCLIMA+ enhance climate governance."}, {"bbox": [96, 1342, 1133, 1396], "category": "Text", "text": "With regard to environment, Colombia has received ample world's attention as the country ranks fourth among the developing countries with the highest forest coverage (with 60 M ha; 52% of its total land area), has formulated"}, {"bbox": [85, 1475, 768, 1501], "category": "Footnote", "text": "⁹ https://www.eeas.europa.eu/eeas/memorandum-understanding-eu-colombia_en"}, {"bbox": [85, 1500, 923, 1525], "category": "Footnote", "text": "¹⁰ https://environment.ec.europa.eu/publications/joint-declaration-european-union-and-colombia_en"}, {"bbox": [85, 1524, 939, 1549], "category": "Footnote", "text": "¹¹ https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?qid=1565272554103&uri=CELEX:52019DC0352"}, {"bbox": [85, 1549, 789, 1573], "category": "Footnote", "text": "¹² https://www.europarl.europa.eu/thinktank/en/document/EPRS_BRI(2022)698925"}, {"bbox": [85, 1573, 745, 1597], "category": "Footnote", "text": "¹³ https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:52020JC0017"}, {"bbox": [85, 1597, 924, 1622], "category": "Footnote", "text": "¹⁴ https://www.eeas.europa.eu/eeas/global-strategy-european-unions-foreign-and-security-policy_en"}, {"bbox": [1037, 1681, 1144, 1705], "category": "Page-footer", "text": "Page 5 of 28"}]