Taking stock of Colombia’s peace agreement after 5 years

In this webinar 10 invited panelists will present their work and discuss the situation in Colombia almost five years after the signing of the peace agreement. They will highlight different issues around land use change and how local communities have been affected by changes in land use since the signing of the peace agreement. The aim is to draw international attention on these issues. While the peace agreement is making slow progress and has faced several drawbacks due to the political situation and lack of will from the current government to support and advance its implementation, the situation of Colombia’s environment and local communities has deteriorated.

Deforestation is rampant as a direct result of the peace agreement, driven by illegal land grabbing, infrastructure projects, the expansion of cattle ranching, an increase in the extent of coca plantations, legal and illegal mining projects. The governmental plan to resume aerial spraying of coca plantations with glyphosate will be a further environmental (and social) problem. In this seminar we will highlight these different issues and engage with the audience in a Q & A on how to potentially address these challenges, including the question about how international investments and financial support for social and environmental projects in Colombia can contribute to build a positive trajectory and support the implementation of the peace agreement.

This event is organised in support by Focali (Forest, Climate, and Livelihood research network) and the Swedish International Agriculture Network Initiative , SIANI.