What is the relationship between Peace, Land, and Climate Change?

On the 11th of December took place the Forum Peace, Land, and Climate Changeorganized by Week Sustainable, Climate Focus, Transforms, and supported by the German government. Event in which representatives of the public institutions and national and international experts analyzed the relationship between the implementation of the Peace Agreement, the high inequality in the concentration of rural properties, deforestation and climate change, in which BIOFIX CONSULTING participated as an assistant. 

Within the disclosed figures highlighted that 81% of rural land in the country are concentrated in the 1% of the land more large (> 1000 ha), in which 87% are planted to pasture for livestock, and only 13% to agricultural activities. 

Phenomenon that is directly related to the engines of deforestation is defined by the Ministry of Environment in the year 2018, in which more than half of the acres annual deforested are associated with the ownership of land, since 45% is due to hoarding, and 8% to ranching. 

Similarly, we evaluated the difficulties generated by the territorial control exercised by regional elites; the lack of corroboration on the legality of the properties for the entities of registration; the inaccuracies in the boundaries veredales and property; the low degree of implementation of the first point of the Peace Agreement, in relation to the Reform of Rural Integral, the processes of restitution and formalization; the availability of resources of the territorial authorities to advance processes of reforestation and monitoring; the discrepancies between public entities at different scales and the cultural constructions that have been given around to deforestation as an alternative livelihood for the communities. 

Finally, within the countless challenges that the country has in this area, it is highlighted: the need to complete the planning and initiate the implementation of the multi-purpose cadastre national, the importance of deepening the legal system with a territorial approach under participatory models horizontal, to incorporate strategies to address the hoarding within the policies of national climate change and in the methodologies or projects to implement, as well as, restructure economic instruments such as the rural property taxation to curb the hoarding and promote the activation of unproductive lands.

As well as, start the reconstruction of the memory of the socio – ecological territories understanding the environment as a victim of the conflict (consideration made by the JEP), set ambitious targets for the control of deforestation and include them within the thematic priority of the political agenda of government and finally look for alternative production and local development associated with the business green or conservation projects (such as REDD+) that can fund and provide technical support in the joint construction of the territory, the strengthening of peace and adaptation to climate change.