Colombia: Deforestation and deluge, a recipe for disaster
By Helda Martínez
The lack of policies against indiscriminate deforestation in river basins, in synergy with the rainy season, which is heavier than usual this year because of the La Niña climate phenomenon, has had devastating effects in Colombia.
This “winter,” as the rainy season is called in this country, there have already been 600 local disasters caused by gale-force winds and constant, heavy rainfall. Rivers have burst their banks, and landslides and avalanches of all kinds have occurred, meteorologist Max Henríquez told IPS.
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The expert said that those responsible for uncontrolled deforestation included coca farmers, as well as those who build luxurious holiday homes, “campesinos” (small farmers) who fell trees for firewood, and carpenters who use them to make furniture, but above all, cattle ranchers extending their pasture lands.
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Botanist Jesús Orlando Rangel, of the National University of Colombia’s Institute of Science, told IPS that in fact Colombia is losing 598,000 hectares of forest, equivalent to 2,340 football fields, every year.
The National University of Colombia says that close to 500 species are under threat, including the wax palm, Colombia’s national tree, while the Alexander von Humboldt Institute claims there are 2,500 endangered plant species.
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