Climate Focus, together with Fundacion Natura, Red Caquetá Paz and CINDAP, has developed and recently launched a Platform of Information and Dialogue for the Colombian Amazon (PID). The PID project has supported local communities in Guaviare in defining their preferred and most adequate methods to tackle cattle ranching as a driver of deforestation. Through the organization of workshops that have brought together local producers, state institutions, and civil society organizations, a structured effort has taken place to determine the technical, economic, and environmental aspects of livestock models for the region. These workshops proved that local producers are aware of the environmental impact of extensive cattle raising and are looking for ways to halt deforestation by finding more sustainable and more productive methods.
The project was started in May 2016 and is closely aligned with the Colombian Government’s initiative for the Amazon Region, ‘Visión Amazonía’, a regional strategy seeking to reduce deforestation in the Colombian Amazon by 2020. The PID provides a new channel of communication for all actors in the region, opens opportunities for partnerships, agreements, and shares knowledge and experience. Project activities include mapping all relevant stakeholders and its activities in the reg
ion, developing a webpage, and organizing workshops and multi-stakeholder meetings. For more information, please visit the project’s website: www.pidamozonia.com
Advancing efforts to reduce deforestation
During the past six months, the Platform for Information and Dialogue in the Colombian Amazon (PID) has organized meetings and workshops in Bogotá, Caquetá and Guaviare that support national and regional efforts to halt deforestation. In August 2017, the PID held a meeting in Bogotá on the opportunities and impacts of infrastructure in the Amazon that highlight the importance of investing in river and air transport to access and integrate remote areas. The national program Visión Amazonía and the Ministry of Transport showed their advancements in road development and how they are following environmental legislation to build and promote sustainable infrastructure. In May 2017, a meeting was held about the post-conflict process in Colombia, which resulted in a series of articles on the PID website detailing why and how the Peace Process has increased deforestation and some of the strategies to mitigate these effects.
The latest meeting in August 2017 held in Caquetá was a get-together for the construction of the Forest Development Plan (FDP) of Caquetá, during which all the stakeholders involved (government and civil society) presented their work in the region and cooperation opportunities with the FDP. In June 2017, the PID organized a workshop on the role of agroecologists in a post-conflict scenario in Caquetá resulting in a document that analyses how they will integrate their scientific knowledge of the region with the new social and political situations generated by the Peace Process.
The PID organized a meeting in Guaviare in July 2017 about the economic opportunities for non-timber forest products in order to halt deforestation, which was a meeting specially organized for small business owners and farmers to see the value of non-timber forest products.
