Deforestation in Colombia
Colombia loses 2,000 km2 of forest annually to deforestation, according to the United Nations in 2003. Some suggest that this figure is as high as 3,000 km² due to illegal logging in the region. Deforestation results mainly from logging for timber, small-scale agricultural ranching, mining, development of energy resources such as hydro-electricity, infrastructure, cocaine production, and farming. Around one-third of the country's original forest has been removed as a result of deforestation.
Deforestation in Colombia is mainly targeted at primary rainforest which covers more than 80% of Colombia. This has a profound ecological impact in that Colombia is extremely rich in biodiversity, with 10% of the world's species, making it the second most biologically diverse country on Earth.
One of the main causes of deforestation in Colombia is the national Plan Pacifico which is intended to raise revenue to develop the economy. The plan includes exploitation of Colombia's rainforests for the extraction of precious natural resources for exportation.
Under the regime of President Virgilio Barco Vargas (1986–1990), a development scheme was initiated involving $4.5 billion in investments to develop the Colombian Pacific Coast in Choco Department. Around 2.2% of the total forest area in Colombia began to be removed each year for wood and to make paper or to provide the clearings needed for palm plantations and agricultural production and commercial shrimp farming. In a concerted effort to enhance trade, Plan Pacifico has attempted to complete the 54 kilometer missing section of the Pan-American Highway between Colombia and Panama spanning the ecologically rich Darien Gap.
The construction of the Puente Terrestre Inter-Oceanico (PTI), the land bridge between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans near Panama, consisting of a railway, road, canal, and oil pipeline has had a major impact on the environment and forest removal in the region. Other plans for road construction throughout Chocó which intended to catapult economic production in Colombia have had unintended negative consequences. The economic potential of the region has resulted in international competition for access to the Colombian market with transnational corporations taking an active role in Colombia's deforestation through petroleum and mineral extraction in coordination with the national plan. The Japanese government has directly financed the construction of a road which links the Pacific coast to inland forest regions to facilitate trade.
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