Event Descrisption:
In recent years, Colombia has experienced a significant increase in the rate of deforestation, as well as other phenomena associated with environmental deterioration. Although this pattern is common to the entire country, the Amazon region has been particularly affected. The recent dynamics of deforestation threaten to prevent the country from meeting the goal of zero deforestation, proposed for 2030. The causes of this increase appear to be multidimensional, including the armed dispute over territorial control that arose after the signing of the deforestation agreement. peace, the extractive dynamics associated or not with the armed conflict and the weakness of property rights and governance of land and environmental resources.
This interdisciplinary panel will discuss recent patterns of deforestation and environmental deterioration, with emphasis on the Amazon region, as well as their causes and consequences. Recommendations on what actions can be taken from the national and territorial governments, as well as from civil society, to reduce these phenomena will also be discussed.
Panelists:
- Rodrigo Botero, Executive Director of the Foundation for Conservation and Sustainable Development
- Javier Revelo, Principal Professor at the University of Rosario
Introduction and Moderation:
María Alejandra Vélez, Director of the Center for Studies on Security and Drugs at the Universidad de los Andes.
About the Participants:
María Alejandra Vélez is Director of the Center for Studies on Security and Drugs (CESED) and associate professor at the Faculty of Economics of the Universidad de los Andes. She is Ph.D. in Natural Resource Economics from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She was a post-doctoral researcher at CRED (Center for Research on Environmental Decisions) at Columbia University, and a visiting professor at the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies at Duke University. Her research focuses on governance and institutional design for natural resource management in rural communities. She currently studies the designs of payment systems for environmental services, the impact of collective property in Afro-Colombian communities on the Pacific Coast, and the dynamics of the expansion of illicit crops in Colombia.
Rodrigo Botero has a master's degree in Sustainable Development of Agrarian Systems from the Javeriana University and more than 30 years of experience in the management of strategic ecosystems, particularly in the Amazon region. It has worked to facilitate the articulation between authorities at different levels, social organizations and indigenous peoples with the aim of finding alternatives to the growing phenomenon of deforestation through monitoring and follow-up of the felling and burning of forests and the identification of the causes of these activities. Between 2000 and 2010 he was director of the Territorial Amazonía de Parques Nacionales Naturales and, in 2011, he founded the Foundation for Conservation and Sustainable Development, of which he is the Executive Director. In 2019 he was recognized by Semana magazine as one of the 10 most outstanding leaders in Colombia, thanks to the denunciation and direct fight against the current deforestation processes in the Amazon. He is an Honorary Research Associate of the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago.
Javier Revelo is Principal Professor at the Faculty of International, Political and Urban Studies at Universidad del Rosario. He has a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Pennsylvania. He has participated in various instigations on the functioning of the local State, the political regime and the environmental dimension of development policies. Among his areas of interest is the study of the political dynamics of Amazonian deforestation in Colombia and, in particular, the way in which the territorial scope of the State is related to land ownership and use. He also investigates conflicts associated with territorial and environmental planning.
This event is organized by the Colombian Studies Initiative, a collaboration between NYU Wagner, NYU CLACS and the Universidad del Rosario. Stay connected! Follow us on Facebook and Instagram . Please note: this event will be held in Spanish