An interdisciplinary review of the interplay of conflict, socio-economic factors, and land cover and vegetation dynamics in Colombia

Abstract

Colombia's forests, covering over half the country, face significant threats linked to its socio-political landscape and armed conflict history, particularly the recent peace agreement with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia–People's Army (FARC-EP, for its abbreviation in Spanish) guerrillas in 2016. In this study, we conducted a systematic literature review examining the complex interplay between land cover changes, socio-political dynamics, and economic development in Colombia before and after the Peace Agreement. This review focuses mainly on deforestation, incorporating perspectives from environmental and social study disciplines, and inspecting top-down and bottom-up scaling approaches to analyze the multifaceted scenarios that emerged during this period. Our review reveals increased research interest from environmental and social sciences in understanding the environmental impacts of Colombia's civil conflict and the 2016 Peace Agreement since its signing. Environmental sciences favor top-down analyses, while social sciences prefer bottom-up methods. Interestingly, the number of interdisciplinary studies combining both methods is increasing. Multiple methodologies confirm increased environmental degradation after the Peace Agreement, especially in the Andes and Amazon regions. The power vacuum left by the guerrilla, not filled by governmental institutions, is widely acknowledged as a key source of important drivers of uncontrolled forest loss, such as land grabbing and illegal cattle ranching. External factors such as international demand for gold and illegal drugs continue to fuel environmental degradation and armed conflict, with international aid programs to local farmers often proving ineffective. Although Colombia's situation is unique, the complex interplay of social, economic, political, and environmental factors offers valuable insights for understanding similar dynamics in other conflict-prone regions globally.