Colombia has been one of the countries that have been battling deforestation for decades. And the reality is that it has still been on the increase, with over 400,000 acres lost in 2021.
The main driver of this is the cattle industry, and the Colombian government has now taken more drastic action to help preserve the Amazon rainforest.
The first step will be controlling herd sizes and the movement of cattle. Reuters had some information about the sheer size of the problem.
“A gigantic goal is to perform tracing of cattle and the meat industry. Today, 80% is untraceable and we as a society should commit to making sure there are no products in supermarkets that come from deforested areas,” said the Environment Minister Susana Muhamad.
Another approach will be to have foreign debt written off to help fund the conservation efforts. Such an exchange of debt forgiveness for nature is a unique and new approach that could gain more traction in other South American countries that face the same problem.
The big question is how quickly this can happen because the current deforestation levels have to come to a standstill fast.
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