Research Articles Colombia’s 'Peace with Nature' global biodiversity conference can point to successful peacebuilding collaborations with CGIAR
With CGIAR science and support from European and local stakeholders, Colombia has demonstrated that nature is a key component of peacebuilding in conflict-affected zones. At COP16 - the global biodiversity conference hosted this year by Colombia - the country can show that conservation and peacebuilding can be mutually reinforcing.
When a peace agreement was reached in 2016 after 62 years of Colombia’s brutal conflict with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), there was much to celebrate. Guerillas laid down arms, citizens celebrated the optimistic onset of a new era of history, and both sides took action to ensure peace endured, including integrating ex-combatants into society and politics.
The post-peace process has, of course, faced obstacles. From the environmental perspective, the most alarming was an increase in deforestation in areas that were once off-limits to everyone but fighters. While deforestation is slowing, more work is needed to protect and restore Colombia’s conflict-affected biodiversity hotspots, and to support the communities that depend on them.
As host of the United Nations' (COP16), Colombia made 'Peace with Nature' the event’s theme. Armed conflict and the collateral damage it causes to nature is a key component of the call to action.
Peacebuilding needs nature
Experiences from Colombia and CGIAR illustrate that environmental peacebuilding - using biodiversity conservation as a means to foster coexistence between communities and nature - can effectively contribute to achieving peace with nature. This approach simultaneously supports stabilizing post-conflict societies, conservation, and development.
At COP16, Colombia is highlighting pioneering successes in environmental peacebuilding. These initiatives underscore how sustainable co-existence with nature can drive recovery and resilience in conflict-affected areas. These initiatives, grounded in local experiences, offer scalable and replicable models for integrating peace and conservation efforts globally.
“Our efforts to deliver environmental and peacebuilding outcomes in Colombia show that dedicated, sustainable land use systems that focus on the needs of communities, value chain stakeholders and natural systems are successful,” said Augusto Castro-Nunez,- a Land Use Scientist at the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT: “Healthy landscapes are a pillar of healthy and peaceful societies.”
In addition to prioritizing work on the links between peace and nature, COP16 allows countries to address biodiversity financing gaps by aligning spending priorities across the three Rio Conventions, which cover climate change, biodiversity (the CBD) and desertification. CGIAR environmental peacebuilding projects have also demonstrated successes in climate action, nutrition and health, and ecological resilience.
“The upcoming UN conference on climate change to be held later this year in Azerbaijan will define new commitments to climate funding,” said Ma. Eliza J. Villarino - a Zero-Deforestation Value-chain Researcher at the Alliance - emphasizing the need for multifunctional landscapes that address multiple issues simultaneously: “This is a huge opportunity to address biodiversity-related challenges.”
CGIAR and environmental peacebuilding in Colombia
Two Alliance-led projects stand out for their environmental and peacebuilding successes in Colombia.
One is the Sustainable Land Use Systems (SLUS) Project, which brought people to dialogue and jointly implement strategies for achieving land restoration and zero-deforestation supply chains in conflict-affected settings, focused on cacao and livestock production. In addition to increased social cohesion, SLUS research showed increased carbon stocks, improved water availability and reductions in nitrous oxide, a potent greenhouse gas. The work was funded by Germany’s International Climate Initiative, IKI.
Another standout program is RUTAS PDET, part of the European Peace Fund for Colombia. In addition to support for community-designed agricultural and environmental improvement, the RUTAS PDET program worked with smallholder, Indigenous and Afro-Caribbean communities in territories affected by armed conflict to build new sustainable business models, which included training and integrating ex-combatants. Some 3,000 hectares were brought under voluntary conservation agreements or silvopastoral systems (SPS) and 1,600 farmers were trained on agroforestry cacao or SPS. The project also improved almost 300 km of roads.
“These projects demonstrate that a community-centered approach with adequate and sustained commitment from governments can build peace by addressing the impacts of armed conflict, offer sustainable economic opportunities as alternatives to illicit activity, and benefit biodiversity conservation and landscape restoration,” said Janelle Sylvester, the lead author on an position paper for COP16, which includes successful peacebuilding case studies from Colombia, Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania.
The projects are similar in their emphasis on participatory, bottom-up approaches. The initiatives involve local communities in decision-making, project design and implementation, ensuring that solutions address local needs. The projects foster trust to promote peacebuilding through collaboration.
The projects also emphasize capacity building, technical training and education for farmers, and the development of sustainable value chains. By enhancing infrastructure and creating inclusive business models, these examples of environmental peacebuilding promote long-term sustainability and economic growth in post-conflict regions to establish lasting peace and sustainable development.
Keys to continued peacebuilding
Despite these significant instances of successful peacebuilding, many challenges remain to be addressed with nature-based solutions. Sylvester and colleagues’ paper makes several recommendations for peacebuilders in Colombia and beyond:
“There’s no single solution, and every context has nuances to consider,” Castro said. “But, CGIAR research on environmental peacebuilding provides several evidence-backed approaches for COP16 negotiators to consider.”
Governance is central to the author’s recommendations. The right policies, rule of law and the transparent prioritization and expenditure of limited resources are fundamental to scaling up environmental peacebuilding efforts.
By enforcing an adequate legal framework, governments can successfully integrate environmental and peacebuilding policies, follow clear guidelines for prioritizing locally led and consensus-driven landscape restoration and create cross-sector collaboration. In addition, strong governance can incentivize the urgent investments needed for environmental peacebuilding initiatives and monitoring and evaluating their continued positive outcomes – in Colombia and beyond.
