With its wide range of beautiful landscapes and an enormous amount of unique wildlife and vegetation, Colombia is part of the eclectic group of the world’s most bio diverse countries.

Pitifully, during the past few years, its conservation has become one of the biggest worries for all environmental and ecological professionals. The end of Colombia’s internal conflict is what causes this concern.

What Does Colombia’s Internal Conflict Have To Do With Its Rich Biodiversity?

One of the few benefits of the bloody war that tortured Colombia’s people for fifty-two years was the conservation of its wildlife and vegetation. It sounds crazy, but it is what it is.

It turns out that when the Guerrilla took over some parts of the Colombian forests, most of the people who lived there were forced to move to cities or towns, leaving behind farms and huge houses.

That is why the conflict had been beneficial for the environment because all that land taken by humankind returned to its peaceful normal state and started to grow again. That is also the main reason why some parts of the Colombian forests still seem to have survived almost without a scratch.

Increasing Threats

Despite the fact that the Guerrilla unknowingly helped Colombia to maintain its environment, it is known that one of the main threats to it is the deforestation caused by mining operations, farmland, and others.

The most worrying of these activities is mining. The mining of minerals made by legal and illegal companies is rapidly and unstoppably growing. It’s not only damaging Colombia’s mountains and land, but it’s also affecting its natural water sources.

Why Should We Protect Colombia’s Biodiversity?

Its natural resources such as vegetation bring food, medicines, and others to Colombia’s people and even help the nation’s economy by exporting some of the renewable resources to other countries.

Many unique kinds of wildlife live in Colombia’s territory, along with an incredible amount of rare vegetation. Rural populations who settled in those unharmed lands to take care of them have to struggle to keep strangers from hurting their resources.

Colombians Took Actions

Some researchers from Columbia University’s International Research Institute for Climate and Society have been developing some strategies to help the government to be aware of which are the real environmental threats for Colombia after the end of the internal conflict.

With the help of the government and some international organizations, the researchers expect to completely defeat the degradation of their country. They want to stop the activities that hurt their land one by one.

The end of Colombia’s conflict is not a simple subject. It has way more consequences than most of us would imagine. As for all of the other countries in the world, Colombia’s biodiversity should be everyone’s concern. This country is fighting to defend its resources and hoping to put an end to the brutal assassination of its huge biodiversity.