Landscape connectivity loss after the de-escalation of armed conflict in the Colombian Amazon (2011–2021)

A significant increase in deforestation and landscape connectivity loss has been observed in the Colombian Amazon following the 2016 peace agreement with FARC, particularly around the Serranía de Chiribiquete National Park. Annual deforested area surged from an average of 27.93 km² before 2016 to 73.36 km² afterward, driven by pasture expansion along rivers and roads used for cattle transport. The study employed Landsat archive data, the Continuous Change Detection and Classification algorithm (CCDC), and Morphological Spatial Pattern Analysis (MSPA) to quantify these changes, revealing a shrinking core forest area and expanding edge and background areas dominated by pastures. These findings underscore the need for targeted policy interventions to preserve ecological connectivity and mitigate further environmental degradation in this critical region.

López, J., Qian, Y., Murillo-Sandoval, P. J., Clerici, N., & Eklundh, L. (2024). Landscape connectivity loss after the de-escalation of armed conflict in the Colombian Amazon (2011–2021). Global Ecology and Conservation, 54, e03094. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gecco.2024.e03094