Ecobreves – COLOMBIA: Peasants Recuperate Forests

By IPS Correspondents and - - Reprint | | Print |

BOGOTA, Sep 17 2005 (IPS) - Some 3,000 peasant farming families in the northern Colombian department of Bolívar this month completed two years in the governmental program Guardabosques, eradicating illegal drug crops in the areas where they work. Pedro Moreno, one of the beneficiaries of the project centered in the municipalities of San Pablo and Cantagallo, in the southern part of the department, told Tierramérica that community funds have also been created to finance productive enterprises that ensure sustainability once the program is finalized.

The University of La Paz, coordinator of the program and of the technical training involved, reports that the efforts of these families have led to the recovery of 76,524 hectares of forest, which had been cut down for the cultivation of the drug crops, mostly coca for the production of cocaine.