Cattle Ranching and Deforestation in Colombia: The Impact of Conflict, Land protection, and Uneven Development

In this dissertation, I study the impact of the peace agreement between the Colombian government and Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC) in 2016 on forests. This study focuses on the impact of cattle ranching on areas left by FARC, the role of protected areas (national parks, Indigenous lands, and Afro-Colombian collective lands), and the effect of institutions and poverty on forest conservation.

My dissertation examines the background of deforestation and conflict in Colombia, along with the importance of cattle in shaping the Colombian rural structure and its relationship with historical forest clearing. These elements are relevant to understanding the purpose of the investigation. Using a political ecology approach, which emphasizes the importance of uneven power relations within environmental destruction processes, I aim to determine to what extent cattle ranching drives deforestation in areas under former FARC control; to what extent protected areas reduce deforestation associated with cattle; and to what extent cattle ranching drives deforestation in poor areas and those that have less institutional presence.

For this purpose I collected official and non-official data on deforestation, former FARC presence, cattle ranching, protected areas, army and judges, and poverty. In order to understand the relationships of these variables I build different sets of robust regression models.

I found that cattle ranching drives deforestation to a greater extent in areas under former FARC control compared with those areas under no former FARC control. The results of my study also lead to the conclusion that national parks, Indigenous lands, and Afro-Colombian collective lands have a protective effect from deforestation, although only national parks protect the forest from cattle impacts. Finally, my study concluded that cattle produces more deforestation in areas with less institutional presence and more poverty.