More than 700 campesino families in the Colombian Amazon have planted nearly a million native trees across a stretch of land that was, until recently, one of the country’s worst deforestation hotspots. The effort, centered in the Cuemaní region of Cartagena del Chairá in the department of Caquetá, is transforming former cattle pasture back into functioning forest — and the people who once cleared the land are now its guardians.
At a glance
- Trees planted: 723 families planted more than 984,000 individual trees and palms across 4,762 hectares between September and December 2023 C.E.
- Biodiversity survey: Scientists and community members cataloged 623 plant species and recorded 154 bird species, 24 amphibian species, 11 reptile species, and 21 mammal species in the restored area.
- Community training: Ninety-nine workshops on ecological restoration, forest governance, and agroecological development equipped residents — including teenagers — with skills to monitor and protect the forest long-term.
From deforestation to forest economy
Cartagena del Chairá holds the third-highest deforestation rate of any municipality in Colombia. Between 2002 and 2021 C.E., locals cleared 130,000 hectares of forest in the Cuemaní area, according to data from SINCHI, the Amazonian Scientific Research Institute. In 2021 C.E. alone, 15,737 hectares disappeared.
The drivers were economic. Cattle ranching expanded because communities lacked alternatives, shaped by decades of government neglect. “People have demolished up to the edges of the streams,” says Liliana Camargo, community manager and president of the rural village of El Billar. “In summer, there is little water; it is scarce now.”
The restoration program, developed in collaboration with SINCHI, Colombia’s Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development, and the Association of Community Action Boards (Asojuntas), aims to turn that dynamic around. The goal is to make the forest an engine of local development — not an obstacle to it.
Communities lead the work
“The goal has been for the Community Action Boards to be the true protagonists in containing deforestation,” says Arístides Oime Ochoa, president of Asojuntas. “Who better than the owner of the farm to be the one to protect their own property?”
Working through a process of assisted natural regeneration, teams planted roughly 200 trees per hectare. Species included achapo or tornillo (Cedrelinga cateniformis), sangretoro (Iryanthera laevis), milpesos palms (Oenocarpus bataua), and Amazon açaí (Euterpe precatoria). Each planting site was georeferenced, giving scientists spatial data for long-term monitoring.
Community members also ventured deep into the mountains to collect botanical samples alongside SINCHI researchers. “We walked for about three or four hours toward the middle of the mountains,” Camargo recalls. Youths climbed trees to cut bark samples while ground teams photographed fungi. The resulting catalog identified 273 species with direct community uses: 127 food species, 112 timber species, and 97 medicinal species.
Young people find a new path
One of the most striking outcomes is a shift in how the region’s youth see their future. Teenagers who participated in the botanical surveys discovered they could earn income as local experts. “The teenagers saw how cool it is to work as a local expert,” Camargo says. Some are now pursuing degrees in agroforestry engineering.
Children were also drawn in. Teachers used paintings and posters to explain why trees matter. “Each child drew a tree, its richness and why it is planted,” Camargo says. Camargo herself, along with her son and a neighbor, set up a small nursery on her patio. It now holds more than 300 seedlings of various native species, ready for planting near streams and water sources.
The results go beyond trees. Tapirs, deer, pigs, and parrots — animals that had vanished as chainsaws moved in — are returning to the area. “It fills me with pride that the animals are returning to a peaceful place,” Camargo says.
A model worth watching
The Cuemaní project shows what is possible when government researchers, NGOs, and rural communities build a program together rather than imposing one from outside. SINCHI’s restoration research framework emphasizes community ownership precisely because top-down conservation efforts in the Amazon have repeatedly failed to hold.
Colombia has committed to ambitious deforestation reduction targets under its national climate strategy, and community-led restoration is increasingly seen as central to meeting them. Globally, the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration has highlighted similar campesino-led efforts as models for scaling native forest recovery across Latin America.
Still, the work is fragile. Cartagena del Chairá remains economically marginalized, and without sustained investment in forest-based livelihoods, the pressures that drove deforestation in the first place have not disappeared. The payment system for forest restoration currently in place will need long-term funding to remain viable — and that is far from guaranteed.
“Now, the environment, the jungle, the protection of the mountains, the care of nature is more relevant,” Camargo says. “Before, we would walk through the mountains with our eyes closed and we didn’t know the value of every tree, of every species.” The Mongabay Latam team, which first reported this story, described the transformation as one driven entirely by the communities themselves — milestone by milestone.
Read more
For more on this story, see: Mongabay
For more from Good News for Humankind, see:
- Indigenous communities secure land rights for 160 million hectares ahead of COP30
- Renewables now make up at least 49% of global power capacity
- The Good News for Humankind archive on Colombia
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