Why farmers see Colombia’s knife-edge election as a battle for the Amazon’s future

Like most individuals settling within the space, Pablo Peña was looking for to flee violence and make a residing from a patch of land when he moved to Guaviare in central Colombia. Greater than 30 years on, he says his life is now about battle and deforestation.

Peña first visited Guaviare throughout his necessary army service. Years later, in 1994, he settled all the way down to farm in Guaviare’s Calamar, a city in a distant nook of the Amazon.

“When the guerrillas went to Havana [in 2012] to barter the peace treaty with [former president Juan Manuel] Santos, we realised that we didn’t even know the place we had settled or the boundaries of our land,” says Peña. “Then we determined to guard our land.”

Former coca farmer Pablo Peña, who’s now deeply concerned in conservation and safeguarding of land across the Amazonian city of Calamar. {Photograph}: Antonio Cascio/The Guardian

In 2018, Peña and his fellow campesinos started the method of making a peasant reserve zone (ZRC), a chosen land-use space geared toward safeguarding rural communities, supporting native farmers and stabilising their territories amid battle that is still ongoing regardless of the 2016 ceasefire.

Reserve zones have been on the coronary heart of President Gustavo Petro’s plans to enhance farmers’ livelihoods whereas tackling deforestation and defending biodiversity within the Amazon. Throughout the previous 4 years, his authorities has created 20 of the 27 current zones.

Rightwing presidential candidate Abelardo de la Espriella speaks to supporters from behind bulletproof glass throughout a marketing campaign rally on 9 June, 2026. {Photograph}: Manuel Pedraza/AFP/Getty Photographs

The Colombian authorities formally permitted Peña’s request for a ZRC in 2025. However Petro’s presidential time period is coming to an finish and a far-right candidate, Abelardo de la Espriella, is competing with the leftwing Iván Cepeda in a extremely polarised election. Farmers resembling Peña worry for the way forward for the ZRCs if the far proper wins within the second spherical on 21 June.

De la Espriella received the primary spherical by a slim margin over Cepeda on 31 Might. The run-off election will present whether or not Colombians help a continuation of Petro’s insurance policies, primarily based on dialogue and reform, or return to a hardline militarised technique proposed by De la Espriella.

Like many others, Peña was drawn to Guaviare by a surge in coca leaf manufacturing in Colombia. Just a few years later, he purchased his first plot of land – which lacked title deeds. The value: a kilo of coca paste.

The land Peña occupied was inside a forest reserve, additional complicating property rights below Colombian legislation. Based on the ministry of agriculture, earlier than the peace treaty this was not an distinctive state of affairs, as not less than 40% of rural land in Colombia lacked formal titles.

With the “conflict on medication” and intensive programmes to eradicate plantations in Colombia, many farmers, together with Peña, who had been rising coca leaves shifted to elevating cattle, resulting in elevated deforestation. Between 2002 and 2025, Guaviare misplaced 350,000 hectares (865,000 acres) of forest – an space almost 5 instances the dimensions of Singapore.

A farmer herds cattle contained in the ZRC. Ranching has changed coca farming, which till the start of the 2000s was one of many most important sources of revenue within the area. {Photograph}: Antonio Cascio/The Guardian

“Whilst you might survive with 5 hectares of coca, cattle wanted bigger extensions of land,” Peña says.

Some ZRCs have change into extra sustainable, nevertheless. In Calamar, the Guardian of Chiribiquete, a peasant reserve protecting 183,200 hectares and supporting 4,430 individuals, was formally established in 2025. It’s named after the close by Chiribiquete nationwide park, a Unesco world heritage website, which has impressed the group’s efforts to develop sustainable economies.

ZRCs are primarily a mechanism for bringing farmers into the institutional framework and away from armed teams’ territorial management, however they’ve additionally had a optimistic influence on the setting when adopted by investments in sustainable improvement, in response to Camilo González Posso, founding father of Indepaz, a peacebuilding NGO, and a former authorities peace negotiator.

“The legislation requires that these zones create sustainable improvement plans in collaboration with establishments, whereas the federal government has a dedication to contributing to the event of sustainable economies by way of funding and programmes,” González Posso says.

Antonio Riveros walks by way of his 10-hectare conservation plot. A lot of the ZRC members protect an space of pure forest on their land as a part of an settlement between the group and the federal government. {Photograph}: Antonio Cascio/The Guardian

Inside the Guardian of Chiribiquete, virtually half of the native forest stays intact. Neighborhood members work to guard the world whereas planting native bushes and Amazonian fruits, resembling cacao and copoazú, to generate revenue.

Supported by organisations such because the conservation charity WWF and the deforestation programme Visión Amazonía, residents have been establishing plant nurseries, restoring waterways and receiving coaching in woodworking.

Whereas its members recognise the necessity to cut back deforestation, cattle stay an vital a part of individuals’s lives and livelihoods, so many hope {that a} easy transition to sustainable practices can happen with out affecting their funds.

A bunch of girls, members of the ZRC, work as a collective in El Guadual plant nursery. “This job helps us to be empowered and impartial,” says one. {Photograph}: Antonio Cascio/The Guardian

“Though we dwell in a hidden nook of the nation, we perceive the harm induced to nature, and we try to compensate for the harm induced with out affecting our economies,” says Leydy Janneth García, a consultant of the conservation challenge Inexperienced Amazon.

García and her household arrived in Guaviare in 2018 after fleeing battle. They purchased land beforehand used for coca cultivation and planted cacao, which thrived because the coca bushes withered. Their farm now additionally produces oranges, avocados, chontaduro (often known as peach palm) and tamarind, sharing areas with a small herd of cattle. Practically half of their land, 14.5 hectares, is put aside for conservation.

Leydy Janneth García along with her son Martín of their house contained in the ZRC. García and her husband Elver develop avocado, orange, cocoa, and different fruit in a former coca subject. {Photograph}: Antonio Cascio/The Guardian

But most farmers in ZRCs really feel not sure about what is going to occur to them and to the Amazon after the overall election. Many really feel Petro has ensured the precise to land however not safety, as he did not deliver armed teams below management. They imagine Cepeda would observe the identical path. There are additionally fears {that a} far-right authorities led by De la Espriella would deliver again the battle and prioritise giant landowners, in depth farming and agribusiness development on the expense of the setting.

“Historical past reveals that the present authorities has demonstrated this dedication, however political will alone, with out safety, isn’t sufficient,” says Jesús Cuestas, a farmer and ZRC member.

Whereas acknowledging progress made by Petro’s authorities in land rights, farmers stay involved about guerrillas’ rising affect. “Below Petro’s administration, armed teams have expanded, and we worry that if Cepeda wins, this development will proceed,” says García.

ZRC members collect to vote for his or her officers and representatives. Collective participation within the course of has been basic to the success of the ZRCs. {Photograph}: Antonio Cascio/The Guardian

However, the prospect of a rightwing administration is much more regarding for specialists resembling González Posso. De La Espriella helps fracking and intends to develop its use, resulting in fears concerning the influence on the setting and native communities. He has additionally urged Colombia to withdraw from the UN, which might influence worldwide funding in rural initiatives and peace efforts.

“De la Espriella hyperlinks improvement to extractivism, supporting an in depth livestock mannequin and benefiting the rich landowners,” he says.

González Posso fears {that a} far-right administration might deliver extra violence, not simply from armed teams. He says farmers are doubtless to withstand being expelled from their lands to learn the agroindustry, and guerrillas can be empowered by in depth livestock farming, which is extra profitable, so they might improve extortion practices by charging landowners for every head of cattle and hectare of pasture, and imposing a high quality for every hectare of deforested land.

“Cepeda goals to strengthen a sustainable economic system created with and for the individuals. It’s essential to develop a medium-term technique that integrates ZRCs, peace initiatives and environmental issues,” says González Posso.

Farmers watch the primary spherical voting ends in a bar in Calamar. {Photograph}: Antonio Cascio/The Guardian

Whoever wins the election, campesinos agree that the subsequent authorities must result in far-reaching adjustments to the nation’s rural economic system.

“We have to shift focus from dialogue to motion. Quite a lot of cash has been spent, but not a single peasant survives on conservation or rainforest sources,” says Cuestas. “The day a hectare of rainforest turns into dearer than a hectare of grass, we’ll lastly have achieved steadiness.”