The Chiribiquete national park, located in the heart of the Colombian Amazon, is an enormous protected area; at three million hectares, it is the largest nature reserve in the country. The protected area, still largely unexplored because it was until recently controlled by Farc guerrillas, is characterised by dense equatorial forest, mountains rising above one thousand metres in altitude, some of the oldest rock paintings on the continent, and an incredibly rich biodiversity. Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos announced, at a recent press conference, that studies for the park's expansion plan have been completed, and that the park's surface area will be enlarged by approximately 1.5 million hectares.

A lung against deforestation

The expansion will make Chiribiquete national park one of the most important and extensive protected areas in the world, with a total area of nearly 4.5 million hectares. The decision becomes all the more significant in light of the destruction being suffered by the Amazonian rainforest. Flying over this forest, where the tree canopies once formed a single impenetrable roof, one now notices enormous treeless patches — areas that once harboured numerous animal and plant species transformed into barren pastures.

Amazon under attack

Just outside the park's boundaries, land grabbing represents a serious problem, as highlighted by Rodrigo Botero, director of the Foundation for Sustainable Development of the Amazon, who provided technical consultancy for the Chiribiquete park expansion plan. "It is an uncontrolled and almost purely speculative phenomenon, since cleared land is often not even cultivated but simply left in the expectation that its value will increase," Botero explained. "The construction of roads, livestock farming, and the cultivation of coca, cacao and oil palms are also causing a major impact in that area."

A stronghold for biodiversity

The expansion of Chiribiquete park therefore represents an important step forward in protecting Colombia's ecological heritage. The enlargement will make it possible to connect, via a protected ecological corridor, the protected area to the Sierra de La Macarena and Sumapaz national parks. "We will be integrating the Amazon with the Andes," said Botero. "It is like having a corridor between the south of Bogotá and the heart of the Amazon rainforest."

500 million for the environment

Alongside the announcement of the protected area's expansion, it was also communicated that five hundred million dollars — obtained through an environmental compensation system paid by companies — will be invested in the conservation and restoration of Colombian ecosystems and in promoting sustainable land-use activities with the aim of reducing deforestation and conserving biodiversity.