Colombia's President-Elect Gustavo Petro Vows to Protect Amazon Rainforest

Colombia's President-elect Gustavo Petro on Sunday vowed to protect the Amazon Rainforest, a new addition to his promise of tackling the deforestation issues in the jungle.

Petro, who will assume the office in August, made his pledge while speaking at a crowd in the Amazon city of Leticia during his campaign while wearing an Indigenous headdress, Associated Press reported.

"From Colombia, we will give humanity a reward, a remedy, a solution: not to burn the Amazon rainforest anymore, to recover it to its natural frontier, to give humanity the possibility of life on this planet," Petro underscored.

Colombia's president-elect also promised to limit the expansion of agribusiness into the forest. Petro also vowed to establish reserves where Indigenous communities and others are allowed to harvest rubber, acai, and other non-timber forest products.

The newly elected president also pledged income from carbon credits to support replanting the rainforest.

More than 40% of Colombia is in the Amazon Rainforest. The South American country is known to have the largest bird biodiversity because its space includes transition zones between the Andes mountains and the Amazon lowland. However, the Amazon rainforest is the least populated part of Colombia, making the jungle "historically neglected" during presidential campaigns.

In Petro's government programs, he vowed to prioritize collective land titles, including those for Indigenous reservations and zones for landless farmers. He also promised to fight illegal activities in the rainforest, including drug trafficking and money laundering.

"We Don't Expect Him To Be a Messiah" - Organization Representative

Several organizations have expressed what they think about Gustavo Petro's promise that concerns the Amazon Rainforest.

Consuelo Chaparro, whose organization works with an Indigenous tribe in the Amazon, said that Petro alone cannot do anything about the issues surrounding the forest.

"We don't expect him to be a Messiah," Chaparro said but hopes that Petro would listen and push things forward with his power.

Petro's promise of protecting the rainforest came as the Amazon continues to experience destruction since 2016.

A new study published in Science Direct revealed that Colombia's peace accord with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) permitted people to return to areas that were previously plagued with conflict.

"The returning population increasingly used the natural resources, it contributed to deforestation and increases in forest fires, especially in the Amazon and the Andes-Amazon transition regions," the study states.

Reports also claimed that cattle ranching was the main driver of the Amazon Rainforest's deforestation. FCDS claimed that around 500,000 hectares of the rainforest have been lost due to the said practice since 2016.

Colombia's President-Elect Gustavo Petro

On June 19, former rebel Gustavo Petro won as Colombia's new president against real estate mogul Rudolfo Hernandez. Petro garnered 50.47% of the votes, per the country's election authorities.

Currently, Petro works as a senator in the South American country. He is the first leftist president of Colombia.

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written By: Joshua Summers

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