ESPA -Matavén, Colombia
Matavén area in the Colombian Guiana Shield Region
Colombia is a country where (indigenous) communities are driven off their lands by guerrilla and paramilitary warfare and the cultivation or the eradication of illegal crops. Forest restoration and compensation for ecosystem services may help to decrease conflicts.
The violence, the cultivation of illegal crops and their eradication by pesticides and fumigation lead to forest destruction and serious water pollution. The conflicts are now also spilling over into the neighbouring countries.
The challenge now for Colombia is to protect its wealth of ecosystem services and the indigenous people's culture and way of life. To achieve this it must be able to enforce laws, provide its people with security and viable alternatives. Fundamental to achieving the challenges are not only payments for ecosystem services, e.g. carbon sequestration, from foreign donors but also remote sensing monitoring of these ecosystems in order to prioritize problematic areas.
Document Downloads
- Executive Summary: Biodiversity Characterization of the Matavén Forest, Vichada, Colombia (central eastern sector). English Translation of the Executive Summary. 2008. (pdf)
- Executive Summary in Spanish, “Caracterización de la Biodiversidad de la Selva de Matavén, Vichada, Colombia (sector centro-oriental). Resumen Ejecutivo. Instituto Humboldt. Bogota, Colombia. 2007.”
- Selected Chapters: Biodiversity Characterization of the Matavén Forest, Vichada, Colombia (central eastern sector). English Translation of Selected Chapters. July 2007. (pdf)
- Matavén Forest Area Update. Case study area, Environmental Security and Poverty Alleviation Program. Jeanna Hyde Hecker. August 2007. (pdf)
- Caracterización de Procesos Selva de Matavén, Colombia. En el contexto del Programa Amazónico. Nelsa de la Hoz and Victor Cock. Bogota, Colombia. 2005
- Recommendations Concerning Matavén, Colombia - updated June 2006 (PDF - 66KB)
- EnviroSecurity Assessment
Promoting Environmental Security and Poverty Alleviation in the Matavén area of Colombia - Jeanna Hyde Hecker - October 2005 (PDF - 375KB) - Environmental Law Analysis
Contribución al análisis de la problemática en el resguardo de Matavén, Colombia: perspectivas nacionales e internacionales - Fundación Gaia Amazonas - October 2005 (PDF - Spanish with English abstract - 1407KB)
Poster and Maps
 | |
| Case Study Poster (PDF - 3.2 MB) |
 |  |
 |  |
 |  |