As part of the Colombian government’s plans to tackle climate change, the reforestation target have now been raised to 750,000 hectares (1.85 million acres) by 2026, the environment ministry said.
When President Gustavo Petro took power last August, he vowed to implement an ambitious green agenda built around reduced deforestation, a transition away from fossil fuels and increased protection of water resources.
In less than year, his government has increased the country’s reforestation target during its tenure by nearly six times what was targeted by the previous conservative government.
“We are going to go from the last government’s goal of 120,000 hectares restored in four years, to a goal of 750,000 hectares during these four years,” Environment Minister Susana Muhamad said in an interview last week.
The previous government’s reforestation targets, last updated in 2020, aimed to restore some 64,000 hectares (158,600 acres) of land per year through 2030, but the ministry’s new targets would see the government aim to restore 187,500 hectares (463,300 acres) per year for four years.
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The ministry said Congress needs to approve government’s proposed $250 billion national development plan, which details spending for a wide array of social and environmental projects before it could provide details of where reforestation efforts would take place and how much they may cost.
Voting on the plan is expected to begin on Tuesday.
Petro’s government has also announced a revised plan to limit deforestation to 140,000 hectares (346,000 acres) a year by the end of its tenure.
That deforestation reduction target is less ambitious than a reduction to 100,000 hectares per year by 2025 the country had previously agreed with Germany, Norway and the United Kingdom in 2019.
Muhamad said she “accepts the criticism” of the adjusted deforestation reduction target, saying it is “a little conservative.”
“We changed the methodology because the previous government had been working with the deforestation trend. We are setting a goal of 20% real reduction in deforestation, not (a reduction) of the trend,” she said.
Story was adapted from Reuters.
