MAAP: Illegal roads and Deforestation in Indigenous Reserves & National Parks of the Colombian Amazon

April 18, 2024

Primary forests in the Colombian Amazon are at risk from a variety of drivers such as illegal roads, which expose them to further threats of deforestation due to cattle pastures, land grabbing, and coca production. These illegal roads threaten protected areas, national parks, and Indigenous territories (referred to as  Resguardos in Colombia).

Our newest report, MAAP #211, documents these impacts in two important areas in the heart of the Colombian Amazon: the Llanos del Yari-Yaguara II Indigenous Reserve and the adjacent Chiribiquete National Park. In the Llanos del Yari-Yaguara II Indigenous Reserve, the construction of a new road is causing massive deforestation within and adjacent to the territory (856 hectares, or 2,115 acres, in total). In Chiribiquete National Park, we see the expansion of deforestation of 64 hectares (158 acres) along an illegal road penetrating the northwest sector of this important protected area.

In the report, we show a series of satellite images for both cases.

Read the full report here.