Thinking of Colombia refers to biodiversity, with its large forests and extensive areas full of fauna and flora, it is one of the few considered megadiverse in the world. Thanks to this, it occupies different positions, including the third most biodiverse thanks to its 67,000 registered species. Thus, the different governments and the current one have proposed different strategies to think about biological diversity in economic matters.
(Deforestation in Colombia rose 11% in the first half of 2022).
According to data from SIB Colombia, the country ranks number one in the world for birds, orchids and butterfliesthe second with more plants, amphibians, reptiles, palms and freshwater fish, and also, it is the fifth with more mammals worldwide.
However, some figures are also alarming, according to the entity, at least 1,302 species are threatened, 3,545 are traded in the country and 508 species have been introduced, invasive or transplanted.
According to the Minister of the Environment and Sustainable Development, Susana Muhamad, “the loss of biodiversity is the greatest crisis and we still do not understand how it is possible for us to separate, institutionally and mentally, the biodiversity crisis from the climate crisis.”
Likewise, the government of President Petro has proposed different strategies to preserve Colombia’s biodiversity wealth, mainly proposing to find a way to generate social and economic well-being for the communities that are in those territories to be protected.
“The question we want to ask the world is: how do we generate an economy that, in the way it develops, generates biodiversity as a product,” said the minister.
(More investment alternatives, task of the country’s stock market).
the bioeconomy
The bioeconomy is an economic model that uses the resources of the environment to obtain from them productions and wealth under the condition that they are sustainable.
The ministry has thought about the possibility of creating the National Forestry and Bioeconomy Extension Service, which works together with the people to generate an agroecological model that favors the economic development of the people. For different experts consulted by Portafolio, this model can be beneficial, however, it can represent great challenges when applying it.
According to Alejandro Useche, professor of economics at the Universidad del Rosario, this is a convenient trend and in Colombia it is promising. But, diversity has an important challenge and it is how to achieve a balance between nature and productive use in its care and preservation. For the professor, the economy must be united towards sustainability, “that is, with production schemes that allow the best use of these resources but guarantee that they will be available in the future,” he said.
On the other hand, Useche indicates that international markets can be used so that Colombia has a projection towards exports in this model. Also, there is the possibility of using biodiversity as an economy for tourism, “with the services in which Colombia has a lot of potential, helping to generate income for the country and contributing to the sustainability of those resources in the future,” he said.
In his turn, Hernán Felipe Trujillo, a professor at the Catholic University of Colombia, spoke of other challenges in terms of forests, affirming that turning biodiversity into a market is difficult but that what can be done is commercialize environmental services.
(50% of foreigners seeking housing in Colombia come from the US).
“These aim to capture those environmental attractions that Colombia has in biodiversity and understand how this work with the communities benefits them with conservation. However, here we have to see who pays for it”.
The professor stated that we must find a value in biodiversity. “This is where there is a lot of discussion because how much is a hectare of Amazonian forest worth without deforestation, it is unquantifiable because it cannot be turned into a commodity. A value must be found for the indirect position, to conserve the forest and also to channel resources”.
Diana K. Rodriguez T.
BRIEFCASE
