After the Colombian FARC peace agreement, scientists discovered more new species

Oct 27 (Reuters) – For more than five decades, as violent conflict raged through Colombia’s highlands and rainforests, wildlife thrived.

From brilliantly colored orchids to tiger-striped frogs, scientists have discovered a wealth of new animal and plant species in the years since a 2016 peace deal saw most Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebels lay down their weapons. The agreement made it safe to enter many parts of the country, which were often impeccably preserved during the conflict.

Peace, it turned out, offered a boon to natural research. Scientists have found about three times as many new plant species in Colombia each year since the peace agreement as before the deal, according to a new analysis by Colombian botanist Oscar Alejandro Perez-Escobar shared exclusively with Reuters.

But the FARC agreement did not end the conflict in Colombia. Although the deal opened many parts of Colombia to science, other armed groups – including former FARC fighters who rejected the peace deal – and crime gangs filled the vacuum in some areas, bringing new dangers to researchers and wildlife alike.

The analysis of around 14,000 Colombian plant species recorded at the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew showed that researchers have published an average of 178 new finds in the years since the peace agreement. That compares with an average of 53 in the years before the agreement.

The analysis, which has not been peer-reviewed, also explains the imbalance between the few years of data since 2016 compared to centuries of previous species discoveries.

Although the analysis shows an increase in publications after the peace deal, it does not prove the deal was the cause, Perez-Escobar said.

He recalled his first expedition after the peace deal, traveling with a team of researchers from 16 countries through a mountainous ecosystem as Colombian soldiers monitored their movements in 2018.

“I was excited, but also nervous,” said Perez-Escobar, who works for Kew Gardens in Britain. “Excited about the prospects of finding new species… but also nervous about the danger of going there.”

CROCODILES, DRONES & DEFORESTATION

As a biology student in the 1990s, botanist Mauricio Diazgranados collected plants in the mountains, an hour’s drive from Bogota.

“I could see the helicopters shooting at the guerrillas and the guerrillas fighting back,” said Diazgranados, who now works as scientific director of the New York Botanical Garden.

At one point he worked as a volunteer park ranger in the Sumapaz area where the FARC once had its headquarters. He said he was once held by rebels on suspicion of espionage, but managed to escape and flee during the night.

Diazgranados later helped organize dozens of scientific expeditions to previously dangerous areas under Colombia BIO, a government program launched to better understand the country’s wilderness after the peace deal. He still has cardboard boxes filled with samples of dried plants that he believes are new species but have yet to be described in publication.

While the conflict has helped protect Colombia’s wildlife for decades, it is the country’s location and geography that have allowed it to flourish into what it is today.

Located near the warm belt of the equator where North and South America meet, the country includes beaches, tropical rainforests, and three different chains of the Andes that extend from deep valleys to more than 5,000 meters (17,000 feet). The diversity of these environments has led to more species evolving over time.

It’s not just the peace deal that’s leading to more discoveries, Diazgranados said. More trained scientists are researching Colombia than ever, he said, and some are turning away from nearby Venezuela because of the economic and political crisis there.

Scientists at Colombia’s state-run Alexander von Humboldt Biological Resources Research Institute have discovered dozens of new species, including beetles, frogs, a spider and a caecilian – a rare group of legless amphibians that live underground. It can take several years before it is confirmed that a species find is new.

“They were inaccessible areas, but also areas of enormous information and natural resources,” says Jhon Cesar Neita, who manages Humboldt’s entomology and invertebrate collection, of former FARC-managed areas that opened up to research.

“All of us scientists wanted to go.”

Scientists from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) have also recorded another ten amphibian finds, including a green-brown striped rain frog named after Colombia’s peace agreement: Pristimantis pactumpacis.

After the peace deal, WCS researchers were able to use drones to count critically endangered Orinoco crocodiles in eastern Colombia in an area that was previously too dangerous, said the group’s Colombia director German Forero.

But after more than 100 people were reportedly killed this year in violence related to armed groups in the area, WCS personnel are currently unable to travel back to the site of the Orinoco crocodile, Forero said.

LOSS OF PROFITS

According to sources within the Colombian military, there is currently heavy fighting between the armed groups in some of the most biodiverse parts of the country. In the Pacific province of Choco, home to verdant rainforest and famously wet weather, ELN rebels are battling the Clan del Golfo crime gang, while rival FARC dissident groups are battling it out in several Amazon provinces.

Along with continued violence by armed groups, Colombia now also faces the risk of rapid environmental degradation, scientists have warned. According to government data, deforestation increased by 40% in the first three months of this year.

Environment Minister Susana Muhamad in April blamed a group of former FARC fighters called Estado Mayor Central for deforestation in the Amazon rainforest. He said it prevents outsiders from entering areas it controls while pressuring locals to cooperate.

The faction of the recently split EMC led by Alexander Diaz Mendoza, better known by its nom de guerre Calarca Cordoba, said in a statement that the group is not involved in deforestation and works with communities to promote sustainable practices. The group said it is blocking access to prevent government efforts to “financialize” the forest through products such as green bonds.

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Jake Spring reports primarily on forests, climate diplomacy, carbon markets and climate science. His investigative reporting on the destruction of the Amazon rainforest under ex-president Jair Bolsonaro, based in Brazil, won the 2021 award for Best Reporting in Latin America from the Overseas Press Club of America (His reporting on the destruction of the environment in Brazil won a Covering Climate Now award and was honored by the Society of Environmental Journalists. He joined Reuters in China in 2014, where he previously served as editor-in-chief of China Economic Review. He is fluent in Mandarin Chinese and Brazilian Portuguese.