The post-conflict expansion of coca farming and illicit cattle ranching in Colombia.

ABSTRACT: Illicit cattle ranching and coca farming have serious negative consequences on the Colombian Amazon's land systems. The underlying causes of these land activities include historical processes of colonization, armed conflict, and narco-trafficking. We aim to examine how illicit cattle ranching and coca farming are driving forest cover change over the last 34 years (1985-2019). To achieve this aim, we combine two pixel-based approaches to differentiate between coca farming and cattle ranching using hypothetical observed patterns of illicit activities and a deep learning algorithm. We found evidence that cattle ranching, not coca, is the main driver of forest loss outside the legal agricultural frontier. There is evidence of a recent, explosive conversion of forests to cattle ranching outside

SUBMITTER: Murillo-Sandoval PJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9898308 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature