EL SECTOR FORESTAL EN COLOMBIA

This policy brief by Transforma outlines strategies to integrate the forestry sector into Colombia's economic recovery following the COVID-19 pandemic. It identifies critical systemic failures in information management, institutional coordination, and financing, while highlighting the sector's potential for greenhouse gas mitigation and rural poverty reduction. The document provides specific recommendations to formalize the sector, combat illegal logging, and optimize commercial plantations to increase the forestry sector's contribution to the national GDP.

• The Colombian forestry sector is characterized by high levels of informality and illegality, with an estimate that 42% of the wood produced in the country is illegal. This informality hindered the ability to measure the sector's impact during the COVID-19 pandemic and limited the access of small operators and day laborers to public aid.
• There is a critical lack of updated and consolidated forestry statistics, which facilitates informality and complicates planning. The current Forest and Carbon Monitoring System (SMByC) suffers from funding deficiencies and a heavy reliance on international cooperation.
• Institutional fragmentation exists between the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development (MADS) and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MADR), resulting in a lack of a unified vision for forest utilization. The document suggests creating a National Forestry Agency to integrate these policy guidelines.
• Commercial forestry plantations are underutilized and concentrated; as of June 2020, Colombia had only 531,693 hectares of plantations despite having seven million hectares of high potential. These plantations are heavily concentrated in 10 departments, specifically Antioquia (22%), Vichada (20%), and Meta (10%).
• The forestry supply chain is inefficient due to excessive intermediaries who increase wood costs without adding value, which is particularly detrimental to small producers. In some cases, the price difference between the resource owner and the final consumer can reach 3,000%.
• Deforestation remained a critical issue during the pandemic; in the first three months of 2020, over 75,000 hectares were cleared in the Colombian Amazon, representing 47.4% of the total deforested in 2019. This was driven by rural households returning to the forest for subsistence and reduced monitoring capabilities.
• The Forest Incentive Certificate (CIF) faces implementation challenges, including payments made after the fact and restrictions that limit funds to planting and maintenance rather than the sustainable transformation of materials.

APA

Ramos, J. L. D. (n.d.). EL SECTOR FORESTAL EN COLOMBIA. Transforma. https://transforma.global/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/CARTILLA-2-SECTOR-FORESTAL.pdf

Chicago

Ramos, Jose Luis Diaz. EL SECTOR FORESTAL EN COLOMBIA. Transforma, n.d. https://transforma.global/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/CARTILLA-2-SECTOR-FORESTAL.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Ramos |first1=Jose Luis Diaz |title=EL SECTOR FORESTAL EN COLOMBIA |publisher=Transforma |url=https://transforma.global/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/CARTILLA-2-SECTOR-FORESTAL.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{ramosndsector, author = {Ramos, Jose Luis Diaz}, title = {{EL SECTOR FORESTAL EN COLOMBIA}}, institution = {Transforma}, url = {https://transforma.global/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/CARTILLA-2-SECTOR-FORESTAL.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }