“When I arrived in El Retorno, more than 50 years ago, my pregnant mother had to walk more than 8 hours to get to the only health post that existed in San José. She rested for a few hours and then walked another 8 hours back.”
“A long time ago, to get to what would later be El Retorno and Calamar, people had to walk along a trail. On either side, you could only see thick trees, a lot of monkeys and birds, and around here indigenous people lived in their huts. Now you can't see that.”
“We, peasants and settlers, have always been stigmatized. They blame us for everything: for destroying the jungle, for deforestation, for contamination, for everything.”
The Amazon arc is a region that encompasses 16 municipalities in the departments of Guaviare, Caquetá, Meta, and Putumayo, and it is considered the hinge between the Andean world and the Amazon. Its nearly 15 million hectares are a biological corridor where there is an incalculable diversity of flora and fauna and a high degree of endemism. Because of its proximity to the Andean region, the Amazon arc has been the main focus of colonization for more than a century. Due to different circumstances, ranging from the desire to obtain land to work to forced displacement, millions of Colombians have migrated there.
These colonization processes, which, far from diminishing, are increasing, have turned the Amazon arc into the main deforestation region of the Colombian Amazon. In less than a century, millions of hectares of native trees have been replaced by towns, cattle, and a huge area of agro-industrial and coca crops. Consequently, this connection between the Andes and the Amazon is about to be lost. In the last 30 years, Meta has lost 23% of its forests, Caquetá and Putumayo a 12%, and Guaviare a 9%.
It is no coincidence that this region also presents an accelerated increase in roads, the vast majority of which are illegal. A high number of communities or towns, product of the endless waves of colonization (which, by the way, have been more recurrent since the signing of the peace process with the FARC), and the legal and illegal businesses that are constantly expanding need roads and trails. By 2018 there were 22,991 kilometers of roads in the region, a figure that in March 2022 grew to 26,837. 17% in four years!
The numbers show a close relationship between the opening of roads and deforestation. With the trails come the appropriation and deforestation of the land. The problem is that these roads were opened in forest reserve areas (Law 2 of 1959) and are invading the natural parks of Picachos, Tinigua, La Macarena, Chiribiquete, La Paya, and the Nukak natural reserve.
This is the story of how the roads in the Amazon arc have become a cause of deforestation.
Fish skeleton
The relationship between deforestation and the opening of roads is not recent. It is historical, and ultimately, it has to do with the colonization process of the Amazon foothills that began more or less a century ago. The arrival of peasants and settlers to this region, the founding of municipalities and hamlets, and the expansion of the agricultural frontier all relate to the opening of roads.
The case of the San José de Guaviare-El Retorno-Calamar highway is an example of how a road that was built more than 60 years ago became (and still is) the axis of the colonization of Amazon in Guaviare and the cause of deforestation of thousands of hectares. Dozens of other roads branch out from this one, connecting the different hamlets and villages of the municipalities of Guaviare.
Horacio Cifuentes Olarte, a Quindiano who arrived in Guaviare 12 years ago looking for a better economic future, like other residents, is right when saying that the department's road system is a fish skeleton in which the backbone is the San José-Calamar highway, from which the rest of the bones are born "towards the immense jungle".
The problem is that with these "bones" or trails, deforestation is encouraged, threatening not only the jungle of the natural reserve areas, but also that of the Chiribiquete and Tinigua natural parks and the Nukak Maku natural reserve. At the same time, these trails are the ones that connect thousands of inhabitants of the department with San José, who claim that these paths need to be improved.
The San José del Guaviare-El Retorno road began more than 60 years ago as a trail that made its way through the jungle and was the colonization route for this region. Now, after waiting for many decades, the government has started to pave it.
Photo: Santiago Ramírez.
Good news for the locals, who will significantly reduce the time they spend on their tours.
Photo: Santiago Ramírez.
The paving of this road is the end point of a history of continued deforestation in the region.
Photo: Santiago Ramírez.
Many other roads derive from this one that connects the villages and hamlets with San José de Guaviare, El Retorno, and Calamar. In the trails of the El Capricho village, San José de Guaviare, the relationship between roads and deforestation is clear. The road opens in the middle of the jungle and the smaller trees are cut on either side.
Photo: Santiago Ramírez.
As you advance on the trail, the dense jungle disappears and the remains of a burning and felling of trees made more or less a year ago stand out. The trunks, felled or standing, begin to be covered by grass and weeds.
Photo: Santiago Ramírez.
On the roads that connect the different villages of Calamar, you can still see patches of forest in the middle of large pastures.
Photo: Santiago Ramírez.
Due to the increase in the number of farms and the population density of the villages, the trails are intervened with heavy machinery to improve them and thus, facilitate the transportation of the locals. On several occasions, these works are paid by the community itself.
Photo: Santiago Ramírez.
Suitable roads are also used to move cattle, which is one of the main economic activities in the region.
Photo: Santiago Ramírez.
In rainy seasons, traveling on these roads can be an ordeal. Trucks transporting cattle can be stuck for hours.
Photo: Santiago Ramírez.
To get to places where there are no roads, such as the Charras village, cars improvise on their own ones.
Photo: Santiago Ramírez.
Illegal road in the middle of the jungle, Guaviare.
Between 2018 and 2021, 3,846 kilometers of roads were built or detected.
In the first width kilometer of the adjacent zone on both sides of an open road, deforestation is almost total.
Water passages essential for the survival of animal and plant species are cut when opening these roads.
This is how the Amazon is paved
The roads in this region present a paradoxical situation: inhabitants need them to communicate efficiently with the rest of the country, but at the same time, they have been the cause of deforestation. The San José de Guaviare-Calamar road is an example, which is part of the dream National Route 75.
What is National Route 75?
It is a highway that aims to cross the Amazon and unite the municipalities of Puerto Leguízamo (Putumayo) and Puerto Gaitán (Meta). The project, which would pass through the departments of Guaviare and Caquetá, arose in the second half of the 20th century as a dream of the regional elite to connect the Eastern Plains with the Amazon.
Since the 1990s, some laws have tried to make it real, but currently, there is only the San José de Guaviare route, which is a road that began to form from more or less the 1950s and that tells the story of the colonizing waves in Guaviare.
Over time, parallel to the construction of National Route 75, the region has been crossed by hundreds of minor roads.
Three points of the colonization of Guaviare:
San José de Guaviare: it emerged towards the second third of the 20th century as a small port on the Guaviare River. Over time, due to the administrative policies of the State and the migratory waves, it became one of the main municipalities of the Amazon.
El Retorno: at first, it was called Caño Grande. It was born from the colonizing wave promoted from San José towards the middle of the 20th century. In 1968, it was designated as a municipality. La Libertad is a populated center that is part of this municipality.
Calamar: it started as a town dedicated to rubber at the end of the 19th century. For some time, it was the capital of the Vaupés police station. With the end of the rubber rush in the mid-20th century, this town declined. Decades later, it was repopulated thanks to the wave of colonization that arose around 1960.
1950 – 1960
The route was a bridle path. Traveling the San José – El Retorno section on foot or horseback could last up to 12 hours and to Calamar, several days.
1960 – 1970
The settlers themselves began to open the trail with axes and machetes. The first bulldozer entered to widen and level the road. The journey between San José and El Retorno lasted 7 or 8 hours on foot and 5 hours on horseback, and between this municipality and the village of La Libertad, it was 5 hours on foot and 3 on horseback.
1970 – 1980
The first vehicle arrived in San José. In the section San José - El Retorno, it began the improvement of the road. Deforestation increased on both sides of the highway because Incora began to own territories. Between La Libertad and Calamar, a part of the road was extended with a bulldozer.
1980 – 1990
The San José – El Retorno section was extended, and the first concrete bridges were built. Land grabbing began and with it, deforestation of places beyond the roadsides. Between La Libertad and Calamar, the road was constantly in poor condition due to the trucks that brought cattle and coca. Many people had to walk this route that lasted 7 hours.
1990 – 2000
The journey between San José and El Retorno was reduced to two hours by car, in dry seasons. In the El Retorno – Calamar section, the first concrete bridges were built, and ranchers, farmers, and coca growers collected money for their maintenance. The distance between El Retorno and La Libertad by car was reduced to 1 hour in summer, but in winter, it was extended to 1 day.
2000 – 2010
The road was under crossfire between the Army, guerrillas, and paramilitaries. A small section of the road was paved between San José and El Retorno. The guerrillas blew up some bridges. The poor state of the El Retorno – Calamar road forced transfers from buses to campers. In certain moments, traveling the La Libertad - Calamar route could last 8 days due to poor road conditions.
2010 – 2020
It was declared a national road and plans began to expand and pave it in its entirety. In summer, the journey between San José - El Retorno lasted one hour, and between this municipality and La Libertad, 35 minutes. From La Libertad to Calamar the time was reduced to 40 minutes. In total, a trip between San José and Calamar could take between two and two hours and 20 minutes.
The double drama of the Calamar-Miraflores road
For more than 40 years, the inhabitants of Miraflores and Calamar began to open a trail to connect both populations, since the only way of communication was crossing the Unilla River from Calamar and then reaching the Vaupés River, which was a trip that lasted several days. The region was under the control of the FARC, so they also contributed to build it as part of their war strategy.
As if they were a state within a state, the FARC implanted an authoritarian government. By any means, peasants had to participate in the opening of trails and other social tasks, they also had to comply with a strict coexistence manual that regulated most of their lives. Among these rules was the control of deforestation, which, during those times, was minimal in the region.
With the signing of the agreements, the inhabitants of Miraflores asked the departmental and national governments to make the 161 kilometers of trail suitable for the transit of cars and trucks. This desire was frustrated because in 2019 a judge ordered the closure of the highway for environmental damage and accused the mayors of Calamar and Miraflores, Pedro Pablo Novoa Bernal and Jhonivar Cumbe respectively, for environmental crimes, as they allowed these works to progress.
The truth is that these actions have helped little to decrease deforestation along this road. Between 2018 and 2021, 136 kilometers of new trails have been opened, 22% more than in 2017. Moreover, deforestation has not stopped. Between April 2021 and March 2022, 688 new paddocks were opened, totaling 2,742 deforested hectares.
The dilemma of this highway is that environmentalists fear that the Calamar-Miraflores axis will become a new fish skeleton that encourages deforestation, in the same way, that happens with the San José del Guaviare-Calamar road, as inhabitants of Miraflores need the road to communicate with the rest of the department of Guaviare, because transportation by boat takes a long time, and by plane is very expensive.
Opening trails, destroying the jungle
The latest research shows that the opening of roads, highways, or trails is directly proportional to the increase in deforestation. Although some of these roads are important for connecting remote communities, they have also led to the emergence of paddocks of all sizes.
As of March 2018, there was a road infrastructure of 22,991km in the entire Amazon, and between April of the same year and March 2022, 3,846km more were opened, an increase of 16% in four years.
The periods in which road construction grew the most were: April 2018 - March 2019, with 1,323kms and April 2019 - March 2020 with 1,128kms.
The problem with this matter is that these new roads were opened in natural reserves, natural parks, and indigenous reservations.
98% of new roads were built in Putumayo, going from 266km in March 2018 to 527km in March 2022.
There are 25% of new roads in Guaviare. It went from 4,957km in March 2018 to 6,221km in March 2022.
There are 20% of new roads in Caquetá. In four years, it went from 4,628 to 5,572km.
The number of open paddocks from 10 hectares to more than 100 hectares
The opening of roads or trails goes hand in hand with deforestation to create paddocks. The less distance from the road, the greater the deforestation.
Nonuya reservation, Amazon.
The municipalities that register the greatest number of new roads between 2018 and 2021 are Mapiripán with 665km, followed by Cartagena del Chairá with 570km, and San José del Guaviare with 523km.
The two main focuses where the new highways are located are the San José del Guaviare-Calamar road and the section where the construction of the Marginal de la Selva has been planned for decades, which would communicate San José del Guaviare with San Vincente del Caguán.
The national government plans to build the Leticia-Tarapacá road, in the department of Amazon. All the experts draw attention to the fact that, if it is built, it would open up a deforestation front in the heart of the Colombian Amazon.
San José - El Capricho tertiary road, Guaviare.
Open roads in the Amazon have distinct functions. They communicate the peasants and settlers with the urban centers of the departments of Guaviare, Caquetá, and Meta. Armed actors also use them to mobilize illegal products such as coca. The roads are necessary, and the inhabitants of the region ask for their adaptation so that their living conditions improve, and they can reduce the costs of transporting the products they grow.
In the midst of the massive colonization process of the Amazon, the roads are also the first step for the appropriation and hoarding of vacant lots. Little is known about this phenomenon, and it is one of the main causes of the degradation of the Amazonian foothills. The communities do not want to talk about it because those who run it are illegal actors or people with power, tied to state entities.