A strategic biome for global climate regulation, home to unique biodiversity and diverse traditional cultures. Beyond the adjectives and qualities, the Amazon is also a place of conflicts and vulnerabilities. The report Amazônia em Disputa, launched this week in Bogotá, Colombia, maps border areas, the main actors, and the dynamics that put the region at risk.
The study is a partnership between Instituto Igarapé, the European Union, and the Foundation for Conservation and Sustainable Development (FCDS). The focus is on the northwest part of the Amazon, where the geographic and political boundaries of Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, and Peru are located.
Four types of disputes are identified: environmental, criminal, capital, and institutional. The first concerns damage to the forest, such as degradation, deforestation, fires, and predatory exploitation. In the criminal aspect, armed groups and illicit networks between the legal and illegal, formal and informal. These range from drug trafficking and illegal mining to the collection of local taxes.
Capital disputes involve the process in which the forest is converted into a commodity through legal and illegal extraction chains. This includes drugs, gold, wood, cattle, among others, which fuel deforestation and create money laundering mechanisms. Institutional issues relate to the region’s fragile and fragmented governance. While criminal networks expand, the State’s presence is disjointed and ineffective.
“When we look at the illicit economies pressuring the Amazon, we are also talking about global markets. The responsibility is not only on Amazonian countries, but on all who buy this type of asset from the Amazon. We need joint responses to address the concrete damages we have seen in the territory. The damage stays in the Amazon. But, at bottom, the networks operating in the scope of these economies go far beyond Amazonian borders,” analyzes Melina Risso, research director at Instituto Igarapé.
Main Challenges
The study aims to provide an initial diagnosis of the borders in the northwest Amazon. One preliminary analysis indicates the presence of at least 16 major illegal armed groups operating in 69% of Amazonian municipalities. Among them, Comando Vermelho (CV), Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC), Exército de Libertação Nacional (ELN), and FARC dissidents.
In almost all countries, homicide rates in the Amazon exceed national averages. Violence is most critical on the borders of Putumayo (Colombia), Madre de Dios (Peru), and Sucumbíos (Ecuador), where drug trafficking, illegal mining, and State absence converge.
Criminal groups operate in transnational-scale financial flows. Illicit economy networks include gold, wood, and drug chains that connect with formal markets.
The most affected by violence and illegal activities are indigenous populations and riverside communities. The main problems involve forced displacements, loss of territories, and destruction of traditional livelihoods.
The region is also known as the world’s most dangerous for environmental defenders: more than half of global murders in 2023 occurred in the Amazon. One explanatory factor is the fragile and misguided action of the State. Researchers say state agencies act reactively and in a militarized way, without strengthening civil and community governance. Gaps in action reinforce violence and informality.
Border Disputes
Researchers identified five border areas in the Amazon with particular dispute dynamics. Two of them include territories in Brazil:
• Guainía–Orinoco (Colombia–Venezuela): the region has intense flows of legal and illegal goods, mining, and criminal networks. Indigenous communities face pressure from armed groups and environmental degradation.
• Mitú–Taraira (Colombia–Brazil): area with low state presence, crossed by drug trafficking routes and illegal mining activities. Greater isolation favors armed group operations and pressures traditional communities.
• Trapézio Amazônico (Colombia–Brazil–Peru): considered one of the epicenters of the illicit economy in the region. Its geographic position favors the concentration of strategic drug and arms trafficking routes. River activity is intense and armed groups have international connections.
• Putumayo (Colombia–Ecuador–Peru): critical zone for drug trafficking and lethal violence. There is overlap of armed groups, illicit routes, forest pressure, and forced displacements.
• Yavarí (Brazil–Peru): hard-to-access region where illegal mining, wood extraction, and commodity trafficking expand. State absence combines with disputes over indigenous territories in a scenario of severe environmental degradation. For the research director at Instituto Igarapé, the moment calls for establishing new governance structures for the Amazon, including inter-institutional coordination within each country and between countries. An opportunity to define these new directions is the 5th Summit of Presidents of the Member States of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (OTCA), taking place this Friday (22) in Bogotá.
“The OTCA is a great opportunity for cooperation, starting with the establishment of the Public Security Commission. But solutions will also involve new economic alternatives and an important discussion on payment for ecosystem services and financing for the nature economy, which should extend to COP30,” says Melina Risso.
“What we aim with this study is to draw attention to the urgency of coordinated action. We no longer have time to wait for all diplomatic relations to be established before moving forward,” she adds.
Source: Agência Brasil