Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime 42d ago

La Macarena sits at the convergence of the Amazon, the Andes, and the Orinoco — one of the most biodiverse territories on the planet. Over the past two decades, more than 270,000 hectares of forest have been lost to illegal logging, illicit coca cultivation, and criminal land grabbing. But alongside this pressure, a different story is taking shape. Local communities are documenting biodiversity, restoring degraded land, and building livelihoods tied to the forest's survival rather than its destruction. The future of this territory is still being decided — by those who see the forest as a resource to extract, and those who are learning to live with it.