Abstract for: Land use dynamics in the northern Colombian Amazon: the case of the arc of deforestation and cattle ranching.

In 2016 the historic peace accord between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), had no strong mechanism of managing changes to land use and the environment. Since the end of a 60-year conflict in Colombia, large areas of forest have been rapidly converted to agricultural uses, most recently cattle ranching, suggesting the peace agreement presents a threat to the conservation of the country’s rainforest. As a result, deforestation inside Colombian Protected Areas (PAs) and the surrounding buffer areas has accelerated with the onset of peace. By using the system analysis approach based on Causal Loop Diagrams (CLDs), this study examines how to contextualize the competition of land between livestock production and its dynamics, with the need to protect tropical forests to reduce deforestation and biodiversity loss, and secure local food systems. The goal is to use and set systems approach as to identify key leverage points to elaborate in future studies recommendations for food security and land use decision makers.