President Gustavo Petro led the opening ceremony of the COP16 Green Zone activities, making a strong call to leaders and businessmen to support Agrarian Reform as a fundamental pillar in the fight against the climate crisis.
During his speech, the president stressed the urgency of delivering fertile land and offering accessible credit systems to farmers, in order to reduce pressure on the country’s jungles and moors, areas seriously affected by the displacement of communities in search of means of subsistence.
Petro pointed out that monocultures in Valle del Cauca have forced many communities, including indigenous and Afro-descendantto abandon their lands and seek refuge in the jungles, which has contributed to environmental degradation. “If the fertile land of the Cauca Valley is concentrated in a single crop and under a single owner, the peasantry, the indigenous people and the black communities end up leaving for where the jungles are because they have no other opportunity to live,” stated the president.
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The head of state highlighted the need for an Agrarian Reform that provides solutions to farmersfacilitating their access to arable land and favorable credits. «Where are we going to take them? if not where the fertile land is,” Petro questioned, referring to the importance of redistributing land to prevent these communities from continuing to contribute, although involuntarily, to deforestation and the negative impact on ecosystems.
Support for the communities of El Plateado, Cauca
Along the same lines, the president referred to the situation of the families of the town of El Plateado, in Argelia, Cauca, who depend on the illegal coca leaf economy. Petro highlighted that many of these families prefer the withdrawal of the Army from the area, since they consider it normal for their children to work in the coca fields instead of attending school.
However, the president stressed that this reality could be transformed if an Agrarian Reform was implemented that would provide them with access to fertile lands and the market for legal products. “The reality of these peasant communities would be different if they had fertile land to work and market their harvests of legal products abroad,” he stated.
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