Deforestation in Colombia and Latin America is growing at alarming numbers, according to the corresponding climate authorities. According to the Ministry of the Environment, in the last two decades, 3,182,876 hectares (ha) of forest have been deforested in the country alone.
That is why GoTrendier, the leading platform for buying and selling second-hand fashion in Colombia, in alliance with Fundación Red de Árboles, launches the #RetoEco campaign for the third consecutive year, through which they hope to reforest some areas in Choachí, within the framework of World Earth Day celebrated on April 22.
The initiative, which runs from April 3 to 21, expects to raise a total of 1,500,000 points that will be added from the sales, publications, and purchases made by users on the platform to reforest 100 native species in Cundinamarca with the help of Red de Árboles, as explained by Ana Jiménez, Country Manager of the application “All women who want can participate in the campaign, they just have to register on the platform and they will begin to add points: 5 points for publishing a garment, 20 for a garment sold and 10 per item purchased in the app. Once the challenge is achieved, we will carry out the sowing in the place and we will share the process so that the people who contributed are aware of what was done with their contribution”
But why plant trees? Trees act against global warming as they absorb CO2 from the air, and provide other important environmental services: They provide food and shelter for insects and birds, recover part of the original landscape, prevent wind and water erosion, purify the air in cities, reduce noise pollution, beautify spaces and help combat the heat island effect in the cities.
For Andrés Flórez, director of the Red de Árboles Foundation, these donations become an opportunity to restore degraded ecosystems, activate and transmit local knowledge about fauna and flora, generating good practices in the territories for sustainable development through reforestation and conservation.
“We don’t just focus on it: we focus our technical knowledge on improving the conditions of animal species that live in ecosystems by selecting the species that best serve them. In this way, pollinators or seed dispersers are very important allies in our mission, since they are naturally in charge of maintaining the growth of forests and the areas in which we intervene for a longer time”, he said.
In the same way, the platform that seeks to contribute to the planet and that gives visibility to the need to change lifestyles, to contribute to the environment, will reward women with the most points with an invitation to plant their own tree on the 18th of April.
Finally, Jiménez calls on companies to contribute to these causes “this year is the time to get even more involved and set more and better goals. We want this to involve users and for GoTrendier to be an inspiration for other brands. April 22 is World Earth Day, and it is the perfect time to make a change on the planet from how fashion is consumed and that is why we are betting on the #EcoChallenge”.
Matt Finer, director of the Andean Amazon Monitoring Project (MAAP) – an initiative of the Amazon Conservation Association and Conservación Amazónica (ACCA) – recently highlighted that almost 100 hectares have been deforested in the department of Guaviare in January 2023 alone.
In its most recent report, the Ideam Monitoring System identified that 174,103 ha of forest were deforested in 2021. However, it also announced that, compared to 2020, deforestation was reduced in the Tinigua (-6%), Sierra de La Macarena (-11%), La Paya (-17%), Paramillo (-17%), Paramillo ( -28%), Cordillera de los Picachos (-30%) and the Nukak National Natural Reserve (-33%). These national protected areas, in recent years, have concentrated the largest proportion of this phenomenon. In the case of the Chiribiquete National Park, there was an increase during 2021 of 13% compared to 2020.
Antioquia, a department historically affected by deforestation, presented a decrease of 23%. In addition, the figures highlight that 77% of the country’s deforestation is concentrated in the departments of Goal, Caqueta, Guaviare, Putumayo, North of Santander and Antioquia.
Colombia ranks third in South America in terms of forest area after Brazil and Peru, and is the 5th country in the region in terms of primary forest coverage3 (8.5 million hectares) (FAO, 2010). The rest are 51.5 million hectares of regenerated forest and 350,000 hectares of forest plantations.