Farmers and the Forest: Can Agroforestry Actually Conserve Biodiversity?

in more than 2000 catchments. Intangible benefits included the development or strengthening of community agroforestry and the sense of commitment from campesinos, probably enhanced by increased property values at the project sites. Rodŕıguez acknowledges the limits of this approach in conserving biodiversity and devotes some thoughts as to how similar strategies could apply to other ecosystems or to natural regeneration. Because it provided rural employment and involved local authorities, most armed groups acquiesced in the projects. There are, of course, projects that could not be completed because of the territorial disputes between armed groups, and Rodŕıguez wonders if the CAR might not have excluded some areas from consideration for security reasons. It is also possible that armed groups extorted Plan Verde money from the community. If so, this would probably go unreported. That impoverished campesinos were willing to change the long-term use of part of their land, from field to forest, in exchange for what were doubtlessly modest incentives should be heartening to conservationists. The fact that they did so almost in the crossfire is nothing short of heroic. What Colombia’s armed conflict makes starkly clear is that a bloody conflict of interest between unequal powers is at the core of much environmental destruction. Only the commitment of empowered locals protects the land in the long run. This, more than any other reason, makes democracy critical to conservation in Colombia and everywhere else.