Deforestation in the Colombian Amazon continues unabated. According to a Greenpeace report, 8.896 hectares were cleared in 2025 across three of the country's most iconic national parks: Sierra de La Macarena, Serranía de Chiribiquete, and Tinigua. These areas, which enjoy the highest level of environmental protection, continue to fall victim to the expansion of cattle ranching, an activity that is advancing unchecked within their boundaries.
Satellite monitoring has revealed that the greatest loss of forest cover was concentrated in the Sierra de La Macarena, with 4.973 hectares deforested, followed by Chiribiquete (2.060 hectares) and Tinigua (1.863 hectares). With this new data, the total area deforested in the three parks since 2013 has reached 95.867 hectares , a figure that demonstrates the constant pressure on ecosystems that should be protected by law.
Livestock farming, the driving force behind logging
Although satellite monitoring cannot directly determine the cause of deforestation, Greenpeace points out that the data must be analyzed in conjunction with evidence of cattle ranching expansion. The Colombian Agricultural Institute (ICA) reported in 2024 the presence of 9.392 cattle within Tinigua National Park and 7.510 in the Sierra de La Macarena National Park, an activity incompatible with the permitted land use in national parks. Laura Caicedo, campaign coordinator for Greenpeace Colombia, warns that the lack of a public traceability system makes it impossible to know the origin of the cattle and determine whether livestock farming is impacting the environment by contributing to deforestation.
The most critical case is that of Tinigua National Park, which lost 48.025 hectares of forest between 2013 and 2025, equivalent to 23% of its area. This is followed by the Sierra de La Macarena National Park with 34.070 hectares (14,6% of its area) and Chiribiquete National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with 13.772 hectares (15% of its territory). According to the organization, these figures are a historic sign that the responses accumulated over more than a decade have failed to halt the pressure on these territories.
A law that needs to be effective
The Greenpeace report was released just months after the passage of Law 2585 of 2026 on Sustainable and Deforestation-Free Livestock Farming. The organization describes it as a historic opportunity, but warns that it will only be effective if properly regulated. It is necessary to develop mechanisms for public traceability, interoperability between state entities, and access to environmental information to prevent meat linked to deforestation from reaching the market. Caicedo insists that citizens must have access to information and that small farmers need technical support for a just transition.
Between 2013 and 2024, 137.289 hectares were deforested within Colombia's National Natural Parks System, with approximately 77% of that loss concentrated in five protected areas, including Tinigua, Sierra de La Macarena, and Chiribiquete. This demonstrates that, despite their protected status, pressure on these ecosystems persists. Cattle ranching remains the primary driver of deforestation in the Colombian Amazon , and the effective implementation of the new law is crucial to halting the destruction of one of the planet's lungs.
