Identificación, caracterización de causas y formulación de estrategias para la mitigación de la deforestación en el Municipio de Puerto Boyacá

Abstract

The present research work aims to identify the causes and agents of deforestation in the municipality of Puerto Boyacá, establishing a diagnosis that serves as a baseline for decision-making by the different actors that affect the forests of the municipality, whose importance lies in being the last remnants of the Magdalena Medio forest. From this initial diagnosis, the second objective is proposed, which consists of the formulation of strategies that mitigate the direct causes that affect this problem that has been diminished in the last decade. To achieve these objectives, a methodology consisting of two components was used, the first being the identification of the causes and agents of deforestation, through the use of official tools at the national level for the identification of deforestation nuclei such as the System of Forest and Carbon Monitoring of IDEAM, by means of which, where the early warnings (ATD) are identified, a survey will be applied to different inhabitants in order to know their economic activities as possible causes of the loss of the forest and its perception of it. Subsequently, based on this initial diagnosis, programs are formulated that contain activities aimed at providing economic alternatives to the traditional productive systems that have degraded the forest in the region, and environmental education focused on the importance of the forest ecosystem and the goods and services rendered for human. It was identified that early deforestation warnings occurred in the villages of Maranal, Calderón, Velázquez and Palagua in the municipality of Puerto Boyacá. From the application of surveys, it was known that the main cause that affects deforestation in the municipality is agricultural and livestock economic activity, which, by expanding its border, promotes the loss of natural forest still existing in the region, whose agent is the peasant town who lives from this activity. Therefore, three strategies were formulated in order to mitigate this problem, two of them related to the proposal of alternative economic activities to traditional ones, such as sustainable forest use to obtain timber and non-timber products, and payment for environmental services for the net conservation of forests. The third program in environmental education to transmit knowledge and raise awareness of the importance of the forest in the daily life of the population.