Colombia launches strategy to tackle environmental crimes

BOGOTA, (Reuters) Colombia's national police has deployed 100 criminal intelligence and investigation officers in a strategy to tackle environmental crimes in the Andean country, the government said yesterday, citing illegal mining and animal trafficking among the gravest threats. Fifty officers will investigate environmental crimes while 40 will work on intelligence gathering. The remaining 10 will monitor websites, including social media, for trafficking and selling of wildlife.

"Environmental crimes don't just affect Colombia's heritage ... the environment is the heritage of all humanity," Brigadier General Jesus Alejandro Barrera, director of Colombia's rural police, told journalists.

Colombia, one of the world's most biologically diverse countries with tens of thousands of animal and plant species, is beset by crimes damaging the environment, including deforestation, illegal mining, oil theft from pipelines, and trafficking of flora and fauna.

In 2020 some 171,685 hectares (424,000 acres) in Colombia were deforested, most of that in the Amazon region, up 8% from levels of destruction recorded in 2019. The main drivers of deforestation are extensive cattle ranching, crops of coca, the main ingredient in cocaine, and illegal mining, the government said.

Wildlife trafficking is also a major issue. Last week two German citizens were caught https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/colombiaseizes-hundreds-arachnids-being-illegally-smuggled-europe-2021-12-02 trying to carry hundreds of arachnids out of the country.