Peter Schurmann. Earth Innovation Institute.
With the care of a mother tending to her child, Felipe Garcia gently places a baby tamarind tree in a small pocket of soil, where it will slowly nurture and take root before being released back into the forest. On the edge of the Amazon, this act of life stands out against the backdrop of a nation ravaged by days of war and violence.
If Colombia's rivers are its arteries, the forest is its beating heart, its destiny intertwined with the future of a country struggling with a tormented past.
"This is a form of resistance," says Garcia, 30, gently patting the ground as he searches for another young tree, part of a small but growing nursery intended to help restore the surrounding forest.
Colombia's forests are among the most biodiverse in the world, hosting more species of birds, amphibians and plants than almost anywhere else on the planet. The Amazon, which covers much of the southern region of the country, plays a key role in regulating global weather patterns. Its survival, uncertain amid the global climate crisis, is a challenge for the Amazon. ongoing threats caused by deforestation and global warming, is key to avoiding the worst results of climate change.
The rising rates of poverty and social inequality that sparked protests across the country in April, complicate efforts to protect these vital resourcesBut here under the canopy of the world's largest rainforest where the shadows of Colombia's half-century-long armed conflict contin