Conservation Opportunities of the Land Restitution Program Areas in the Colombian Post-Conflict Period

The Land Restitution Program (LRP) is one of the greatest challenges for Colombia's post-conflict period; it implies the recognition of the victims of dispossession or abandonment of lands and sets the discussion for future land use planning in these areas. The 1,119,959 Ha of LRP areas (August 2018) require knowledge of their state to promote land uses that favor the conservation of priority ecosystems and forest cover. Spatial and statistical analyzes where used to study the land-cover change in and around LRP areas at the national and regional level. An index of naturalness using a multi-criteria framework was used to identify important areas for conservation. Within areas, forest cover changes, resulting from deforestation and regeneration processes, decreased between 1990 and 2017. A total of 9.4% of their area show high naturalness, while 20% of them show high importance for conservation. The results show that, despite their dispossession/abandonment, these areas continued a deforestation process. Most of the areas show low naturalness, but conservation priorities can be identified in the Andes, Amazon, and Orinoco regions.