*3.3.2 Second half of the twentieth century: coal mining, iron, other mining: ecosystem fragmentation, paralysis and destruction of peasant territories, and planting of eucalyptus and pines*

During the 1950s, a process of industrialization in Colombia began, which led to the expansion in the exploitation of coal that had been used since the nineteenth century to feed domestic stoves and was now required to feed the hydroelectric

*High Equatorial Andean Forests and Their Socioecological Problems DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.109776*

plants of Paipa, Zipaquirá in the highlands of Cundiboyacense and others in Valle del Cauca. In the same way, the development of the steel industry in Paz del Río Boyacá required large tons of this energy mineral. Toward the 1980s and up to the present, this mineral nourishes cement and other steel companies. Due to this, the exploitation of sinkhole coal in these departments increased during the following decades until today in areas of the high Andean mountains, seriously affecting aquifers and water currents, until they led to their contamination or disappearance. To stabilize the mine sinkholes, during the decade of 1960–1970, the secretaries of agriculture increased the planting of eucalyptus forests (*Eucalyptus globulus*) as a timber input for this exploitation work and with them were replaced from native forests by forests planted with this exotic species. Today, the landscape of the Cundiboyacense highlands at the forest level is mostly covered by this type of forest community. The damage to plant and animal biodiversity is considerable, expressed in the disappearance of several species of birds such as eagles and other raptors and mammals such as spectacled bears and deer.
