**Acknowledgements**

*Forest Degradation Around the World*

Finally, since the peace talks began between Colombia's government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in 2012, experts warned that the postconflict period could have negative consequences of forests, mainly due to access to areas that were restricted during the conflict and the lack of planning for the sustainable development of these territories [38, 39]. In the vast majority of cases, the areas with the greatest forest presence and the threat of deforestation are located in small- and medium-sized municipalities (up to 100,000 inhabitants), where the end of the conflict would surely increase its development at expenses of the removal of vast areas covered by natural forests. Even in the most environmentally optimistic postconflict scenario, it can be expected that at least during a transitional period, the first economic benefits at the end of the conflict will come from the abundant natural capital available in the region. In this context of accelerated economic growth with few restrictions, forests will continue to be one of the most affected resources [4].

Colombia is considered a forestry country. The natural forest area covers 59′312.369 ha, which represents 51.9% of continental and insular Colombian territory. Nevertheless, in the last 27 years (1990–2017), Colombia lost more than 6.7 million ha

**48**

**4. Conclusions**

**Figure 8.**

*Active fire platform at IDEAM's web portal [29].*

The authors express their special thanks to all of the assistants of the IDEAM Forest and Carbon Monitoring System that helped with data processing. We emphasize on the help of Carol Franco, Rosa Lozano, Mónica Rivera, Omar Sotelo, Ivan Pérez, Edilneyi Zuñiga, and Alvaro Cubillos, and also, for all the support and comments given by officials of the Ecosystems Division at IDEAM.

This work was supported by the REM Colombia Amazon Vision Program and the GEF 5 Initiative "Corazón de la Amazonia."
