In a clearing around his modest smallholding, farmer Arcadio Barajas stands before a sea of coffee plants, cloaked in the shadow cast by a wall of verdant forest that covers the San Lucas mountains of northern Colombia.
The San Lucas range is one of the most unexplored places in this South American nation, which is the world's second most biodiverse country after neighboring Brazil. From its towering Andean peaks to its tropical islands and dense Amazon rainforest, Colombia is home to over 50,000 recorded species of animals and plants.
Deforestation spiked after Colombia signed a peace deal in 2016 with its largest rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), as swathes of land became more accessible. Government data shows that in 2017, almost 220,000 hectares (543,620 acres) of forest were destroyed, compared with around 124,000 hectares (306,400 acres)in 2015.
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