ANTI-PERSONNEL MINES AFFECT TREE DIVERSITY IN THE SELVA DE FLORENCIA NATIONAL NATURAL PARK, COLOMBIA

Armed conflicts alter the dynamics of human communities settled near protected areas. This situation modifies the use intensity of natural resources in these areas. Particularly, zones with anti-personnel mines seem to be reservoirs of biodiversity because the conflict causes these areas to be abandoned and excluded from extractive activities. Colombia has endured five decades of armed conflict, which prompted farmers to abandon rural areas and, in some cases, reduced the exploitation of natural resources in those regions, favouring the conservation of native forests. In this study, we aimed to determine the indirect effects of the armed conflict on the tree diversity of Selva de Florencia National Natural Park, Central Andes, Colombia. We established vegetation transects in areas that, during the armed conflict, had anti-personnel mines (mined zone) and areas free of anti-personnel mines (non-mined zone) within the park. We determined that species richness, composition and structure differed between mined and non-mined zones. We found larger tree sizes and more timber trees in the mined zone compared to the non-mined zone. Our results suggest that anti-personnel mines create inaccessible zones within the park, where activities such as selective logging ceased for almost two decades. Accordingly, the armed conflict favoured forest conservation. The information gathered here is relevant to post-conflict protection and management.