Toward a post-conflict Colombia: Restoring to the future

At an historic moment, when Colombia is emerging from 60 years of armed conflict, the 7-year-old Colombian Network for Ecological Restoration (Red Colombiana de Restauración Ecológica [REDCRE]) has created four subnational nodes, and is actively developing several more. All of this is taking place in the context of the Ibero-American and Caribbean Society for Ecological Restoration (Sociedad Ibero-Americana y del Caribe de la Restauración Ecológica [SIACRE]). In mid-November 2014, over 200 representatives of government agencies, academia, private enterprises, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) from the entire country attended a symposium to launch the Antioquia Province node, and take stock and plan the way forward. There are bright prospects of transdisciplinary and public–private collaborations in Colombia for ecological restoration and restoration of natural capital as part of a strategy to transition smoothly to a post-conflict era. We suggest some goals and guidelines to help move forward an ambitious agenda to mainstream ecological restoration.