Whenever Rosa Eugenia Saavedra stepped out of her house in the rural part of the Colombian municipality of Palmira 30 years ago, she would see an abundance of farms producing cacao, coffee, beans and fruit. Saavedra, like most small-scale farmers in the southwestern department of El Valle del Cauca, fed her family on what she produced. Her neighbors enjoyed fishing small-mouthed bass (Prochilodus sp.) and mojarras (Cichlasoma sp) from the tributaries of the Cauca River and hunting armadillos and other game. She delighted in the area’s profusion of herons and ibis. But today, Saavedra, 58, feels lucky to see a few birds. The forests have been leveled and the larger mammals have fled. All she sees when she walks out of her house... [Log in to read more]