As the UN Biodiversity Conference draws to a close Bertie speaks to María Arango, a lawyer at the international human rights organization Forest People’s Programme, about the impacts of the sugar cane industry on Black communities in the Cauca River Valley region of western Colombia. 

A new report titled The Green Illusion finds that more than 80% of the region’s wetlands have been drained in order to plant sugar cane, resulting in Afro-descendant peoples being displaced from their ancestral lands and stripped of vital resources.

Bertie and María discuss the report’s findings and how international summits such as COP16 present key opportunities to protect the rights of Indigenous people that live in biodiversity hotspots.

Further reading: 

• Read the full report: The Green Illusion: Impacts of the Sugar Cane Monoculture on the Biodiversity and Livelihoods of the Black People in the Cauca River Valley, October 2024
• The Green Monster: Human Rights Impacts of the Sugarcane Industry on Black Communities in Colombia, June 2021
• 'Colombia’s cane industry efficient but potentially damaging', Mongabay, March 2017

Click here to read our investigation into the UK biomass supply chain, or watch a clip from the BBC Newsnight documentary.