More than 50 people graduated as forestry extensionists on November 11, 2025 with the support of the ProBosques II project, implemented by the German Development Cooperation — GIZ and the Colombian Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development.
“Extension is one of the most important forces to transform culture and bring confidence in an alternative economy, in this case forestry, timber, non-timber, including tourism”, Marnix Leonard Becking, senior advisor of the “REM COLOMBIA II Visión Amazonía” program.
The new extensionists, from the departments of Caquetá, Guaviare and Meta, completed their training in key topics such as sustainable forest management, community participation, natural resource governance and facilitation of rural processes. They also received training in biodiversity and restoration, modules developed in conjunction with the “Global Biodiversity Program”, implemented by GIZ, and with the support of ABC Colombia.
The work of extensionists contributes directly to strengthening the territorial presence and technical support to communities working for forest conservation. This forestry extension training initiative is an example that “Yes we can, yes we can make all community activities compatible with conservation and climate action (…) the training cannot stop there, we need to continue projecting it, we need to continue encouraging more people”, Edith Bastidas, Vice Minister of Environmental Policies and Standardization.
With this graduation, German cooperation reaffirms its commitment to institutional and community strengthening, promoting more sustainable and resilient landscapes in the Colombian Amazon and Orinoco regions. Likewise, the ProBosques II project continues to strengthen the forestry extension service in its implementation territories, through several of the people trained in 2025, adding local capacities and more hands committed to the care of forests.