Colombia
The new number one commodity in certain areas, that has surpassed even cocaine, is selling rainforest space to foreign companies to offset their carbon emissions. This new eco-business is closely linked in with paramilitary activity. Numerous right-wing paramilitary groups such as the ‘Black Eagles’ (or ‘Autodefensas Gaitanistas de Colombia’) and the Rastrojos have are battling with each other, and with the left-wing FARC & ELN guerrillas rebels, to control territory.
The ‘Black Eagles’ receive extensive support of the Colombian government & army, acting as the frontline in their fight to control territory, carrying out the ‘dirty work’ in new areas ahead of the army’s arrival. Their sworn enemies are mainly the left-wing FARC & ELN groups, but also the right-wing Rastrojos, whose primary income is generated through the cocaine trade, something which the Black Eagles are fundamentally opposed to.
The army & Black Eagles are taking control of the land by buying it off poor local farmers at low rates, or more commonly forcibly evicting or killing them when they come up against any resistance to this. The Black Eagles and army/police are so implicitly intertwined that they can be regularly & openly seen together in affected areas, and the line between them is very blurred. The land is then passed on to the government-controlled front companies, and is sold internationally for carbon offsetting. This is providing huge amounts of international funding for this very bloody & dirty civil war.