Bogotá, August 2025 — The Regional Autonomous Corporation of Cundinamarca (CAR) announced Resolution DGEN No. 284 dated July 23, 2025, which defines the conditions to implement, monitor, and ensure compliance with Environmental Compensation measures within its jurisdiction. This regulation aims to guarantee that projects causing unavoidable impacts on natural resources repair those effects, prioritizing the conservation and restoration of the region’s strategic ecosystems.

The resolution applies to projects requiring environmental permits, removal of forest reserves, water concessions, or forestry exploitation managed by CAR. Its objective is to clarify what, how much, where, and how to compensate, ensuring that measures are proportional to each project’s residual impacts. To do so, it adopts technical tools from the Ministry of Environment’s “Manual of Environmental Compensation of the Biotic Component” (2018), which quantifies damages, and CAR’s 2025 Terms of Reference, which guide the design of compensation plans tailored to the ecological needs of each territory.

Compensation options include concrete actions such as restoring degraded ecosystems, controlling invasive species, implementing payments for environmental services (PES), creating habitat banks, acquiring land for conservation, and building sustainable hydraulic infrastructurelike reservoirs. Project developers may combine these options, always following CAR’s technical guidelines .

About CAR’s Compensation Manual

The new “Manual for the Compensation of the Biotic Component and the Removal of CAR’s Forest Reserve Areas” clearly explains how to design and implement effective compensations that truly benefit ecosystems and communities. It serves as a key tool to guide companies, communities, and authorities in effectively repairing environmental damage caused by development projects in the region.

When infrastructure, agriculture, or mining projects affect rivers, forests, or biodiversity, the law requires compensation for impacts that cannot be avoided. This manual is especially relevant in a territory like Cundinamarca, where these activities plus urban expansion cause unavoidable impacts on strategic ecosystems.

The manual mainly applies to projects needing environmental licenses granted by CAR, removal of forest reserves, water concessions affecting more than 10 hectares, and forestry use involving the felling of over 3,000 trees. Its practical approach addresses four fundamental questions any project must answer when designing compensations: What to compensate? How much area to compensate? Where to compensate? And how to compensate? ).

First, the document helps identify exactly what must be compensated, detailing how to assess specific damages to ecosystems, native species, or key environmental services such as water regulation. Next, it provides clear methodologies to calculate the amount of compensation, setting technical parameters to prevent underestimations.

The guide offers practical alternatives adaptable to different regional contexts. These include restoring degraded forests and wetlands, eradicating invasive species like Spanish broom (Retama monosperma), and payment schemes to communities for watershed protection. It also includes innovative options such as creating habitat banks and acquiring land for conservation.

A key aspect of the manual is its requirement that compensations be implemented within the same hydrographic subzone where impacts occurred, seeking ecological equivalence. The regulation also promotes transparency by requiring compensation plans to align with the jurisdiction’s ecological priorities, such as critical watersheds or high biodiversity areas.

Turning Challenges into Opportunities for Companies

How exactly should a project compensate its environmental impact? What is really expected? The manual acts as a compass for businesses to compensate simply and clearly, relieving them of guesswork about requirements by telling them, step by step, what to do, how much to invest, and where to act. This results in projects moving forward smoothly without surprises, avoiding delays due to community conflicts or unforeseen procedures.

But it goes far beyond simply “complying with the law.” This guide invites a shift in perspective: stop seeing compensation as just another tax and start viewing it as a seed to generate real value. Instead of merely transferring money, there’s an opportunity to build living partnerships with the territory. For example, if water is needed for operations, habitat banks can work with upstream farmers to protect the watershed supplying it, ensuring vital resources while improving their livelihoods. Forests can also be restored, becoming a company’s best calling card by investing in the very ecosystem the business depends on, making it stronger and more resilient.

Ultimately, this process gives companies a compelling story to tell, in a world where people increasingly choose brands with purpose. Demonstrating tangible results — “we restored X hectares of forest,” “we recovered the stream that provides water to many families,” “we created green jobs” — is a powerful advantage. Turning a regulatory requirement into the core of a company’s reputation transforms it into a driver of opportunities and a lasting positive impact in the region.

It is important to note that the manual’s implementation will include a strong social component, promoting that compensations generate green jobs for local communities and tangible benefits like improved access to water. Additionally, monitoring systems will be established with clear indicators: number of hectares restored, species recovered, and improvements in residents’ quality of life.

With this resolution, CAR reinforces its commitment to environmental protection and sustainable development in Cundinamarca, focusing on making compensations an opportunity to recover and preserve ecosystems in dialogue with communities and economic actors.

For technical details, the public can consult the implementation manual at https://n9.cl/ytdfj and the full text of the resolution at https://www.car.gov.co/vercontenido/5581

For more information, please contact Giovanni Fonseca Duffó at [email protected]