of the world's species, making it the second most biologically diverse country on Earth. A national and regional deforestation study in Colombia found a total loss of 5,116,071 ha of forest between 1990 and 2005 which indicates an annual deforestation rate of 341,071 ha. This concludes the national rate of deforestation equals to 0.62%. Higher deforestation rates are found in flatter areas around rural locations where protected areas are more present. Even though majority of ecosystems in the Amazon, the Choco, and the Orinoco remain intact, 71% of original forest in the Andes has been wiped out. Forest conversion has the highest probability in the Andean and Caribbean territory, although tropical forest in the Pacific and Amazon lowlands continue to be exterminated. The ecosystems most vulnerable to deforestation ranked: the plains in northern Amazonia, the humid high, sub, and mid-altitude Andean forests, the tropical high and low land forests in the Caribbean and the Magdalena tropical forest plains. Deforestation is happening more frequently in flatter zones, where cattle density and rural population are low. Illicit crop cultivation has been recorded a main driver of deforestation in Colombia. The globalized economy has extended new engenders of deforestation, such as biofuel production, mining, and hydrocarbon extraction. At the national level, rate of rural population, protected areas, cattle practicing, and slope, are deforestation drivers. Forest eradication is a crucial environmental issue given the biodiversity and ecosystems these forests provide and all the life that can be potentially lost. The concurrent forested areas predominately exist on less fertile soil and are distant from roads. Amazonian deforestation In Colombia, majority of forests are contained within the Amazonia. The population of this region is sparsely populated engendering the zone to be concentrated by deforestation and high levels of extractive activities. In the Colombian Amazonia from 1990 to 2005 there was a forest loss of 1,886,769 ha (3.9%) with an annual rate of 0.49%. Deforestation in this region is accounted to population and land use. The Amazonia possess a low populated area with small scale agriculture (including illegal crops), and cattle ranching. Fires in the Amazon also remain as a catalyst of deforestation which is an indicator of slash and burn activities associated with exploitation of natural resources. Study results suggest deforestation in the Amazonia often takes place in unoccupied rural territory where an influx of “colonist population move freely and colonization hotspots using the river” are