The ayahuasca movement attracts people who care deeply about nature, sustainability, and how their actions influence ecosystems. This naturally raises an important question: how does our use of ayahuasca impact the environment, particularly in Colombia—one of the plant medicine world’s most significant centers?
Online discussions often paint a troubling picture: sacred plants extracted for profit, creating shortages that undermine indigenous cultural heritage. While these concerns deserve attention, the reality in Colombia is more nuanced and, in many ways, more hopeful than internet narratives suggest. Colombia’s unique confluence of post-conflict transformation, environmental leadership, and traditional medicine stewardship is creating a new model for what rainforest economics can look like.
Key takeaways: Sustainability of Ayahuasca in Colombia
Ayahuasca is not globally scarce or at risk of extinction. Current levels of use require only a small fraction of available Amazon land when cultivation is done responsibly.
Scarcity exists only for certain ayahuasca vine varieties. Specific wild-growing and older vines are becoming rarer due to localized overharvesting, not global demand.
Responsible ayahuasca cultivation supports Amazon livelihoods.
Ethical cultivation creates employment and offers a viable economic alternative to extractive industries in Amazon regions.
Table of Contents
Colombia’s Historic Environmental Commitment
In November 2025, Colombia made history by becoming the first Amazonian nation to declare its entire Amazon biome off-limits to oil and large-scale mining. Environment Minister Irene Vélez Torres announced this unprecedented decision at COP30, protecting over 48 million hectares—representing 42% of Colombia’s continental territory and 7% of the South American Amazon.
This decision directly impacts the primary ayahuasca-growing departments: Amazonas, Caquetá, Putumayo, Guaviare, Guainía, and Vaupés. These are the same regions where traditional medicine families have cultivated Yagé (as ayahuasca is known in Colombia) for generations, and where indigenous communities including the Cofán, Siona, Kamentsa, Inga, and many others have maintained sacred relationships with these plants since time immemorial.
Quote: “The forest wants to share its wisdom. Our responsibility is to receive it with the reciprocity and respect it deserves.” – Sergio Henao
Understanding the Scale: A Question of Numbers
Precise figures are difficult to obtain, but ICEERS estimated that in 2019, approximately 880,000 people worldwide participated in ayahuasca ceremonies, with many attending multiple ceremonies throughout the year. This brought the estimated total servings to 5.7 million for that year alone.
From direct experience working with ayahuasca cultivation in Colombia, one hectare of biodiverse land can comfortably sustain ceremonies for 1,000 people annually. This conservative estimate accounts for maintaining ecological diversity within that territory.
Using this calculation, for 5.7 million servings globally, we would need approximately 5,700 hectares—equivalent to 57 square kilometers, roughly half the size of Paris. Now consider this: the Colombian Amazon alone contains approximately 48 million hectares. The Amazon as a whole spans 670 million hectares across nine countries.
From these numbers, it becomes clear that a global shortage of ayahuasca plants isn’t the fundamental issue and there is no threat of the plant becoming extinct.
Sustainability of Ayahuasca
Navigating the Nuance of Sustainability of Ayahuasca in Colombia
"The forest wants to share its wisdom. Our responsibility is to receive it with the reciprocity and respect it deserves."
The Scale of the Amazon
That's roughly half the size of Paris. For context, the Colombian Amazon alone is 48 million hectares.
Ayahuasca is NOT at risk of extinction.
Understanding "Scarcity"
What is becoming rare?
- Aged vines (20+ years old)
- Specific microclimate varieties
- Wild vines near "tourist hotspots"
The Solution
- Responsible cultivation
- Intergenerational planting
- Ancestral land stewardship
Colombia Makes History
As of November 2025 (COP30), Colombia is the first Amazonian nation to declare its entire Amazon biome off-limits to oil and large-scale mining.
A New Economic Model
Sustainable Ayahuasca cultivation provides a dignified alternative to extractive and destructive industries:
The Seeker's Role
Align your healing with the health of the forest.
Source
Choose centers that cultivate their own plants.
Respect
Work with indigenous-led stewardship.
Impact
Ensure fair wages for local employees.
The Nuanced Reality: What Scarcity Actually Means
However, the calculation reveals only part of the story. There are more than 60 different types of ayahuasca vines, each with distinct properties and traditional uses. Some varieties thrive only in specific microclimates that cannot be easily replicated elsewhere. More significantly, aged vines—those 20 years or older—are becoming increasingly rare in the wild. These older vines are often preferred by traditional practitioners for their potency and considered markers of ecological health and continuity.
The real scarcity isn’t about ayahuasca as a whole, but about specific varieties and wild-growing populations in particular locations. In tourist retreat hotspots near Iquitos, Peru, and even in some Colombian areas near urban centers, wild ayahuasca vines have indeed become scarcer over the past decade.
The problem arises when individuals or operations disconnected from local ecosystems enter the jungle, harvest wild plants without replanting, and show no regard for their ecological footprint. This extractive pattern—taking from the land without giving back—represents a fundamental violation of sustainable practice and traditional indigenous values of reciprocity.
Colombia’s Unique Post-Conflict Opportunity
What makes Colombia’s situation particularly compelling is how ayahuasca cultivation intersects with the country’s post-conflict transformation. After decades of armed conflict involving FARC guerrillas and other groups, many rural areas in Putumayo, Caquetá, and other Amazon departments are seeking viable economic alternatives.
Historically, the primary industries in these Amazon regions have been logging (legal and illegal), mining, oil extraction, agriculture, cattle ranching, coca cultivation for coc*ine production, and limited eco-tourism. With the sole exception of eco-tourism, all of these industries exploit rainforest resources. When individuals and communities struggle economically, they engage in whatever industry can meet immediate needs, regardless of environmental cost.
Colombia’s commitment to keep its entire Amazon free from oil and mining removes two of the most destructive options from the table. But this creates an urgent question: what viable economic alternatives can sustain families and communities in these regions?
Ayahuasca Cultivation as Economic Alternative
Ayahuasca cultivation represents a genuinely new economic model—one where money flows into Colombian Amazon regions without requiring resource exploitation. These cultivation projects create jobs, provide viable livelihoods, and offer a dignified alternative to coca production.
This is not merely theoretical. In Putumayo, where land remains relatively affordable away from urban centers, traditional medicine families own extensive territories where they cultivate thousands of plants. The Colombian government has recognized medicinal plant cultivation as part of its National Deforestation Containment Plan and its crop substitution programs aimed at supporting former coca-growing communities.
When you support ethical ayahuasca cultivation in Colombia, you’re helping ensure that rainforest land isn’t cleared for coca production, cattle ranching, or illegal logging. You’re contributing to employment that values the standing forest and the knowledge systems that have protected it for generations.
How Traditional Medicine Families Approach Cultivation
Looking only at extraction around tourist hotspots gives us an incomplete picture of what’s happening in Colombia. Traditional medicine families and indigenous communities—many of whom have shared yagé across generations—cultivate their own plants on their own ancestral or legally owned land. They harvest and replant in rhythms developed over generations, working in harmony with natural cycles and maintaining biodiversity.
The Kamsa, Inga, and other indigenous nations in Putumayo are not facing plant shortages because they’ve maintained a relationship of reciprocity with the forest. They plant for their children and grandchildren. They understand that the vine itself is a teacher, and that relationship requires respect, time, and regenerative practice.
After 17 years on this path, I’ve observed that those committed to long-term stewardship don’t face plant shortages. The imbalance comes from those operating without consideration for continuity—those who extract without replanting, who see only short-term profit rather than intergenerational responsibility.
In a separate blog we talk about the Colombian-specific version of Ayahuasca called Yagé.
This is why it’s essential to cultivate your own plants or work with Colombian communities and retreat centers that approach ayahuasca with this intergenerational perspective.
If you want to connect with the Colombian tradition we invite you to join a retreat at Harmonica Ayahausca Retreat in Colombia.
The Environmental Context: Colombia’s Commitment Matters
Colombia’s declaration that its entire Amazon is off-limits to oil and mining isn’t just symbolic—it’s a practical framework that makes sustainable plant medicine cultivation more viable. The decision removes 43 oil blocks and nearly 300 mining applications from consideration in the departments where ayahuasca grows.
This creates breathing room for alternative economies to develop. When extractive industries are pushed out, communities need viable replacements. Sustainable ayahuasca cultivation, combined with eco-tourism and traditional medicine sharing, offers exactly that.
As Minister Vélez Torres noted, protecting the Amazon is not an economic sacrifice but rather “an ethical and scientific choice.” She urged other nations to recognize that forest protection and regional development are not opposing forces but aligned commitments to a viable future.
We also talk about how Colombians see Ayahuasca in a separate blog.
Moving Beyond Fear, Shame, and Scarcity Narratives
There’s sometimes a tendency among seekers to feel guilty about participating in ceremonies—to believe you’re “taking” valuable resources from the earth, depriving indigenous communities, or somehow unworthy of receiving this medicine. Some worry they’re contributing to plant scarcity and eroding indigenous heritage.
When you attend an ethical Colombian retreat center with transparent supply chains and genuine relationships with traditional practitioners, you’re not extracting from the ecosystem. Your participation financially supports sustainable systems that benefit both people and environment. You’re contributing to an economic model that values standing forests, supports post-conflict communities, and honors indigenous knowledge systems.
Nature itself operates from abundance. A single watermelon produces hundreds of seeds. The universe expands; nature proliferates. Not every narrative of scarcity reflects reality—some stem from limited perspectives or incomplete information about what’s actually happening on the ground in places like Putumayo and Caquetá.
The Principle of Reciprocity in Practice
As consciousness develops through plant medicine work, care for our surroundings naturally deepens. The principle becomes simple: give more than you take.
In Colombia, this principle is being enacted at a national level through the oil and mining ban. It’s being practiced by traditional medicine families who plant for future generations. It’s embodied by retreat centers that cultivate their own plants, employ local communities fairly, and contribute to forest conservation.
Your role as a participant is to align yourself with these values. Choose retreat centers and practitioners who:
- Cultivate their own plants or source from ethical cultivation projects
- Maintain genuine, reciprocal relationships with indigenous communities
- Pay fair wages to local employees
- Support forest conservation and restoration
- Operate transparently about their supply chains
- Contribute to the local economy beyond extraction
A Vision Forward: Colombia’s Leadership
Colombia’s declaration at COP30 represents more than environmental policy—it’s a statement about what’s possible when a nation chooses to value its forests as living ecosystems rather than resource deposits. For the ayahuasca community, it’s an invitation to align ceremony work with the highest principles of sustainability and reciprocity.
The overall picture isn’t as dire as some online portrayals suggest. In Colombia specifically, the combination of post-conflict transformation, environmental commitment at the national level, traditional knowledge systems that have sustained plants for generations, and growing awareness among retreat centers about ethical sourcing creates genuine reason for hope.
When approached with intention, respect, and connection to Colombian communities practicing intergenerational stewardship, ayahuasca work becomes part of a regenerative cycle rather than an extractive one. Your participation, when aligned with ethical operations, supports a new model for rainforest economics—one where the standing forest, traditional knowledge, and community wellbeing are valued above short-term extraction.
Surround yourself with people and places that embody these values. Know that your choice to work with ayahuasca in Colombia, when done consciously, can be part of the solution rather than part of the problem. In Minister Vélez Torres’s words, it’s a “wager on the future of the region and of humanity.”
The forest wants to share its wisdom. Our responsibility is to receive it with the reciprocity and respect it deserves.
Frequently Asked Questions around the sustainability of Ayahuasca in Colombia
Is Ayahuasca sustainable?
Yes, ayahuasca is sustainable when cultivated responsibly. The plant itself is not at risk of extinction—global demand requires only about 57 square kilometers of cultivation land, a tiny fraction of the 670 million hectares of Amazon rainforest. The sustainability challenge is not about overall scarcity, but rather about how ayahuasca is sourced.
Sustainable ayahuasca practices include:
- Cultivating plants on dedicated land rather than wild-harvesting
- Replanting vines after harvest to ensure regeneration
- Maintaining biodiversity within cultivation areas
- Supporting traditional medicine families who practice intergenerational stewardship
In Colombia specifically, ayahuasca cultivation actively supports sustainability by providing economic alternatives to destructive industries like logging, mining, and coca production. When you choose ethical retreat centers that grow their own plants or source from traditional cultivators, you’re supporting a regenerative model that protects the rainforest rather than harming it. The key is ensuring your participation supports operations committed to long-term ecological reciprocity rather than short-term extraction.
Is ayahuasca use actually harming the rainforest in Colombia?
When ayahuasca is cultivated ethically in Colombia, it does not harm the rainforest. The main environmental damage occurs when wild vines are harvested irresponsibly without replanting. Traditional medicine families and ethical retreat centers cultivate their own plants and work within regenerative systems that protect biodiversity.
Is there a global shortage of ayahuasca plants?
No. Based on conservative cultivation estimates, the total global demand for ayahuasca represents a very small fraction of available Amazon land. The concern is not overall scarcity, but the loss of specific wild varieties and older vines in areas where extraction happens without long-term planning.
How does ayahuasca cultivation support post-conflict communities in Colombia?
In regions previously affected by armed conflict or coca production, ayahuasca cultivation offers a legal, dignified income that does not require clearing forest. It creates employment while keeping the ecosystem intact, providing an alternative to logging, cattle ranching, or illicit crops.
Does attending an ayahuasca retreat contribute to exploitation?
It depends entirely on where you go. Ethical retreat centers cultivate their own plants or source from traditional families who do. When run transparently and responsibly, retreats bring income into rural areas without extracting natural resources, supporting both people and the forest.
What makes Colombia different from other ayahuasca destinations?
Colombia has combined traditional plant medicine stewardship with strong environmental policy. By declaring its entire Amazon biome off-limits to oil and mining, the country has created conditions where regenerative economies—such as medicinal plant cultivation—can realistically replace extractive industries.
How can participants ensure they are supporting sustainable ayahuasca practices?
Ask where the plants come from, whether the center cultivates its own vines, how local communities are involved, and how staff are paid. Choosing retreat centers that are transparent and rooted in long-term relationships is one of the most effective ways participants can support sustainability.
