During the more than fifty years that they have been on Colombian territory, the company has destroyed a considerable part of the tropical rainforest area in Lower Calima in the Department of Valle del Cauca (the biogeographical Choco region) and the Andes. In 2009 a member of CENSAT, Friends of the Earth, Colombia, Diego Alejandro Cardona, described the problem in an interview with Radio Mundo Real: "In terms of forestry, the trees planted (pine, eucalyptus) occupy 250 thousand hectares and are located in strategic regions due to their water resources... This is causing the appropriation of territories in the sources of several community aqueducts of the country, affecting water sovereignty and restricting access to water for native, rural and also urban communities from several regions of the country. Other monocultures to produce biofuels, such as palm oil, have caused serious conflicts in Afro-Colombian populations, violating human and environmental rights and destroying ecosystems." Cardona also pointed out that since 1970s, when tree monoculture plantations began to appear, indigenous, black and peasant people started to carry out a strong resistance. "People started to sell or rent their lands and when that happens there is only trees, and not children going to school, public transport, or social dynamics like markets", said the Colombian activist. One of the main forestry multinational companies in Colombia is Dutch-Irish Smurfit Kappa Group, through its subsidiary "Carton de Colombia". 

Thousand ha of land planted with Eucalyptus and Pines to produce paper and carboard for export.

The company describes itself as this: "Smurfit Kappa Colombia es una Compañía dedicada al negocio de pulpa, papel y cartón. Genera más de 4.000 empleos... Hace parte del Grupo Smurfit Kappa, uno de los principales productores de empaques a base de papel en el mundo, con alrededor de 42.000 empleados en aproximadamente 350 centros de producción en 32 países.

En Colombia tiene operaciones en Yumbo, Medellín, Bogotá y Barranquilla. De igual manera Smurfit Kappa Colombia tiene desde 1969 una Operación Forestal cuyas plantaciones forestales comerciales están ubicadas en la zona andina entre el eje cafetero, el Valle del Cauca y el sur del Cauca y cuenta con la certificación FSC® por manejo forestal responsable desde el año 2003."