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The literature has long associated the relationship between armed groups and the environment with predominantly extractive dynamics. However, recent studies point to another manifestation: the creation of rebel environmental governance practices aimed at nature protection. Therefore, this study seeks to explain why some armed groups establish such practices, while others prioritize environmental governance arrangements for exploitation. Drawing on key insights from political ecology, it argues that protective forms of rebel environmental governance stem from the extent to which environmental concerns are embedded within an armed group’s operational identity and political foundations. More specifically, the study contends that protective environmental governance is more likely to emerge among groups with higher degrees of environmental embeddedness. Using a structured, focused comparison method, this hypothesis is tested through a comparative analysis of the FARC-EP and the ELN in the Colombian Amazon. Evidence is drawn from academic literature, materials produced by the groups themselves, journalistic investigations, and original interviews with field specialists. The results suggest that while environmental embeddedness can, to some extent, contribute to the emergence of protective rebel environmental governance practices, its explanatory power remains limited without accounting for other critical variables.