This paper presents the work of the WCS with the A'i Indigenous people in Colombia as part of a USAID-funded project between 2009 and 2011. The project had several dimensions that make it unusual. Unlike conventional “counter-mapping” attempts to represent Indigenous land claims as a counter to government representations, the project sought to create maps and analyses that represent prior land assignments to the A'i by the Colombian government itself. These land assignments were not supported by geo-referenced maps and, in the case of Indigenous “reserves” the original boundary markers were only known to the oldest of the A'i people. Analysis of forest cover in lands controlled by the A'i reveal that they are highly protective of forests; indeed their collective identity is strongly related to forest cover. The process described also illustrates the difficult position many Indigenous Amazonians face in an era of drug wars, uncontrolled colonization, and in the case of Colombia, the lack of follow-up to the political and social measures envisioned in the 1991 Constitution.
ResumenEl presente artículo se basa en una investigación original centrada en analizar el concepto de ordenamiento ambiental territorial en las Zonas de Reserva Campesina (ZRC) en Colombia desde las perspectivas del campesinado y el Estado. Inicialmente, sitúa la dimensión geográfica del análisis con los conceptos de espacio y territorio. Luego, toma herramientas analíticas sobre la cuestión agraria, para situar a las ZRC como parte de la Reforma Agraria de la década de 1990. Enfatiza cómo la mirada de la cuestión agraria está sesgada hacia el comportamiento económico, ignorando el sentido de construcción territorial de propuestas como las ZRC en el marco de la construcción estatal del ordenamiento territorial. Presenta algunas estructuras organizativas (Juntas de Acción Comunal), y dinámicas locales con el espacio (vereda y propuesta de Unidades Ambientales Campesinas) para justificar este argumento. El objetivo del artículo es articular los debates económicos de la cuestión agraria con un enfoque geográfico centrado en lo territorial, para analizar cómo las ZRC son propuestas de territorialidad campesina donde el elemento ambiental juega un rol crucial en la negociación de esta territorialidad con el Estado. Finalmente, el artículo invita a la reflexión sobre qué significa y para qué sirve "lo ambiental" en las luchas campesinas contemporáneas.Palabras clave: Zonas de Reserva Campesina; ordenamiento ambiental territorial; Colombia; cuestión agraria; territorio. AbstractThis article is based on an original research that focuses on analyzing the concept of environmental land use planning in the Peasant Reserve Zones (ZRC) of Colombia from the perspectives of the State and the peasantry. First, it situates the geographical dimension of the analysis with the concepts of space and territory. Then, it takes conceptual tools from the agrarian question to situate the ZRC as part of an agrarian reform in the 1990s. It emphasizes on how the agrarian question scope has a bias on economic behavior ignoring the sense of territorial construction of proposals such as the ZRC in the frame of State land planning. It illustrates some examples of organizational structures (e.g., local action committees, JAC) and local space dynamics (vereda and Peasant Environmental Units, UACA) to construct its argument. The objective of this article is to articulate economic debates of the agrarian question within a geographic scope focused on territory to analyze how the ZRC are peasant territorial proposals where environmental aspects play a crucial role in negotiating territoriality with the State. Finally, the article invites to a reflection on the meaning of "the environmental" in contemporary peasant struggles.
This paper presents the work of the WCS with the A'i Indigenous people in Colombia as part of a USAID-funded project between 2009 and 2011. The project had several dimensions that make it unusual. Unlike conventional “counter-mapping” attempts to represent Indigenous land claims as a counter to government representations, the project sought to create maps and analyses that represent prior land assignments to the A'i by the Colombian government itself. These land assignments were not supported by geo-referenced maps and, in the case of Indigenous “reserves” the original boundary markers were only known to the oldest of the A'i people. Analysis of forest cover in lands controlled by the A'i reveal that they are highly protective of forests; indeed their collective identity is strongly related to forest cover. The process described also illustrates the difficult position many Indigenous Amazonians face in an era of drug wars, uncontrolled colonization, and in the case of Colombia, the lack of follow-up to the political and social measures envisioned in the 1991 Constitution.
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