Diversity, Memory and Biocultural Rights

Project Information

Title of Project: Diversity, Memory and Biocultural Rights: Mechanisms for Common-Unity Protection and Ethnodevelopment. Study case of the municipality of Nuquí (Chocó, Colombia)

Sector: Integrated rural development, specifically policy implementation plans

Country: Colombia  

Lead Institution: EAFIT University 

Co-PI Institution: EAFIT Children’s University

Partner(s): ‘Activos Culturales Afro’ Foundation – ACUA

Final Budget: $ 244,301

Project Length: 24 months

Research Objective:

The objective of this project is to understand the most important forms of appropriation, use and future planning of the territory (particularly in the agricultural and forestry dimensions) of the Afro-descendant and indigenous groups that inhabit Nuquí, differentiated by gender and age, in order to establish community and equitable mechanisms to protect their living places and bioculturality as well as to produce knowledge useful for ethnodevelopment in similar contexts in Colombia.

Project Description:

The municipality of Nuquí (department of Chocó, Colombia) is located in the Chocó biogeographic region, one of the 24 biodiversity hotspots and a “hope spot” in the world, according to Mission Blue. This municipality is mainly inhabited by ethnic communities that have developed traditional productive activities (fishing, logging, agriculture, ecological tourism, animal breeding, and harvesting of mollusks and crustaceans) that have contributed to preserving this socio biodiversity. Also, in the pursuit of preserving that biocultural diversity, the ethnic communities have organized themselves collectively and created several territorial figures (such as ethnic and fishing related groups).

However, the options of ethnic groups for ethno-development and for maintaining their bioculturality are being jeopardized by their precarious socio-economic situation, the gradual loss of their cultural roots, the armed conflict and the external extractive projects. Likewise, agricultural, forestry, and tourism alternatives within and between ethnic groups must be analyzed and strengthened considering age and gender differences, to be more effective and inclusive. How to generate community bottom-up sustainable development alternatives, considering gender and age differences, which contribute to nature protection and preservation of traditional cultures? This is the question addressed by this project. We aim to understand the most important forms of appropriation, use and future planning of the territory (particularly in the agricultural and forestry dimensions) of the Afro-descendant and indigenous groups that inhabit Nuquí, differentiated by gender and age, in order to establish community and equitable mechanisms to protect their living places and bioculturality as well as to produce knowledge useful for ethnodevelopment in similar contexts in Colombia, such as several municipalities in Antioquia.

Embedded Research Translation Product:

• Map of institutional and community actors in the project’s dimensions, identified from a gender and age perspective. 
• A formative process with community facilitators and communities in order to convey their traditional knowledge in the forestry and agricultural dimensions. 
• Age and gender-differentiated participatory strategies to determine and convey the forms of appropriation, use and future planning of the territory which will be prioritized by these groups in the forestry and agricultural dimensions
• Divergences and convergences around the forms of appropriation, use and future planning of the territory between communities and recommendations for ethnodevelopment strategies. 

Embedded Research Translation Audience:

Afro-descendant and indigenous groups that inhabit Nuquí, Chocó, Colombia, Nuquí´s governmental and non governmental institutions. 

Click Here for Outputs