Colombia
Colombia
* Mha = million hectares
In Colombia, Indigenous Peoples and local communities have secure legal ownership rights to 32.93 million hectares (mha) of forestland as of 2017, representing a 3 mha increase in Indigenous Reserves and Afro-Colombian Community Lands since 2013. [Source: RRI 2018 (At a Crossroads)]
37.58 mha of land is formally recognized as being owned by Indigenous Peoples and local communities. Colombia stands out for the amount of land held under community-based tenure -- 34% of its total continental land area of 110.95 mha. [Source: RRI 2015 (A Global Baseline), CIFOR 2018]
There are also collective territories with no state recognition. According to 2015 data from INCODER (now the Colombian National Land Agency), registered collective land claims for at least 699 indigenous reserves and 235 Afro-Colombian communities continue to await resolution by the government. [Source: RRI 2016]
Data from 2018 showed at least 271 collective land claims by Afro-Colombians sit unresolved, some for over a decade. Available geographic information for 148 of these applications shows that they together cover 1 million hectares of land. At least 77 claims are threatened by megaprojects, mining, and road projects. [Source: Observatory of Ethnic and Campesino Territories, Javeriana University]
Colombia has adopted the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and has ratified ILO Convention 169.
Secure community land rights are an intrinsic component of poverty alleviation goals and the achievement of national and global economic development goals.
Almost a third of the world’s population manages and depends on community-held lands. Land use by rural communities is more sustainable, benefits more people, and generates better environmental outcomes than large-scale plantations and extractive projects. Secure community rights are therefore vital to poverty reduction and sustainable development. [Source: RRI 2017]
Where Indigenous Peoples and local communities have secure rights, climate outcomes improve: deforestation rates are lower and carbon storage higher.
Globally, Indigenous Peoples and local communities manage at least 17 percent (293,061 Mt) of the total carbon stored in the forestlands of assessed countries—a global estimate that is 5 times greater than shown in a previous analysis of aboveground tropical forest carbon, and equivalent to 33 times the global energy emissions of 2017. In Colombia, legally recognized indigenous and community forests store over 15 billion metric tons of carbon. [Source: RRI, Woods Hole Research Center, EDF, WRI, Landmark, AMAN, AMPB, COICA, AFPAT, and IPACC].
From 2000 to 2012, forest cover loss across Indigenous Reserves was only 0.3 percent compared with 3.2 percent in the wider Colombian Amazon. [Source: WRI 2014]
Indigenous Reserves in Colombia store more carbon per hectare compared to other Amazonian forest (145 tonnes of carbon per hectare, compared to 128 tonnes – a 13% increase). [Source: WRI 2014]
Securing community rights is cost-effective: over the next 20 years, the cost of securing rights in Colombia would be less than 1 percent of the projected total benefits. Community-held forests in Colombia can generate ecosystem benefits worth between US$123 and US$277 billion. [Source: WRI 2016]
Indigenous and community women’s land and forest rights are crucial for the achievement of global development goals.
According to a legal analysis of 30 low- and middle-income countries, governments are not respecting indigenous and rural women’s tenure rights and are failing to meet international obligations to do so. The nine countries in Latin America provide the strongest protections for women’s overarching inheritance rights and greater recognition of women’s community-level membership rights, but lag behind countries in Africa and Asia with respect to women’s community-level leadership rights and the affirmation of women’s property rights in overarching laws. [Source: RRI 2017, Power and Potential]
Insecure land rights can result in conflicts that threaten sustainable + inclusive economic development as well as corporate profits.
In an examination of nearly 10,000 mining concessions in Colombia covering over 50,000 square kilometers, people were already living in 97-99% of them. [Source: TMP Systems and RRI 2014 (Communities as Counterparties)]
In an examination of 229 oil concessions in Colombia covering over 155,000 square kilometers, people were already living in 98-100% of them. [Source: TMP Systems and RRI 2014 (Communities as Counterparties)]
Ignoring land rights can also cost investors billions in delays and legal fees: globally, ignoring community land rights can increase company costs by 29x the baseline. [Source: The Munden Project 2012]
The majority of conflicts are caused by communities being forced to leave their homes (46% of conflicts), with the second most common cause being destruction of the environment (26%).[Source: TMP Systems 2015]
Insecure land rights are driving conflict, insecurity, and a human rights crisis.
Indigenous Peoples and local communities defending their lands face increasing violence and legal harassment, and criminalization. [Source: Tauli-Corpuz 2018 / theyshouldhaveknownbetter.com]
Colombia is among the three worst countries for environmental defenders every year, with at least 24 land rights and environmental defenders murdered in 2018. [Source: Global Witness 2020]
A global analysis of 71 cases of internal conflict/war found that two-thirds of these conflicts originated from land disputes. [Source: Alden Wiley 2018]
According to organizations tracking threats to human rights defenders in Colombia, at least 157 indigenous leaders have been assassinated since the signing of the peace accords in December 2016 (through September 2019). [Source: Indepaz]