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Conservation and people’s livelihoods in Colombia

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Abstract

This paper seeks to focus on the way in which land transformation related to the grabbing process are directly involved in people’s livelihoods and life projects. We use the term territorial grabbing instead of green grabbing (or just land grabbing), because even though the case that we illustrate in our work can be describe as a green grab, we make a call for the necessity of a comprehensive analysis of the socio-spatial implications that polices such as the governmental environmental conservation agenda can implicate for individuals and communities in terms of impacts, influences, and [re]significations of their territories and territorialities. Therefore, our objective is to go beyond the discussion on the appropriation of land and resources for environmental purposes (and therefore the discussion of land dynamics in relation to globalization, foreign investment, markets liberalization, violence, and control) to bring also into the debate the diverse socio-spatial implications and meanings that create a geographical imagination capable of having profound influences on the way in which people and groups understand their place in the world.

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Notes

  1. The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) is a legally binding international treaty with three main objectives: the conservation of biological diversity, the sustainable use of its components and the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the use of biological diversity genetic resources. Its general objective is to promote measures that lead to a sustainable future. The governing body of the CBD is the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). This supreme authority of all Governments (or Parties) that have ratified the treaty meets every 2 years to review progress, set priorities and adopt work plans.

  2. www.isagen.com.co.

  3. Narrow country road through which animals are passing through.

  4. The permit to grant water corresponds to an authorization granted by an environmental authority, in this case Natural National Parks of Colombia for the collection, use and consumption of water within a National Park to an applicant.

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Acknowledgements

This work was funded by the Universidad de los Andes and the Alexander von Humboldt Institute.

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Correspondence to Luis Sanchez-Ayala.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Our work involved human participants. Therefore, we declare that informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study. Likewise, all procedures performed in this study were in accordance with the ethical standards of the Ethical Committee of the Universidad de los Andes, and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Sanchez-Ayala, L., Areiza-Tapias, A. Conservation and people’s livelihoods in Colombia. GeoJournal 84, 1429–1445 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10708-018-9929-5

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