Protecting the Sierra Nevada of Colombia Indigenous Territories with the Kogui People: Progress Report 2023-24
The Kogui are a community deeply rooted in ancient traditions, living in harmony with nature in the sacred lands of the Sierra Nevada de Santa. Photo ©shutterstock.com
Over the past two years, Global Conservation has supported the Kogui people to protect their lands, enabling regular and long-distance patrolling and monitoring using the latest technologies—SMART Patrolling, satellite monitoring, and early fire detection systems.
Combining Community Protection with Global Park Defense, we have enabled the organization of Kogui communities across four valleys to better protect their newly acquired lands, over 120,000 hectares, in the passage of laws in 2022.
Highlights – Natural Heritage
The Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta is the tallest coastal mountain in the world, rising to about 18,900 feet above sea level.
The Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta is a source of 36 rivers.
Kogui people learning how to use SMART technology to patrol their lands.
The Kogui people have been farmers and stewards of their indigenous lands for thousands of years in the Sierra Nevada of Santa Marta, what they call "The Heart of the World."
By safeguarding this critical forest and wildlife habitat covering hundreds of thousands of hectares, Global Conservation is supporting the protection of forests and wildlife along with traditional cultural values associated with Indigenous Peoples.
In 2023, Parque Nacional Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta was increased from 400,854.30 to 573,312.6 hectares to better safeguard the lands of the Arhuaco, Kogui, Wiwa, and Kankuamos Indigenous Peoples settled there and to improve land management to protect the cultural and environmental heritage of the Sierra Nevada of Colombia.
Under a joint agreement between Parques Nacionales Naturales de Colombia and the leadership of the Indigenous Peoples, the expansion of the Sierra Nevada National Natural Park supports Colombia’s National System of Protected Areas (SINAP) increased the national parks overlapping area of the Kogui-Malayo-Arhuaco resguardos (RKMA) and the Arhuaco resguardo to 97.94% and 85.27%, respectively.
Expansion decisions were based on the principle of sacred spaces and the lineages of ancestral authorities, fundamental aspects for the protection of environmental heritage.
Indigenous peoples have shown the opportunity for long-term sustainable use by communities to better manage natural resources for thousands of years, and this expansion process required the joint and sustained effort of various stakeholders for several years.
A Kogui woman transports goods on the road to Ciudad Perdida, Magdalena, Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia. Photo ©shutterstock.com
The Kogui people are descendants of the Tayrona culture, which flourished before the times of the Spanish conquests. The Tayrona were an advanced civilization that built many stone structures and pathways in the jungles. They made gold objects that they would hang from trees and around their necks. They lived similarly to modern-day Kogui who hold their traditions and nature sacred.
The Kogui base their lifestyles on their belief in "Aluna" or "The Great Mother," their creator figure, who they believe is the force behind nature. The Kogi understand the Earth to be a living being and see humanity as its "children." They say that our actions of exploitation, devastation, and plundering for resources are weakening "The Great Mother" and leading to our destruction.
Photo @adobestock.com
Like many other indigenous tribes, the Kogui honor a holy mountain that they call "Gonawindua." They believe that this mountain is "The Heart of the World," and they are the "Elder Brothers" who care for it. They also say that the outside civilization is the "Younger Brothers," who were sent away from The Heart of the World long ago.
Global Conservation is supporting park and wildlife protection in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta with the Kogui people covering over 120,000 hectares across four valleys.
Under a Tri-Party Agreement with the National Parks of Colombia and the Resguardo Kogui-Malayo-Arhuaco (RKMA), Global Conservation has developed a Protection Plan for joint actions for strengthening enforcement and control.
GC Support of Community Protection includes:
Deployment of Global Park Defense
Funding Community Ecoguards from the RKMA
Training of Community Ecoguards on SMART Patrolling and Mapping
Supporting Joint Patrolling - PNSN+RKMA
Providing Vehicles, Mules, Food, and Fuel for Patrolling
Patrol Equipment: Tents, Backpacks, Boots, GPS
Mapping of Indigenous Lands and Environmental and Cultural Heritage Monitoring
Fire Prevention and Rapid Response
Socialization of Protection with Traditional Authorities and Mamos
GC Executive Director Jeff Morgan meets with the Kogui people to discuss integrating the Global Park Defense.
Beginning in 2022, Global Conservation meetings with the indigenous leaders of the Kogui peoples and national park authority found consensus on an action plan for restarting patrolling, monitoring, and surveillance of the indigenous territories in collaboration with park rangers to decrease the threats of illegal logging, land clearing, and wildlife poaching.
After thirty years of insecurity, where large areas of the national park were cleared for marijuana and coca cultivation, and two park directors were murdered and a park ranger killed in 2019, the national park authority seeks to build capacity to deploy SMART Patrols and integrated Community Protection in critical areas facing deforestation and along the forests and wildlife habitats to recover their natural values.
The ancient ruins of the Tayrona civilization, Ciudad Perdida, in the heart of the Colombian jungle. Photo ©shutterstock.com
Parques Nacionales Sierra Nevada has signed a new long-term agreement and management plan with the four indigenous groups, including the Kogi and Arhuaco people, in 2022 and announced a major expansion of the national park by nearly 20% in 2023.
The expansion of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta National Park is part of an Indigenous-led strategy to reclaim lost ancestral territories and sacred sites surrounding the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta known as “La Línea Negra” (the Black Line).
Clearly, this terrain is not easy to patrol. Jungle and grasslands mix with constantly shifting elevations throughout the park. Photo ©shutterstock.com
The Challenges
With only one truck and 3 rangers to cover over 300,000 acres of difficult terrain with few roads, Parques Nacional de Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta is seeking both technical and financial support to improve the effectiveness of patrolling and financing for joint patrols with indigenous peoples against deforestation, which saw the national park and indigenous territories lose over 80% of the park’s forests in the past 30 years. Deforestation by fire, cutting, and clearing continues at a rapid pace—nearly 4.2% loss over the past 10 years.
Threats to the National Park and Indigenous territories include mining, intensive tourism, urban settlements, and coal ports that are encroaching on this vulnerable land, threatening the survival of its biodiversity and the communities that live here.
Critically endangered species like the tapir, jaguar, blue-billed curassow, harlequin toad, brown spider monkey, and blue-bearded helmetcrest all inhabit these forests.
The Sierra Nevada of Santa Marta, with peaks of up to 5720 m in altitude, is the highest coastal mountain range in the world, which influences the landscape and marine and life zones of the region, ranging from permanent snowcapped peaks down to deep marine areas.
Global Conservation is deploying Global Park Defense in partnership with the indigenous peoples and national parks authority to protect over 120,000 acres of highly biodiverse forests and wildlife habitats in the northern sector.
It is an incredible biodiversity resource for both the region and the world, harboring about 20% of Colombia’s species diversity. This amazing landscape is being threatened by hunting, illegal extraction of resources, forest fires, land tenure issues, and the propagation and trafficking of illicit drugs.
All of these contribute to loss of habitat, resulting in escalating conflicts between jaguars and livestock and between peccaries and farmers. Weak cell and internet service interfere with the ability to respond efficiently to illegal activity.
The Kogui patrol use SMART technology to document a temporary shelter built by poachers.
Global Conservation is providing Global Park Defense training for the national park and indigenous groups to improve the capacity of rangers and community ecoguards to organize patrols on park lands and marine protected areas using SMART systems.
This Global Park Defense program is providing funding, equipment, and training for Community Protection Teams working closely with the National Park Authority to stop illegal land invasion, land clearing, illegal logging, and wildlife poaching over the 120,000-hectare focus forest area.
We will also support legal and prosecution support for cases of arrests or land invasions. If the pilot proves successful, with greatly increased patrolling and arrests and interdictions of illegal activities under a Global Conservation 5-year GC Project, including the development of a network of ranger stations with the indigenous authorities.
A Kogui patrol finds the location of a poached part of the forest.
Priorities for deploying Global Park Defense in 2024 include:
Expanding the number of Park Rangers and Community Patrolling Teams, enabling a 20-strong Community Protection Force with equipment, systems and training
Design a camera trap network based on coverage and accessibility.
Procure equipment for extended patrols, including hammocks, packs, and flashlights.
Support regular joint patrols between Communities and Park Rangers.
Provide satellite internet for remote bases and a new command center.
Analyze flyover and satellite imagery to identify trails and new deforestation
Implementing Global Park Defense in Parque Nacional Sierra Nevada is critical for protecting Colombia’s declining wildlife populations, as well as conserving some of the most unique forests and wildlife habitats in South America.
Sunrise in Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. Photo ©shutterstock.com
Land analysis
Our baseline study found that indigenous and local smallholder families help the conservation area by limited ranching, which involves making open pastures and small-scale subsistence farming of maize, cotton, taro, millet, cacao, coffee, manioc, plantains, and manioc in multi-cropping arrangements. All indigenous and local families interviewed acknowledged park land encroachment but said the park administration offered no remedies. Campesino families said park borders and restrictions were unmarked, making it hard to tell where their land ended and the park began. Indigenous families relying on subsistence agriculture, small-scale ranching, and limited hunting have no recourse as reservation property borders the park, making drastic changes unfeasible (e.g., no cultivation).
Consequently, agricultural areas within the indigenous reservation and Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta National Park in this section have increased due to population increases in the past ten years for the town of Mutanzhi, with village population rising from approximately 230 persons in 2010 to 350 persons by 2024. Given the almost complete overlap between the park and the reservation, the population increase has consequently increased pressure on natural resources, and their primary occupation is farming. This is true despite the fact that many indigenous families are now involved in tourism. In any case, the population remains relatively low, and the additional income from tourism restricts the scope of agricultural activities, even though the amount of land is increasing.
In the meeting held with indigenous authorities, they recognized that better farm plot management practices were required and that certain tree species had been overharvested. In this sense, they added that the project would contribute toward replenishing overharvested tree varieties and setting up agroforestry systems that could aid them in improving productivity without clearing more land.
Corridor strategy design
The primary conservation objectives of the Buritaca conservation corridor design are threefold:
Connecting the mature forest areas located above the 600 m.a.s.l. contour lines on both sides of the Buritaca River with the areas below this altitude that were not included within the park in 1964.
Provide effective connections and cover for wildlife moving between these areas via corridors crossing the Buritaca River.
Increasing the amount of forested area and producing agroforestry arrangements in targeted local and indigenous farm plots, thus reducing pasture and increasing the rate of recovery for abandoned areas.
The GIS specialist marked farm plots in crucial locations for verification and inclusion within conservation agreements. Some plots were chosen to maximize forest edge effect (i.e., being located next to large, forested areas), whereas others were chosen to reduce noticeable gaps and thus provide “fill” between forested areas. The corridor also focuses on reducing pasturelands within the viewscapes of the Teyuna-Ciudad Perdida trail system, especially those located in the lower altitudes of the Buritaca River that are contiguous with the park but outside its area. In this way, the proposed corridor increases connectivity between and across the park areas and farm plots currently used by indigenous and local landholders.
In sum, the corridor seeks to increase the movement of plants and wildlife between protected areas and across farm plots while at the same time increasing forested areas and sustainable agroforestry systems providing better land cover. There are a total of 264 km of connectivity corridors, with 14 separate connections to the 11 headwaters and three rivers (Guachaca, Buritica, and Mendiguca). These can be put together to make a single corridor of 89.81 km, which can be directly used for 34 km of restoration activities. Mappings of the project area and the corridor design are available in Annex 2, and the full technical report is in Annex 5.
Central Tree Nursery
A central tree nursery was established in a locality called Mendihuaca close to the main road that cuts across Tairona Park not far from the entrance to the project area, which is only accessible via dirt roads. An agreement was signed with our trusted partner, Vivero Vista Hermosa, which is a commercial nursery specialized in timber and fruit trees. The partner has not only the technical capacity to produce the tree stock for the project but also the permits issued by local authorities to handle biological materials. The seeds were procured by the project from certified sources. These measures are to ensure that the project does not contribute to spreading fungi and plant diseases, among other things.
The central tree nursery produced 13,405 native forest trees out of a target of 13,440 trees, starting from seed germination, through transplant, up to hardening in the sun prior to the final transplant. This volume of trees factored in up to 10% loss of plant materials when transported to their destination and acclimating.
The following pictures illustrate the process of building the tree nursery, filling the tree bags, sowing, and germinating the native forest tree varieties. The seeds are being sowed over the course of several months to match the tree nursery production timeline and sync the delivery of trees ready for transplant on the project area.
Forest Tree Collection Centers and Transportation
Contracts with local providers we signed to transport the native forest trees from the central tree nursery to the tree collection centers in the project area and, ultimately, to each planting site. While trucks and 4x4s dealt with the transportation from the tree nursery to the collection centers in the project area, delivering trees to each planting site was accomplished with mules. The following pictures illustrate the process of transporting the forest trees to the farm of each project participant.
Forest Tree Planting and Geotagging
Over 12,000 trees were planted across the seven farms that participated in the project in Year 1. The activity started with land preparation, which was carried out by the project participants under guidance from the project’s field officers. Depending on the type of agroforestry model allocated to each farm, the land was prepared to accommodate the respective tree species and density. Next, tree planting took place with participants being responsible for planting their trees even though the field team also provided assistance in the form of guidance and follow-up to make sure that the activity was completed on time. Crucially, the field team made sure that the trees were planted before the end of the rainy season to enable them to settle and grow roots before the onset of the dry season.
As participants completed the planting, our field officers recorded a GPS coordinate for each planted tree. This activity enables validation of the planting prior to issuing monetary compensations per planted tree. But it also enables monitoring of the reforested plots over the course of the project and beyond.
For Year 2, the project intends to plant and geotag at least 25,000 trees. The following pictures illustrate the tree planting and geotagging process.
Validation and compensation of forest tree planting
After the field officers recorded the geotags for each planted tree and shared the data through the project platform, the project manager validated the completion of the activity and fulfillment of the agreement by each project participant and agreed to the release of the monetary compensation. The sum received by each participant was commensurate with the number of trees planted.
Agroforestry model design
An agroforestry expert team was hired for the design of an agroforestry model that was in line with the project objectives and based on the data collected by the field team and GIS expert. The consultants developed a document that analyzes the environmental and socio-economic characteristics of the project area of influence, as well as current and future climate change impacts on the latter. The team, then, identifies and analyzes a list of suitable native timber and fruit species for the operational context. Next, the study sets forth 4 alternative agroforestry models that are apt for the project area and bear potential for generating the environmental, social, and economic benefits the project intends to achieve. The four models are:
Cocoa agroforestry model intercropped with plantain, beans, and timber trees.
Coffee agroforestry model intercropped with plantain and timber trees.
Grafted mango or avocado agroforestry model intercropped with Canavalia.
Mixed timber trees agroforestry model.
Each model features a respective vegetative material sourcing plan, production and implant timeline, and recommendations for the plating scheme.
The agroforestry model design also includes a general production timeline, recommendations for the commercialization of the agroforestry products, as well as the costs associated with implanting each of the four recommended models and producing the respective products. Finally, the study analyzes the CO2 offsetting potential of the recommended agroforestry models.
Socialization with Local Communities
The directors of Prosierra and Environomica met with the representatives of local authorities in the campesino part of the project area to socialize the aim of the project and seek permission to start the preliminary activities in the project area. A meeting was held with the local campesino community in which the directors have socialized the scope of the project and the chosen strategy was discussed and fine-tuned to match the needs of this community, which is being targeted by this year’s intervention.
Then, the directors had a similar meeting with the indigenous authority to seek permissions for the project team to access the indigenous reservation to collect preliminary data (i.e., a baseline survey). A meeting with the indigenous community to socialize the project goals and integrate their feedback into the project strategies will be held in the second semester of this year, Year 1. The indigenous community will be the main target of the project in years 2, 3, and 4. The project aims to engage up to 20 campesino farmers and up to 60 indigenous farmers over its course.
Finally, the project was socialized with local tour operators who cross the project area daily on their way to Ciudad Perdida and who are stakeholders to this intervention. One of them has already shown engagement with the project by opening their kitchen to the project team when sheltering in Muamake, which is on indigenous soil.
Production of Fruit Trees
The fruit tree production component was adjusted to the needs of this year’s target population, who are owners of relatively large land and are more invested in the tourism than agricultural industry and therefore prefer restoring woodlands. As a result, a total of 4,270 fruit trees were produced. The project produced a total of 16,600 trees for the first year of operations, of which 75% were native forest trees and 25% were local fruit tree varieties.
This year’s tree planting operations will involve seven farms in the lower watershed with the following land committed to native forest trees and fruit tree planting targets. These participants are willing to reserve a total of 113 hectares of their land for conservation.
Planting and Geotagging of Tree Crops
The 4,250 fruit trees were planted across the seven farms that participated in the project in Year 1. As mentioned above, the activity started with land preparation, which was carried out by the project participants under guidance from the project’s field officers. The land was prepared to accommodate the different types of fruit tree crops and density that each participant’s farm was allocated. The tree planting was carried out by participants with the field team assisting in the form of guidance and follow-up to make sure that the activity was completed on time. As for the forest trees, the field team made sure that the fruit trees were planted before the end of the rainy season to enable them to settle and grow roots before the onset of the dry season.
As participants completed the planting of fruit trees, our field officers recorded a GPS coordinate for each planted tree to enable validation of the planting prior to issuing monetary compensations per planted tree, as well as long-term monitoring.
