Integrating ecological and cultural histories to inform sustainable and equitable futures for the Colombian páramos

This article proposes a historical, multispecies and ontological approach to human-wildlife conflict (HWC) in the Colombian páramos. Focusing on the páramos surrounding the capital city of Bogotá, we reconstruct the historically changing relationship between cattle-farming campesino communities and the Andean bear, Tremarctos ornatus. Using ethnographic and historical research methods, we conceptualise this relationship as embedded in localised landscapes and multispecies assemblages, in which scientists, conservation practitioners, water infrastructures, public environmental agencies, and cows participate as well. This article demonstrates that in-sufficient attention to the practices and relationships of historically marginalised humans and non-humans in the management of HWCs contributes to new dynamics of exclusion and friction, and can reduce the effectiveness of conservation programmes. We conclude that opening up conservation to the interests and knowledges of local communities is imperative in moving towards more historically informed, pluralistic and effective conservation strategies.

Afiche del 20 Festival Campesino de Arte Paramuno, 7 de noviembre 2020, Bogota. El festival es una iniciativa del proyecto "Integrating ecological and cultural histories to inform sustainable and equitable futures for the Colombian páramos" coordinado por la Universidad de York y desarrollado en colaboracion con Instituto Humboldt; el colectivo Almanaques Agroecologicos; colectivo Tierra Libre; y el Restaurante Cultural Casa de Citas (Bogota).

Capitulo en el Almanaque Agroecologico Gran Sumapaz acerca del papel de la historia ambiental para llegar a una concepcion "mas-que-humana" de los paisajes de paramo. Open access