Permanent monocultures and biocultural rights violations: tensions in María la Baja, Montes de María, Colombia

Abstract

The expansion of permanent monocultures is a phenomenon that affects not only planetary biodiversity and ecosystems balance, but also puts at risk the living conditions of communities whose territories have been transformed by this large-scale production model. This work addresses from qualitative research and from the Participatory Action Research, the tensions existing in the Colombian Caribbean region, specifically in the communities of San José del Playón and La Suprema in Montes de María, due to the entry of agro-industrial and monoculture projects, facilitated by the internal armed conflict. It was found that because of the presence of these crops communities face conflicts around community biocultural assets such as territory, bodies of water, land, flora and fauna. This consequently leads to the infringement of rights that depend on such assets for their guarantee. As is the case with biocultural rights, a category proposed in this paper as a legal defense possibility for communities, since they recognize from the same legal formula of protection the intrinsic relationship between the environment, biodiversity and communities and their cultural systems.