Are we on the same mountain? For an ontological opening of conservation in the Andean Páramos

Abstract

The biodiversity of the high Andean mountains has made it urgent to conserve the Páramos, which are recognized as essential ecosystems for the hydrological cycle and climate change mitigation. Colombia, which has 50% of these ecosystems in the world, has been cartographically delimiting the páramos since 2012 to promote their conservation. For the communities, the maps do not reflect the care work and practices with which they inhabit the páramo on daily life. Through ethnography and documentary review, we make an ontological analysis of the delimitation process and the conflicts it originated in the regions of Santurbán and Sumapaz. We argue that the environmental challenges faced by the high mountain demand the need for a reflexive conservation of its own ontology and to conduct environmental policy from an ontological openness that conceives the páramo as a permanent material composition of situated practices where different ways of making-world intervene.