The colombian Amazon: Oil exploitation and socio-environmental conflicts

Abstract

The Colombian Amazon has the larger ecological conservation area in the country. It is a region where there is an interaction between biotic factors -human and non-human species- and abiotic factors -water, fuel oil, minerals. Considering that the oil industry has a special interest on the Amazon territory, with about 58,5 million of hectares, this paper deals with the question concerning the main environmental impacts of the oil industry on the region, and the social tension which that causes with the human communities that inhabit the Amazon. Thus, a substitution criterion is proposed in order to safeguard the life and the culture in this part of the Colombian territory.