Open Collections

Gómez López, Francisco

University of British Columbia

This dissertation examines how campesinos, rural inhabitants of diverse ancestries from the central Colombian region of Sumapaz, interact with the páramo highland. Sumapaz, the world’s largest páramo, is a vital ecosystem for regulating the region’s temperature and water systems. Despite experiencing violence and interventions, Sumapaz has a strong history of campesino organizations advocating for land and community rights. Using political ecology and social justice frameworks, this dissertation interrogates how campesino communities engage with the páramo as a living, agential territory, considering the material, immaterial, symbolic, cultural, and identity dimensions that intertwine people with the land. My theory of “territorial affirmation” examines the interactions between humans and other-than-human beings, expanding the concept of “affirmation” to include actions that demonstrate how the páramo influences and nurtures and a sense of place for these communities. The research identifies a diverse and innovative set of community-led agricultural and conservation practices that are crucial for defending the páramo against external interventions, while promoting its sustainability. By conceptualizing the páramo as a living territory, this interdisciplinary research highlights the critical role of campesino organizations and local knowledge in conservation and sustainable agricultural initiatives, countering the effects of extractivism, armed conflict, climate change, and harmful governmental policies. The project’s conclusions are drawn from mixed-methods qualitative fieldwork in Sumapaz from 2019 to 2022, including interviews, focus groups, and oral history accounts in 18 of the 28 veredas (villages) involving fifty-five participants. The findings reveal the páramo’s multidimensional historical presence in the everyday life of campesinos and its powerful role in activating local practices.

Text

2024-10-24

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/89501

Interdisciplinary Studies

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/