Reimagining Land-Use Planning: Black Agrarian and Food Futures in Colombia

This project hopes to better understand how land-use planning mechanisms can be reestablished for the benefit of traditional Black lands in the Alto Cauca region of Colombia. Using spatial data derived from community-based research processes, this research hopes to support the development of innovative planning processes aimed to highlight Black land rights in Colombia. This research will support larger efforts of the national government to recognize traditional Afro-Colombian and Indigenous land rights, particularly in promoting their respective political autonomy as well as providing financial support to maintain traditional practices, ways of living, and relationships with the physical environment. Afro-Colombian and Indigenous use of alternative governance strategies, collective land ownership, and traditional ecological knowledge are widely acknowledged for their substantive benefits towards the conservation of forests, ecosystems, and biodiversity. This work will support 18 Black Community Councils, scholars at the Universidad Autónoma de Occidente, and the NGO Funecorobles, all of whom have been collectively working together to better understand how Black land rights in Alto Cauca could be better realized. Research findings will be disseminated with local planners through workshops aimed towards the final stages of the project, in hope to sensitize planners to the limitations of current statutory planning processes.

Faculty Supervisor:

Diana Córdoba

Student:

Partner:

Universidad del Valle

Discipline:

Sociology

Sector:

Agriculture and Food; Public Service, Policy, and Governance; Social Innovation

University:

Queen's University

Program: