Photos: Tatiana López
l Defending our territory: the biocultural community protocol of Alto San Juan, Colombia 135
Recovery of degraded areas by artisanal mining.
cates the fact that community territorial
planning, ancestral practices and the
rights granted by law in relation to natural
resource management should be recognised in development proposals,
municipal planning processes and
national policies, and in the State administrative office, so that the community can
participate in decisions that affect its way
of life.
The Alto San Juan BCP is also part of a
regional process by black communities
which promotes the recognition of the
collective rights of ethnic communities in
the territories; and counters any largescale intervention processes which do not
take the natural and cultural characteristics of the region into consideration. As
defined by Wilson Murillo:
The territory is a life strategy for the
defence of life, autonomy and cultural
identity.