Aparicio Rios
Nasa people, Colombia
Aparicio Rios is an indigenous activist from Colombia’s Nasa people and leader of the Cauca Indigenous Regional Council (CRIC). Here, he outlines the effects of oil palm production – seen as a more ‘eco-friendly’ fuel alternative – on marginalized communities.
Both communities [indigenous and Afro descendant] have suffered massive displacement from their communal lands [in the Choco in north-western Colombia].
Paramilitary groups first terrorize and then displace communities in the area and then take over the land to cultivate oil palm. They are rich, well armed and powerful and often in the pay of large landowners.
It takes five years before you can even begin to make any money out of palm oil. An indigenous farmer cannot afford to wait that long and doesn’t have the resources to be able to survive in the meantime. Only rich people can afford to grow palm oil.
In May the government pushed a Rural Development Statute through Congress which says that protected indigenous reservations won’t be allowed where there are Afro-Colombian communities in the Choco.
'Land for indigenous use is already depleted and the statute means that there is even less – the two communities are faced with a struggle for resources'
Land for indigenous use is already depleted and the statute means that there is even less – the two communities are faced with a struggle for resources. The most serious thing about this law is that it rules that a piece of land belongs to the person who has been in possession of it for five years, ignoring completely the previous owners who were displaced by paramilitary violence.
The paramilitaries are using this as a way of grabbing more and more land for oil palm cultivation in the Choco and the government is encouraging them.
The Embera people who live in that area are semi-nomadic. [Before] they would sow crops such as maize, rice, plantains, coconuts and papachina in one area until the land was worn out and then move on in their boats down river and begin cultivating another area.
This level of mobility just cannot be sustained any more. Life was similar for Afro-Colombians and they have been even worse affected by the oil palm monoculture. They don’t even have the level of community organization that indigenous people have to fight against this.
The UN Special Rapporteur on Fundamental Freedoms of Indigenous People concluded on his last visit that 10 of Colombia’s 92 indigenous groups were in danger of extinction and that 42 per cent of those groups may only contain between 50 and 2,000 people.
This is a critical situation, practically the same as genocide. We ask that the international community pressure the Colombian government to provide comprehensive protection for indigenous communities and live up to its promises of buying and setting aside land for indigenous reservations so that we can preserve our traditional way of life.