Ecotourism in Colombian Peacebuilding: Peace, Conflict and Environmental Justice
Publisher: Via Tourism
Author(s): Luis Fernando Sánchez Supelano
Date: 2019
Topics: Conflict Prevention, Governance, Livelihoods, Programming, Renewable Resources
Countries: Colombia
1.This article addresses the discussion around ecotourism as an alternative means of peacebuilding in the context of implementing the peace agreement in Colombia, based on a review of existing documentary sources and an analysis of environmental conflict which considers the conceptual developments of environmental justice and human rights from a comprehensive perspective. This will be investigated in order to demonstrate some of the tensions which arise in the application of the peace agreement and the commitment to ecotourism, in terms of offering alternatives means of development and meeting the basic needs of the population.2. As such, the text is structured into four main sections addressing these ideas. The first section demonstrates how armed conflict has engendered significant environmental conflict throughout Colombia, and has affected territories which are now seen as places where ecotourism projects are expected to be developed. From this same perspective, the second section highlights how Colombia is a country with growing environmental conflict, precisely as a result of the increasing pressures of new economic actors, including tourism, which disagree on the means of accessing, using or distributing environmental and natural assets. In the third section, some of the contents of the peace agreement signed between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia—People’s Army (FARC-EP) are discussed from the perspective of the environment and rights, before highlighting the opportunities and provisions set forth in the agreement for peacebuilding across the country, and which serve as contextual elements for discussion surrounding the implementation of ecotourism projects. Finally, the fourth section explores the discussion of ecotourism within a post-agreement context.