Territorial peace and gold mining in Colombia: local peacebuilding, bottom-up development and the defence of territories

ABSTRACT

The concept of territorial peace is at the core of the peace agreement signed by the Colombian government and FARC guerrilla movement in 2016. Recognising the uneven distribution and experiences of violence across Colombia, territorial peace seeks to achieve peace and reconciliation through more inclusive citizenship and new forms of territorial development, including bottom up aspirations. Figuring prominently in official policies, the concept of territorial peace is being put to the test of implementation across regions and economic sectors. Building on studies of ‘extractive territories’ emphasising the emergence of territorial subjects and governable spaces of mineral extraction, we examine the case of gold mining, which saw a massive boom and numerous conflicts taking place around the time of peace negotiations and post-agreement transition. Whereas territorial peace called for a bottom-up and participatory approach resting on local communities and artisanal mining livelihoods, we find that the state turned to a top-down governance strategy mobilising alienating forms of formalisation, criminalisation and industrialisation. By exacerbating community marginalisation, social tensions, human rights abuses, and inequalities, we suggest that this strategy not only undermined some of the principles of a territorial peace, but risked perpetuating poverty, environmental degradation and various forms of violence.

KEYWORDS:

• Violence
• resources
• territorial peace
• gold
• Colombia

Acknowledgment

We acknowledge support from Censat-Agua Viva and workshop participants, as well as funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. See speech made at Harvard University, http://equipopazgobierno.presidencia.gov.co/prensa/declaraciones/Paginas/paz-territorial-sergio-jaramillo-alto-comisionado-paz-proceso-paz.aspx.

2. See for example Final Agreement preamble: ‘The territorial-based approach of the Agreement requires recognition and consideration of the economic, cultural and social needs, characteristics and peculiarities of Colombia’s territories and communities, thereby guaranteeing socio-environmental sustainability; furthermore, it involves implementing the various measures comprehensively and in a coordinated way, with the active participation of all citizens. All of Colombia’s regions and territories will contribute to the implementation of the Agreement, with the participation of territorial-based authorities and the various sectors of society.’ Final Agreement, 24/11/2016.

3. García Cardona, ‘Ni Territorios, Ni Paz’; and Guarín, ‘Dilemas de La Paz Territorial’.

4. Doughman, ‘Keys to Peace Open the Doors to Extractivism’; and McNeish, ‘Extracting Justice?’ The concept of ‘territory’ encompasses three main etymologically-based meanings derived from the Latin term territorium. The first, and most common interpretation, refers to the land (terra) under the jurisdiction of a state, town or settlement, such as a sovereign area reproducing the identity of its inhabitants. The second refers to a place serving functions (-orium) associated with land, such as a functional rural area reproducing life for its inhabitants. The third derives from the verb ‘to frighten away’ (terrere), with territorium referring to a place from which people are warned off, thereby providing a sense of protection for their inhabitants, as well as a sense of risk and insecurity for outsiders. Elden, Terror and Territory, argues in this regard that the creation of a bounded space constitutes a violent act of exclusion requiring vigilance and threats, while entering or challenging the very existence of a territory entails transgression and non-recognition. See Galtung, ‘Violence, Peace and Peace Research’, on negative peace, absence of personal/physical violence but persistence of structural violence.

5. Hylton and Tauss, ‘Change and Continuity’.

6. INDEPAZ, ‘Separate de Actualizatción’.

7. De-Arteaga and Boecking, ‘Killings in the Colombian Post-conflict’.

8. García Cardona, ‘Ni Territorios, Ni Paz’; and Middeldorp and Le Billon, ‘Deadly Environmental Governance’.

9. Olarte-Olarte, ‘Pacificación Territorial’.

10. Massé and Le Billon, ‘Gold Mining in Colombia’; and Betancur-Corredor et al., ‘Gold Mining, Development in Colombia’.

11. Álvarez, ‘Governing Mining Resources’.

12. Veiga and Marshall, ‘Colombian Artisanal Mining Sector’.

13. Verbrugge, ‘Mineral Resource Conflict’; Peluso, ‘Small-scale Gold Mining Frontiers’; Betancur-Corredor et al., ‘Gold Mining, Development in Colombia’; Álvarez, ‘Governing Mining Resources in Colombia’; and Parra and Cano, ‘Future Around Gold Mining’; on resource revenues and peace, see Le Billon, ‘Resources for Peace?’.

14. Bannon and Collier, Natural Resources and Violent Conflict; and Le Billon, Wars of Plunder.

15. Pugh et al., Whose Peace?; and Le Billon, ‘Post-war Natural Resource Sectors’.

16. Conde and Le Billon, ‘Resisting Mining Projects’.

17. Autesserre, ‘International Peacebuilding’; and Leonardsson and Rudd, ‘The “Local Turn” in Peacebuilding’.

18. Koopman, ‘Alter-geopolitics’. Whereas peace territories reflect the basic principles of territorial peace, territorial peace but automatically entail the creation of peace territories not the reverse.

19. Paffenholz, ‘Unpacking the Local Turn’.

20. Naucke, ‘Peacebuilding Upside Down?’.

21. Maher and Thomson, ‘A Precarious Peace?’; and Massé and Le Billon, ‘Gold Mining in Colombia’.

22. Gibler, The Territorial Peace.

23. Wiryono, ‘Indonesia and Southeast Asian Territorial Peace’.

24. Jaramillo, ‘La Paz Territorial’.

25. Leonardsson and Rudd, ‘The “Local Turn” in Peacebuilding’.

26. Randazzo, ‘Scrutinizing the Local Turn in Peacebuilding’.

27. Paffenholz, ‘Unpacking the Local Turn’.

28. Leonardsson and Rudd, ‘The “Local Turn” in Peacebuilding’.

29. Jaramillo, ‘La Paz Territorial’.

30. Jaramillo, ‘La Paz Territorial’. See also Pfeiffer, ‘Territorial Peacebuilding in Colombia’.

31. Paffenholz, ‘Unpacking the Local Turn’.

32. Cairo et al., ‘Territorial Peace’.

33. Leonardsson and Rudd, ‘The “Local Turn” in Peacebuilding’.

34. Bautista, ‘Fundamentación Conceptual de paz Territorial’.

35. Santos, ‘Colombia Entre La Paz Neoliberal y La Paz Democrática’.

36. Naucke, ‘Peacebuilding Upside Down?’.

37. Olarte-Olarte, ‘Pacificación Territorial’.

38. Moore, ‘The Capitalocene’.

39. Richmond, ‘Understanding the ‘Liberal Peace’.

40. Rodríguez-Garavito et al., La Paz Ambiental.

41. Pérez-Rincón, ‘Conflictos ambientales’.

42. Svampa, ‘Commodities Consensus’.

43. Houghton, ‘Pequeña minería y paz territorial’.

44. McNeish, ‘Extracting Justice?’.

45. Roa-García, ‘Environmental Democratization and Water Justice’.

46. Dietz, ‘Contesting Claims for Democracy’.

47. Roa-García et al., ‘La Democratización Ambiental’.

48. Rodríguez-Garavito and Orduz, La Consulta Previa.

49. Memoria Ambiental, ‘Manifiesto del 1er Encuentro’.

50. Pfeiffer, ‘Territorial Peacebuilding in Colombia,’ 1.

51. Houghton, ‘Pequeña minería y paz territorial’.

52. Jaramillo, ‘La Paz Territorial’.

53. See Blitz, ‘Adoption of the Bow,’; and Verner, ‘Adaptive Significance of Territoriality’. The concept of ‘resource territories’ initially emerged in the fields of anthropology and zoology to refer to spatially bounded foraging areas defended through threats, aggression, and sanction-based social rules of access. It has thus been closely associated with the ‘terror-based’ interpretation of territories and territoriality. See also Peluso, ‘Coercing Conservation?’. The author used the term from a critical perspective in relation to coercive forms of environmental conservation and resource enclosure processes.

54. Peluso, ‘Whose Woods are These?’; and Bridge, ‘Resource Geographies’.

55. Emel et al., ‘Extracting Sovereignty’.

56. Peluso, ‘Entangled Territories in Small-scale Gold Mining’, 401. For Peluso, gold frontiers ‘end where realized state authority and sovereignty begin…[while] frontiers are related to territory: they can be seen as relational spaces that disrupt existing territorial logics of control’. On resource frontiers, see also Tsing, ‘Natural Resources and Capitalist Frontiers’; and Bryceson and Geenen, ‘Artisanal Frontier Mining’.

57. Buxton, ‘Responding to the Challenge of Artisanal and Small-scale Mining’.

58. Emel et al., ‘Extracting Sovereignty’.

59. See Persaud et al., ‘Artisanal and Small-scale Gold Mining in Senegal’.

60. Côte and Korf, ‘Making Concessions’; and Johnson, ‘Who Governs Here?’.

61. Reno, Corruption and State Politics in Sierra Leone.

62. Naim, ‘Mafia States’.

63. See also, Le Billon, Wars of Plunder; and Williams and Le Billon, Corruption, Natural Resources and Development.

64. Remy, ‘Rosewood Democracy’.

65. Watts, ‘Resource Curse?’; and Le Billon, ‘Natural Resources and Corruption’.

66. See for example, Pugh, ‘Rubbing Salt into War Wounds’; and Sterling, Crime Without Frontiers.

67. Massé and Camargo, Actores Amados Ilegales.

68. Elden, ‘Governmentality, Calculation, Territory’.

69. West, Colonial Placer Mining in Colombia.

70. Cordy et al., ‘Mercury Contamination’; García et al., ‘Artisanal Gold Mining’; Rodríguez-Villamizar et al., ‘Human Mercury Exposure’; Salazar-Camacho et al., ‘Dietary Human Exposure to Mercury’; and Veiga, ‘Antioquia, Colombia’.

71. Rettberg et al., Recursos Diferentes, Conflictos Distintos.

72. Massé and Le Billon, ‘Gold Mining in Colombia’; and Rochlin, ‘Informal Gold Miners in Colombia’.

73. Ararat et al, La Toma.

74. Uribe-Castro and Ramírez-Arcila, ‘Sentidos de Lugar y Movimiento Social’.

75. Weitzner, ‘Between Panic and Hope’.

76. Ojeda et al., ‘Paisajes del Despojo Cotidiano’.

77. Gómez-Isa, ‘El Desplazamiento Forzado’.

78. Ulloa, ‘Geopolíticas del Desarrollo’.

79. The relative autonomy of Indigenous/Afro-Colombian communities either facilitates or complicates the presence and activities of non-state armed groups and their consequences (e.g. Indigenous Guards can reduce guerrilla and paramilitary presence).

80. Massé and Le Billon, ‘Gold Mining in Colombia’; and Rettberg and Ortiz-Riomalo, ‘Links between the Drug Trade’.

81. Interviews by authors.

82. For example, ECOMUN, FARC’s cooperative entity, and Royal Roads Minerals agreed to develop a gold mine in Nariño, see https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/31387/Royal-Road-Minerals-Announces-Execution-of-Definitive-Agreement-with-Economias-Sociales-Del-Comun-ECOMUN-Colombia.

83. Massé and Le Billon, ‘Gold Mining in Colombia’.

84. Ibid.

85. Massé and Munévar, ‘Minería aurífera en Antioquia’.

86. McDermont, ‘El Rostro Cambiante del Crimen Organizado Colombiano’.

87. Massé and Camargo, Actores Armados Ilegales; and Rettberg and Ortiz-Riomalo, ‘Links between the Drug Trade’.

88. Chica Jiménez, ‘Quinchía’.

89. Villages and household dogs are a major source of security in rural areas.

90. Autoridad de Licencias Ambientales, ‘Qué nos compete?’.

91. Alsema, ‘With FARC gone’.

92. Espinosa, Buenaventura y Sus Historias.

93. Defensoría del Pueblo, 2010: 140.

94. Diario el País. ‘CVC Decreta Emergencia Ambiental en Zaragoza’.

95. Ibid.

96. Diario el Pais, ‘Minería Ilegal en el río Dagua’.

97. Vera-Rodríguez, ‘La Cuenca del Río’.

98. McNeish, ‘Extracting Justice?’.

99. El Nuevo Día, ‘Nueva Renuncia en Anglo Gold Ashanti’.

100. Rodríguez-Franco, ‘Institutions and the Environment in Latin America’.

101. AGA, ‘Resumen: Nuestra Posición’; and CSC et al., ‘La Colosa’.

102. García et al., 2015.

103. 59 veredas of Yondó (Antioquia), 25 of Cantagallo y 30 of San Pablo (both located in Sur de Bolívar). ACVC also protects an additional 500,000 hectares.

104. Ramírez, ‘Mineros del Nordeste’.

105. Duarte-Cubillos, ‘Identidades Territoriales’; Serje, El Revés de la Nación; and Viloria de la Hoz, ‘Economía y Conflicto en el Cono Sur del Departamento de Bolívar’.

106. Duarte-Cubillos, ‘Identidades Territoriales’.

107. Mesa Regional, 1999 cited by Duarte-Cubillos, ‘Identidades Territoriales’.

108. Duarte-Cubillos, ‘Identidades Territoriales’.

109. Ibid.

110. Prensa Rural, ‘El Juzgado Penal’.

111. Semana, ‘Oro y Plomo’.

112. El Espectador, ‘Por ‘Falso Positivo’.

113. Semana, ‘Oro y Plomo’.

114. Ibid.

115. Rochlin, ‘Informal Gold Miners’.

116. Houghton, ‘Pequeña minería y paz territorial’.

117. Lederach, ‘The Campesino was Born for the Campo,’ 590.

118. Borg Rasmussen and Lund, ‘The Territorialization of Resource Control’.

119. See also, Vélez-Torres, ‘Governmental Extractivism in Colombia’.

120. Grajales, ‘The Rifle and the Title’; and Grajales, ‘State Involvement’.

121. Grajales, ‘State Involvement’.

122. Grajales, ‘The Rifle and the Title’.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Philippe Le Billon

Philippe Le Billon is Professor at the University of British Columbia. He holds a PhD (Oxford) and works on linkages between environment, development and security. He has published widely on natural resource governance and investigates socio-environmental relations and commodity networks linking spaces of exploitation, consumption and regulation.

María Cecilia Roa-García

María Cecilia Roa-García is Assistant Professor at the Universidad de los Andes. She holds a PhD (UBC) and works on environmental governance and justice, democratization, and socio-hydrological issues in Latin America.

Angelica Rocío López-Granada

Angelica Rocío López-Granada was Deputy Director of the Jesuit Refugee Service for eight years, where she collaborated with communities affected by illegal gold mining. She works on development, extractive activities and their effects on communities in rural areas.