New biocultural programme seeks to confront illegal mining, timber trafficking and fire-driven forest loss in Puerto Nariño

By Staff Reporter
Puerto Nariño, Colombian Amazon

A long-term conservation partnership between ENVIRONMENTAL WOMEN ORG and the Tikuna Indigenous Resguardo in Colombia’s Amazon basin is entering a new phase, with a territorial plan that places forest protection, Indigenous governance and community livelihoods at the centre of public action.

The cooperation, which community leaders and Environmental Women Org have been building since 2023, is now being structured through the TIKUNA TERRITORIAL FOREST CONSERVATION PLAN 2025-2035, a ten-year roadmap for protecting forest, rivers and wetlands in Puerto Nariño. The plan was designed by Environmental Women Org together with Tikuna families and local leaders and covers 10,537 hectares of Amazonian landscape associated with the Key Biodiversity Area Parque Nacional Natural Amacayacu (CO150) and the Important Bird Area Parque Nacional Natural Amacayacu (CO083).

The document does not describe the forest as an isolated reserve. It presents the Tikuna landscape as a living territory where rivers, family-use areas, wetlands, forest cover and customary authority are inseparable. The plan argues that “standing forest” is not only habitat, but part of the territorial infrastructure of Tikuna life.

A forest under pressure from three converging threats

At the heart of the programme is a stark diagnosis: the Tikuna territory is facing an accelerated ecological crisis driven by three direct and overlapping pressures — illegal gold and silver mining, illegal timber trafficking and forest conversion through burning for cattle and short-cycle agriculture. The plan warns that these pressures are no longer isolated incidents, but interacting drivers of forest loss, pollution, fragmentation and social instability.

The most severe pressure identified is illegal mining. According to field evidence cited in the plan, there are at least 208 illegal mining points in the target landscape. More than 600 Tikuna Indigenous people a year are reportedly recruited as labourers by mining networks, while mining is associated with the clearing of approximately 16,000 hectares of forest a year in the broader intervention landscape. The document says that producing just one gram of gold can involve four workers, removal of around six tonnes of earth, discharge of roughly 1,000 litres of water per second, and the use of 10 grams of mercury in the amalgamation process.

The contamination burden is equally severe. The plan reports mercury residues in soils above 0.93 micrograms per gram, well above the 0.3 micrograms per gram risk reference used internationally. It also notes traces of methylmercury in forest environments, raising concern about toxic accumulation through aquatic food webs that support fish, birds and human communities alike.

The second major threat is illegal timber trafficking. The plan identifies around 90 trafficking sources within 4,200 hectares, with an estimated 308 trees cut every month. The most affected species include rosewood (Aniba rosaeodora), cedar (Cedrela odorata), mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla) and sapan (Clathrotropis brunnea) — species described as ecologically important, commercially valuable and slow to replace once removed from mature forest. The document says traffickers store trunks in concealed forest islands before moving them into illegal trade chains.

The third threat is forest conversion by fire. The plan estimates that around 32 hectares a month are opened through burning for cattle and short-cycle agriculture. In many cases, those newly cleared plots remain productive for only two planting seasons before soil fertility collapses, pushing the agricultural frontier further into forest. The plan describes this as a repeating cycle of low-yield expansion that weakens soil microbiota, increases edge effects and opens access for further logging and mining.

A plan rooted in Tikuna governance, not imposed from outside

What makes this programme distinct is that it does not propose conservation as an external restriction placed on Indigenous land. Instead, it is explicitly grounded in Tikuna uses and customs, with community assemblies, local leadership, women’s participation, youth stewardship and family commitments treated as the operating foundation of forest defence. The plan says conservation will only hold if rules are socially enforceable and tied to recognised territorial authority.

That governance model is reflected in the programme’s structure. The 2035 vision set out in the document is for a Tikuna-managed Amazonian landscape in which the full 10,537-hectare planning area remains ecologically functional, socially governed and economically defended against illegal extraction. By that date, the plan aims to establish permanent community governance, a 12-brigade ranger network, 1,500 hectares under restoration, 300 trained youth stewards, 350 family plots under fire-reduction management, and a long-term territorial dataset on forest pressure, contamination and recovery.

What the cooperation will do on the ground

The programme is built around four interconnected pillars.

The first is a technical conservation strategy. It includes participatory zoning of core conservation areas, restoration sites and family production zones; a network of 12 Tikuna ranger brigades composed of 48 trained members; restoration and assisted natural regeneration; phytoremediation in contaminated areas; three community nurseries expected to produce 180,000 native seedlings over ten years; and at least 20 environmental monitoring points for soils, water and river disturbance.

The second is education. The plan proposes school-based forest learning, field modules on mercury risk and nursery practice, annual youth training cycles and women-led learning circles. Its target is to train 300 young conservation actors by 2035, while also building conservation literacy across schools, families and community assemblies.

The third is communication. The plan argues that in landscapes dominated by illegal extraction, silence benefits traffickers. It proposes annual “State of the Forest and Rivers” briefs, community photo and map archives, posters, school events, noticeboards and youth-led campaigns so that conservation becomes visible, public and legitimate within the territory.

The fourth is sustainability. The strategy seeks to move Tikuna labour away from illegal economies by creating legal conservation-linked opportunities in restoration work, nursery production, community monitoring, fire-free agroforestry, non-timber forest products, medicinal species, low-impact ecotourism and local service provision. The plan is clear that forest protection will not endure unless standing forest becomes more valuable to families than criminal extraction.

Why this matters beyond Puerto Nariño

The significance of this cooperation goes beyond one municipality. The planning area sits within one of the most important conservation landscapes in the Colombian Amazon, linked to Amacayacu’s KBA and IBA designations. The plan describes the territory not simply as biologically rich, but as a connected biocultural system where forest continuity, river health, family mobility, food systems and Indigenous knowledge remain interdependent.

That is also why the programme is likely to resonate on an Indigenous news platform. It is not framed as a story of outside rescue. It is framed as a story of territorial defence, in which Tikuna society strengthens its own authority, restores damaged sites, trains its youth, documents environmental harm and builds lawful livelihoods around standing forest. The plan itself says its most important long-term infrastructure is not physical, but institutional: a functioning Tikuna governance system capable of making forest rules durable over time.

A public message from the forest

By 2035, the programme says success should not be measured only by hectares planted or meetings held. It should be measured by whether the Tikuna territory is harder to invade, less dependent on criminal extraction, more ecologically connected and more socially confident in defending its forest future.

For Indigenous communities across the Amazon, that message carries weight. In Puerto Nariño, the partnership between Environmental Women Org and the Tikuna Resguardo is presenting conservation not as a technical side project, but as a territorial strategy for survival.

Esta asamblea se realiza cada año, al inicio de la vigencia, como un espacio de diálogo entre las comunidades para definir la distribución de los fondos que el Gobierno Nacional asigna a los resguardos indígenas. En esta ocasión, se busca además hacer público el proceso, con el fin de fortalecer la transparencia, permitir el seguimiento, la evaluación y recibir recomendaciones a través de este medio. Durante el encuentro se presentaron dificultades para llegar a acuerdos, debido a desacuerdos frente a la aplicación de la Ley 715 de 2001, que establece la distribución de estos recursos bajo el criterio per cápita, según los censos de cada comunidad.

Esta situación ya se ha presentado en ocasiones anteriores y ha dificultado el avance pacífico de los proyectos comunitarios financiados con este fondo. A pesar de las diferencias, finalmente se logró realizar la distribución de los recursos, reiterando la importancia del diálogo, el respeto a la normatividad y el trabajo conjunto para el bienestar de todas las comunidades. El valor total de los recursos asignados para esta vigencia es de $291.736.034 pesos. De acuerdo con los censos actualizados al 2026 y la Ley 715 de 2001, la distribución se realiza bajo el criterio per cápita. La comunidad de San Martín de Amacayacu cuenta con 727 habitantes y la comunidad de Palmeras con 207 habitantes, lo que legalmente correspondería a Palmeras un monto aproximado de $64 millones de pesos.

Durante el encuentro, la comunidad de Palmeras propuso una asignación de $80 millones de pesos. Cabe señalar que en vigencias anteriores se han presentado antecedentes de desacuerdos frente a la aplicación de la Ley 715, situación que ha generado dificultades en el desarrollo oportuno de algunos proyectos comunitarios del resguardo. Esta propuesta será socializada y analizada en Asamblea General de la comunidad de San Martín de Amacayacu, para una decisión colectiva, informada y transparente sobre la distribución final de los recursos.