Desecrated land 2
"Tierra Profanada. Impacto de los Megaproyectos en los Territorios Indiginas de Colombia" ("Desecrated Land. The Impact of Megaprojects on the Indigenous Territories of Colombia") is a study conducted by HREV at the request of ONIC.
The study consists of 3 general sections and a series of monographs devoted to each of the megaprojects studied, which can be read individually.
2. Legal framework for indigenous peoples‘ rights in Colombia... more
4. Oil and gas industry megaproject... more
9. Illicit crops megaproject... more
Origin of the project
"Tierra Profanada. Grandes proyectos en territorios indígenas de Colombia" ("Desecrated Land. Major projects in Colombia’s indigenous territories") was published in 1995, a joint project by ONIC (Organización Nacional Indigena de Colombia – National Organisation of Indigenous Peoples of Colombia), CECOIN (Centre of Support for Indigenous Peoples – Colombia) and the German University of Kassel (GhK).
The study was structured around three major thematic areas: forests, hydroelectric projects and industrial mining in indigenous territories. Different Colombian and German academics as well as indigenous leaders contributed to each of them, approaching the subject from their different areas of expertise.
There is no doubt that ‘Tierra Profanada’ has been an important work of reference throughout the last decade.
Over 10 years later, the joint HREV–ONIC project seeks to revisit the same issue with the perspective granted by the time which has elapsed between the publication of the first study, and this.
In this new study the emphasis is placed on the impact of megaprojects on Colombia’s indigenous peoples and their territories. Awareness of the extent to which indigenous peoples are affected is essential for these peoples and their organisations to be able to devise strategies of response and resistance, for those institutions charged with safeguarding fundamental rights to act and for those responsible for public policies to ensure that they do not violate the rights of indigenous peoples.
If the "Tierra Profanada" of 1995 had a holistic focus, analysing the issue, both geographically and thematically, at varying levels of detail (from general problems to very concrete case studies), the "Tierra Profanada" of 2008 is conceived as a systematising tool, seeking to unify criteria and methodologies for analysing the different megaprojects.
The aim is to have an up–to–date assessment of the scale of the impact (both qualitatively and quantitatively) of megaprojects on the indigenous peoples and their territories in Colombia.
Other resources and materials