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Tuesday, October 7, 2025

In the rural, Indigenous, Afro-descendant, and campesino territories of Tolima, the Comité Ambiental en Defensa de la Vida embarked on a community-led research process to document how climate change—combined with extractive industries—has impacted the environment, livelihoods, and culture. The work spanned municipalities including Coyaima, Chaparral, and Ibagué, placing women, youth, elders, and local knowledge holders at the center.

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Community members in Ibagué, Colombia, engage in a community-led research project on loss and damage. Photo courtesy of @Comité Ambiental en Defensa de la Vida.
The climate crisis is not distant or abstract for us: it is daily life—seen in lost harvests, dwindling water, disrupted planting cycles, and the disappearance of the plants, animals, and traditions that have guided our lives for generations.
— Comité Ambiental en Defensa de la Vida.

Research focus

The research examined:

  • The climate crisis, adaptation, and mitigation strategies
  • Extractivism and human rights
  • Environmental, cultural, and spiritual losses from climate change and extractive projects
  • Impacts on water sources, biodiversity, and food sovereignty
  • Community resilience practices such as agroecology, seed protection, rainwater harvesting, ancestral medicine, and environmental education

These topics were chosen because they reflect the interconnected realities of local communities, where climate change is inseparable from cultural identity and political struggle.

Key findings

  1. Loss of forests and páramos
     Accelerated deforestation and forest fires—driven by drought, uncontrolled burns, and rising temperatures—are destroying ecosystems vital for water regulation and climate balance. With them go native species, animal routes, and traditional knowledge.
  2. “Cornering” of species
     Communities observe how plants and animals, before disappearing, move into shrinking, hostile habitats. Without food or shelter, many collapse in their life cycles—a silent warning of local extinctions.
  3. Water depletion and contamination
     Streams, springs, and rivers like the Saldaña are reduced by drought and overuse from mining and other extractive activities, while industrial waste and deforestation contaminate recharge areas. Some communities now walk long distances for clean water, relying on rainwater cisterns as a resilience measure.
  4. Decline in biodiversity and pollinators
     The loss of bees, butterflies, and birds threatens crop pollination and ecosystem regeneration. Young beekeepers warn that pesticides, temperature shifts, and deforestation endanger these keystone species.
  5. Cultural and spiritual losses
     Disrupted agricultural calendars, vanishing medicinal plants, and forced displacement are breaking cultural continuity. Women leaders speak of losing crafts, ancestral cooking, and herbal medicine—losses that cannot be measured in economic terms but are essential to collective well-being.
  6. Agricultural decline and food insecurity
     Extreme weather, soil degradation, and plagues reduce yields of staples like maize, cassava, beans, plantain, and sesame. This undermines food security, particularly for women and children, and erodes seed sovereignty.
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During the workshop, participants used body mapping and other participatory research methods. The photo shows one of the maps illustrating loss and damage in the community and their impacts. Photo courtesy of Comité Ambiental.
Community participation and methodology

The research unfolded in five phases:

  • Formation of community research groups to set objectives and responsibilities
  • Trust-building workshops integrating storytelling, body-territory mapping, and dialogue of knowledges
  • Participatory mapping of climate impacts and extractive projects
  • Collective solution design drawing on both local and scientific knowledge
  • Closing gatherings to share findings, materials, and multimedia testimonies

Participation was inclusive, collective decisions were prioritized, and care for both people and territory guided the process. The body–territory mapping proved especially powerful, allowing participants—particularly women and youth—to narrate losses from the intimate connection between body and land.

What worked well

  • Visiting each community in their own space fostered trust and open dialogue.
  • Identity-based storytelling revealed both personal and collective struggles.
  • Body–territory mapping created space for emotional expression and political clarity.

Challenges

  • Extreme weather limiting attendance
  • Institutional negligence and corporate influence
  • Emotional fatigue when revisiting painful losses
  • Unequal access to technology and information
What surpassed our expectations was the depth and power of community stories—especially from women, youth, and elders. The process became an exercise in memory, healing, and territorial affirmation.
— Comité Ambiental en Defensa de la Vida.
Community conducting Community-led research project on loss and damage.
Impact

This research strengthens CADV’s political, legal, and educational work for climate justice by:

  • Documenting systemic human rights and biocultural violations linked to climate change and extractivism
  • Feeding into popular education, including a new “Loss and Damage” curriculum now integrated into environmental training in Ibagué and shared with rural communities
  • Inspiring community initiatives such as women-led reforestation and agroecology projects
  • Increasing women’s leadership in local and national advocacy spaces

Key messages to decision-makers and allies

  1. Communities are already facing irreversible losses but also offer real solutions.
  2. This is not just about climate—it is about spirituality, culture, identity, and the survival of other species.
  3. Climate justice begins with listening to the territories.

Next steps

  • Campaigns for the human right to water
  • Policy proposals rooted in community knowledge
  • Integration of findings into municipal education and environmental plans
  • Wider dissemination of the “Loss and Damage” curriculum

By grounding climate justice in lived experience, this research turns local knowledge into political power—reinforcing that our stories are evidence, and our resistance is knowledge.

The video “Resilient Roots: Stories of Resistance to the Climate Crisis” was created by the research participants, based on the results obtained through the participatory community research process.
Final Report

Download the final report on the community-led research on loss and damage in Tolima, Colombia (in Spanish)