Local perceptions about landscape change unveil environmental justice issues in a Colombian Caribbean municipality

Abstract

The Tubará municipality is located at the frontier of dramatic regional landscape transformations. In recent decades, urbanization, infrastructure development, and cattle farming have driven landscape change in the municipality, potentially impacting the attributes that determine its future trajectories, namely its adaptive capacity to cope with climate change. 18 semi-structured interviews were conducted to explore the community’s perceptions regarding observed changes in the landscape and their drivers. Additionally, this study was concerned with exploring the environmental justice issues unveiled by local narratives. Using content analysis, three main themes emerged: 1) Multidimensional impacts of forest cover and tree loss; 2) Changes in traditional food systems and economies; and 3) Change and its drivers are produced by and produce environmental injustices. Although perceived direct drivers of change vary spatially, land tenure systems, ineffective and weak policies, regulations and enforcement, and market forces explain indirect drivers underlying them. In the face of change, narrative accounts also display a community that resists through legal action and the keeping of its traditional practices. This research aims to ignite further inquiry and public discussion around questions of justice in social-ecological systems research, its intersection with regional planning, and indigenous and local knowledge inclusion and recognition in decision-making.