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Copyright of Revista Catalana de Dret Ambiental is the property of Universitat Rovira I Virgili and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The Colombian Amazon has experienced rapid forest loss in the past decades due to growing colonization, infrastructure development, and commercial agriculture expansion. While much of the analyses of deforestation in the Amazon have been in Brazil, there is a need to extend to Colombia where forest and land use exploitation are driven by post-conflict social and political dynamics. This research contributes to this knowledge gap by unpacking the mechanisms underpinning deforestation on the northwestern side of the Colombian Amazon. We used theory-building process-tracing to guide us in conceptualizing the underlying logics of deforestation in the region through qualitative text analysis of policy documents, articles, reports, and grey literature, and virtual semi-structured interviews with key national, regional and local actors. Findings indicate that the power vacuum resulting from the demobilization of FARC (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia), Marxist-Leninist guerrillas, acted as a window of opportunity for peasants, squatters, narco-traffickers, cattle ranchers, landlords, and other investors to access public lands and capitalize from converting forests to coca crops and pastures for cattle ranching. Accumulation of land and surplus primarily from cattle ranching and coca production has increased the ability of these actors to reshape the landscape and societal structures. Traditional elites and old and emerging narco-bourgeoisie have capitalized on preexisting power asymmetries by disproportionally accumulating land, money, gun power, influence, and prestige seeking to consolidate territorial hegemony, and controlling the means for material reproduction in society. Powerful actors use their resources and prestige to displace historically marginalized groups – such as indigenous communities, peasants and squatters – from their means of subsistence and production, resulting in the installation of a capitalist economy based on land rent and drug trafficking, where less powerful and marginalized actors engage in deforestation as means for capital accumulation and subsidizing their peasant and subsistence economies. All this has deepened forest loss, inequalities, and conflict over land access between actors.

Although Indigenous Peoples' rights to own, control and manage their lands and territories are well established under international law, Indigenous Peoples affected by forest conservation and climate protection programmes continue to denounce interventions that fail to uphold their rights. This article focuses on the internationally funded Visión Amazonía REDD Early Movers programme in the Colombian Amazon. Drawing on observations and critiques by Indigenous rightsholders in the Middle Caquetá River and human rights insights from a legal complaint raised by one Indigenous community against the programme, we demonstrate the programme's inadequate protection of collective rights, especially relating to the fundamental right to free, prior and informed consent and the resulting inequitable benefit sharing. We focus on conflicting views between Indigenous and non-Indigenous actors over the definition of direct effects on Indigenous Peoples (which triggers the requirement for prior consultation and consent), the basis for inclusion of Indigenous Peoples as programme beneficiaries, and the role accorded to Indigenous science in such programmes. Notions of permission and consent in the customary law and economic practices of the concerned Indigenous Peoples are central to the conviviality and reproduction of human and non-human societies within their territories. To ensure more accountable and sustainable international environmental finance and conservation interventions, and to ensure respect for Indigenous Peoples' self-determination and territorial and cultural rights, we recommend that these initiatives adopt human rights-based, pluri-legal and intercultural approaches centring on the right to free, prior and informed consent as a structuring principle. Additionally, we call for more robust measures in forest and climate protection programmes, to recognize and respect customary law, collective property, traditional livelihoods and Indigenous science.

This article shows how the indigenous peoples of the Colombian Amazon, although they start from specific identities that are always a relational result, are articulated in extensive sociocultural networks that can even exceed their affiliation to linguistic families. It appeals to indigenous arguments about their identity and the relationship of social, economic and ritual exchange between different groups, on which the production and reproduction of their societies and cultures depend. This rests on precise principles of social organization that constitute the warp of the fabric of socio-cultural networks that, however, are not carried out in a homogeneous way and could even manifest themselves in different ways, whose flexibility allows the expansion of their exchange relationships. This article illustrates such networks between groups of the linguistic families of the Eastern Tucano of Vaupés, the People from the Center who speak Witoto, Bora and Andoke languages and who inhabit the middle course of the Caquetá and Putumayo rivers, and the people of the Mirití-Paraná River and lower Apaporis that include indigenous peoples who speak the Eastern Tucano and Northern Maipure Arawak languages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Cuadernos de Música, Artes Visuales y Artes Escénicas is the property of Pontificia Universidad Javeriana and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The leader of the Inga community shares some of the ideas behind the construction of an indigenous university in the Putumayo region of the Colombian Amazon. He also presents the book "Una Nueva Universidad Indígena en la Selva en Colombia" (A New Indigenous University in the Rainforest in Colombia).

A new indigenous university in the Colombian forest is the title of this work, published in 2020 by Studio Lacaton & Vassal and ETH D-ARCH. The book presents extensive visual documentation and a textual chronicle of the project to build an indigenous university in Putumayo. The publication recounts the beginnings of the project, the participants and provides reflections on the encounters. One of the main contributions in the book is made by the artist Ursula Biemann, from Devenir Universidad. She was the one who made the various contacts possible, after having made an expedition in the Colombian Amazon and having met and got to know the Inga culture. The book also presents the visions and proposals on the essential characteristics of the Inga University, which allows the construction of a first conceptual basis for the project. This document is the result of a collaboration agreement between the Polytechnic University of Zurich, Switzerland (ETH), the Department of Architecture and the Pontificia Javeriana University, Colombia with representatives of the Inga community of Putumayo.

Although Indigenous Peoples' rights to own, control and manage their lands and territories are well established under international law, Indigenous Peoples affected by forest conservation and climate protection programmes continue to denounce interventions that fail to uphold their rights. This article focuses on the internationally funded Visión Amazonía REDD Early Movers programme in the Colombian Amazon. Drawing on observations and critiques by Indigenous rightsholders in the Middle Caquetá River and human rights insights from a legal complaint raised by one Indigenous community against the programme, we demonstrate the programme's inadequate protection of collective rights, especially relating to the fundamental right to free, prior and informed consent and the resulting inequitable benefit sharing. We focus on conflicting views between Indigenous and non-Indigenous actors over the definition of direct effects on Indigenous Peoples (which triggers the requirement for prior consultation and consent), the basis for inclusion of Indigenous Peoples as programme beneficiaries, and the role accorded to Indigenous science in such programmes. Notions of permission and consent in the customary law and economic practices of the concerned Indigenous Peoples are central to the conviviality and reproduction of human and non-human societies within their territories. To ensure more accountable and sustainable international environmental finance and conservation interventions, and to ensure respect for Indigenous Peoples' self-determination and territorial and cultural rights, we recommend that these initiatives adopt human rights-based, pluri-legal and intercultural approaches centring on the right to free, prior and informed consent as a structuring principle. Additionally, we call for more robust measures in forest and climate protection programmes, to recognize and respect customary law, collective property, traditional livelihoods and Indigenous science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The application of participatory methods for codesigning sustainable land uses in research and development (R&D) projects for the agroecological transition are receiving increasing attention. However, there has been limited research critically assessing participatory methods employed in a codesign process. We therefore analyze the participatory methods applied for codesigning alternative land uses in the Sustainable Amazonian Landscape (SAL) project in the Caquetá department, Colombia. We conducted our analysis by situating the codesign process in a participation continuum and a codesign typology. We found that a gradient of participation level in the R&D project is beneficial for managing a codesign process. Thus, codesigning can be shaped during the project to respond to specific needs, and farmer participation levels change during the project. We found that codesigning is a process that only partially relies on participatory methods epistemologies. Instead, it reflects a tension between the continuity of a codesign project in a given territory, the sustained involvement of local partners, and external conditions such as socioeconomic and institutional stability. These are essential points to consider for co-designing the agroecological transition, as we suggest that these project-based research conditions might hinder critical principles of the codesign process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents information on the urban indigenous population in Leticia (Colombian Amazon) in relation to authors who have affirmed that indigenous urbanization corresponds to a model of high mobility between the city and extra-urban territories, where urban dwellings are part of a system of "multi-sited dwellings". Our data reveals an urban indigenous population that has been established in the city for a long time, without active links with the territories of origin and little access to land in the peri-urban area. The oldest Magütá (Tikuna) and Cocama populations and the early immigration of the People of the Center make up the peri-urban indigenous population of Leticia, which has had political and territorial visibility since the 1980s with the legal recognition of its territories and authorities. The urban indigenous population is more than double the peri-urban indigenous population, but the former has barely gained political visibility since the 2010s, with the creation of an indigenous council called CAPIUL. In the peri-urban area there are several nodes that are part of a circuit of ceremonial exchanges that have been articulated with these new political-territorial actors of the city and that is called "the path of tobacco". The circuits of multi-situated dwellings that we do not find connecting urban dwellings with extra-urban territories --if we look at it only from the point of view of ethnic groups or kinship-- we come to find it in a new form of political and territorial construction that connects urban actors with peri-urban settlements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Derecho del Estado is the property of Universidad Externado de Colombia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

South American Leaf Blight (SALB) is caused by the Ascomycota fungus Pseudocercospora ulei. This disease is recognized as the main threat to Hevea brasiliensis plantations and the major phytosanitary challenge for the rubber industry in Latin America. Despite this, little is known about the pathogen's genetic diversity and population structure in rubber-producing areas. Characterizing diversity in pathogen populations is essential for understanding their adaptation potential. This information is necessary for developing resistance improvement programs, as it helps estimate Hevea's durable resistance. With this in mind, we characterized P. ulei's genetic diversity and population structure in the northwest of Colombia's Amazon. We used eight microsatellite loci (SSR) to evaluate the pathogens' populations. Samples were obtained from four high-SALB incidence locations planted with the susceptible clone IAN 873. We found high genetic diversity in P. ulei populations. Although there is no evidence showing that sexual reproduction occurs in Caquetá's P. ulei populations, our results suggest that, to some extent, genetic recombination is happening, as is the case for other Pseudocercospora species. Our findings support the idea that while asexual conidia are responsible for propagation within plantations, ascospores play a role in establishing P.ulei populations. More research is necessary to test this idea. Moreover, population structure correlated with different environmental conditions for both clone-corrected (Mantel statistic R = 0.053, p = 0.010) and non-clone-corrected data (Mantel statistic R = 0.060, p = 0.001) suggesting, that climate conditions might be contributing to P. ulei diversification. These results highlight the need to develop rubber plantations' management strategies to reduce pathogen's genetic diversity. This study is the first characterization of P. ulei populations in Colombia and thus, will provide crucial information for the H. brasiliensis resistance improvement program in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Bio-grafía. Escritos Sobre la Biología y su Enseñanza is the property of Universidad Pedaggica Nacional and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The genus Metopiellus (Staphylinidae, Pselaphinae) is confirmed in Colombia with the description of Metopiellus guanano sp. nov. from the northern Amazon. Major diagnostic characters, a distributional map, and ecological data are given. Finally, a previous taxonomic key to Metopiellus is updated to include the new species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two sites of the Colombian Amazon region with different levels of human intervention and mercury pollution were selected for the collection of samples of river and lake water, sediments, and associated forest soils. The Tarapacá region, affected mainly by barrage mining, showed low mercury concentrations, whilst in the Taraira region, affected by underground mining, there were several points with high mercury pollution levels. A collection of 72 bacterial and 10 yeast strains with different levels of mercury resistance was isolated and characterized. Most of the highly resistant bacterial strains (MIC > 40 mg L−1 HgCl2) were isolated from soil and sediment samples and belonged to either Pseudomonas (60%) or Bacillus (20%). Most of highly resistant bacterial strains were positive for the presence of the merA gene, suggesting an active mercury resistance mechanism. This was confirmed in the two most resistant strains, Pseudomonas sp. TP30 and Burkholderia contaminans TR100 (MIC = 64 and 71 mg L−1 HgCl2, respectively), which in the presence of increasing mercury concentrations expressed the merA gene at increasing levels, concomitant with a significant mercury reduction activity. Analysis of the MerA sequences present in the different isolates suggested a high gene conservation within the taxonomic groups but also several horizontal gene transfer events between taxonomically distant genera. We also observed a positive correspondence between the presence of the merA gene and the number of antibiotics to which the strains were resistant to. The most resistant strains are good candidates for future applications in the bioremediation of mercury-contaminated sites in the Amazon. Key points • Amazon sediments affected by underground gold mining have higher Hg levels. • Highly Hg-resistant isolates belonged to Pseudomonas and Bacillus genera. • TR100 and TP30 strains showed remediation potential to be used in the Amazon region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indigenous Traditional Ecological Knowledge is used as a tool for the defense and vindication of territory by the indigenous communities located in the municipality of Leticia in the Colombian Amazon. These actions are the result of a series of socio-environmental tensions related to the territorial planning of this area, which has generated different territorial figures and problematic situations related to the productive and social activities of these communities. The indigenous population in question is composed of the ticuna, cocama, yagua, and other peoples that have settled in recent decades (muina Murui, muinane, bora, miraña, andoque and others), totaling 54 indigenous peoples in the municipality. This manuscript analyzes the situation of the communities in suburban areas who have small indigenous reserves or who are in process of requesting the declaration of this with the national government. Due to their location and history in this place, those families are becoming surrounded by areas of urban expansion and overlapped by other territorial entities or actors. Consequently, generating direct effects on the space available for housing, traditional cultivation and other productive and cultural activities. The vindication of Indigenous Traditional Ecological Knowledge of these peoples is the basis for indigenous leaders and knowledgeable people in their struggle for the recognition of their territory and their problems with the government. At the same time, they wish to express their ways of conceiving the territory as a space for life, health and wellbeing that is achieved under their practices, rituals, ceremonies and ways of relating to the surrounding ecosystems. With the interest of defending and protecting their territory and in order to change the Amazon Forest Reserve into Indigenous Reserve, they have created significant alliances among their organizations and have reached out to both international as national regulations to achieve their goals and benefit the rights recognized in Colombia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes the social production of urban space in Florencia, Caquetá, Colombia, from a critical perspective of planning. The study uses ethnographic methods and participatory mapping to describe the notions and practices of urban planning at the state and citizen levels. With the latter in mind, we focus on two neighborhoods in Florence, which makes it possible to question the idea that state planning is by itself the bearer of progress and development. The results obtained vindicate the recognition of civic practices and other local forms of planning (in the sense of building and dreaming) to (co) design new urban spaces for life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to present and discuss a case of return (or repatriation) of sound files among the Bora in the Colombian Amazon. Particular emphasis will be given to the ritual songs. Thus, we will examine how these song files have returned to their original places, as well as the access arrangements that affect them and how they are currently used. Such ethnographic data will reveal essential questions about the transmission of knowledge and the master-apprentice relationship. Following recent discussions on sound repatriation, I will discuss how new technologies can, on the one hand, rekindle relationships and help recover lost content but, on the other hand, might cause sickness and danger.

Amazonia constitutes one of the most ethnically diverse regions in the world. However, our understanding of the arrival and historical trajectories of people in Amazonia is still poorly understood. Our recent excavations in the Serranía de la Lindosa have begun to fill this gap and provide new insights into the first human societies that settled in the Colombian Amazon region during the Younger Dryas (YD) period of the late Pleistocene. This paper details the stratigraphy, taphonomy and chronological framework of two rock shelters, Cerro Montoya 1 and Limoncillos, from excavations carried out by the LASTOURNEY project between 2021 and 2022. Based on radiocarbon dates from five multicomponent sites (Cerro Azul, Cerro Montoya 1, Limoncillos, Angosturas II and Casita de Piedra), four distinct phases of occupation are modelled using OxCal program (v.4.4). late Pleistocene-early Holocene (12.6–10. 0 cal ka BP); early to middle Holocene (9.5–5. 9 cal ka BP); initial late Holocene (4.1–3. 7 cal ka BP), and late Holocene (3.0–0. 3 cal ka BP). We establish the arrival date of the first human groups to the Colombia Amazon by ∼12. 6 cal ka BP , who settled in a tropical rainforest environment, practised a generalised subsistence, had an expedient unifacial technology, and began to paint with ochre on the walls of the mesa-top tepuis by at least ∼10. 2 cal ka BP. The chronology indicates gaps in the sequence during the middle Holocene, between 5.9–4. 1 cal ka BP , likely representing periods of abandonment. • We report several new evidences of early peopling of Amazonia River basin. • We report new evidences of human occupations of the Serranía La Lindosa (Colombian Amazon). • We report the data of two rock shelters, Cerro Montoya 1 and Limoncillos. • We report several lines of evidence on the human adaptability to the Colombian Amazon lowlands. • The humans who settled in the Serrania La Lindosa "humanized" the territory by rock art. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 2000, the productive capacities and contested governance of Amazonian soils emerged as a matter of political concern in the U.S.-Colombia "War on Drugs." State soil scientists are enlisted to engender a classifiable entity whose definition makes it emerge from productivity: good soils are thickly productive, market-oriented, and an entity that can be improved after human action. A network of farmers in the department of Putumayo, however, engages in material practices where soils are less of an object and more of an entanglement of life-propagating relations. With ethnographic engagement on farms and in laboratories, this article offers insights into the way "local" and "scientific" practices with soils are able (or unable) to be placed in symmetry. Amazonian soils may not only place pressure on state classification systems and their human agents, but may also reveal the limits of development imperatives where production is premised on a deep-seeded divide between "nature" and "culture". © 2014 by the American Anthropological Association.

It is now widely accepted that research about people and their interactions with wildlife provides unique and significant contributions that enhance our understanding of interspecies relationships in tropical forests. Studying human-nonhuman relationships involves not only the gaining of in-depth knowledge about local beliefs, values, and practices, but also the examination of the cosmopolitan identities of individuals as well as the impact of social and cultural processes of globalisation. Hence, it is imperative to explore the complexity of local communities living in protected areas. In this study, I consider the impact of community-based conservation (CBC) within Amazonianist societies and discuss how Western human-centred ideals of conservation can be made complementary to existing indigenous belief systems, sometimes resulting in unique and insightful outcomes. I present a case study showing how two Tikuna communities in the Colombian Amazon adopt transcultural beliefs and display innovation and resilience in the face of environmental and cultural change, and how these processes generate attitudes towards conservation initiatives and influence local livelihoods that are transformed by conservation efforts. I suggest that acknowledging indigenous populations as changing groups with dynamic, practical understandings of humans and nonhumans is a vital step towards identifying solutions to socioecological problems, where the needs of people and wildlife are met simultaneously.

Recent research carried out in the Serranía La Lindosa (Department of Guaviare) provides archaeological evidence of the colonisation of the northwest Colombian Amazon during the Late Pleistocene. Preliminary excavations were conducted at Cerro Azul, Limoncillos and Cerro Montoya archaeological sites in Guaviare Department, Colombia. Contemporary dates at the three separate rock shelters establish initial colonisation of the region between ~12,600 and ~11,800 cal BP. The contexts also yielded thousands of remains of fauna, flora, lithic artefacts and mineral pigments, associated with extensive and spectacular rock pictographs that adorn the rock shelter walls. This article presents the first data from the region, dating the timing of colonisation, describing subsistence strategies, and examines human adaptation to these transitioning landscapes. The results increase our understanding of the global expansion of human populations, enabling assessment of key interactions between people and the environment that appear to have lasting repercussions for one of the most important and biologically diverse ecosystems in the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is oriented to the development of an application that implements the method of supervised classification of vector support machines (MSV) on images from remote sensors, whether active or passive that are stored in a spatial database. of a relational type that allows contributing and supporting the classification of images, according to normality and abnormality parameters, where it is also possible to store these results within the same database management system. Given that the MSV supervised classification algorithm is widely accepted by the scientific community as one of the best classification techniques, since it allows very good accuracy in diagnosing the different coverings present in the soil, Since it seeks not only to find a dissociation between these, but to achieve a separation between the elements to be classified, it will be implemented as a classification technique. The application is designed for the end user, which allows not only obtaining support and sustenance when making decisions, but also facilitating the updating of the database, the inclusion or deletion of information from it, as well as the possibility of choosing the main characteristics that must be taken into account during the classification process. This utility is of great value, since when working with images with similar characteristics, the possibility of establishing dissociation ranges or weights for the different coverages directly affects the expected result. Finally, a case study related to deforestation in the Colombian Amazon will be presented, where the utility of the application will be demonstrated by means of a supervised classification, which will be compared with the classification module of some software that currently implements it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Environmental governance marginalizes Indigenous definitions of problems. • Indigenous concepts can help to re-imagine environmental governance. • 'Territorial Health' helps to understand Indigenous environmental management. • Pluriversal governance does ontological justice to Indigenous people. This article describes and analyses an encounter in the Colombian Amazon between Indigenous practices and arrangements to manage their environment and the conservation policies of the State. Indigenous peoples understand their world as populated by powerful human and nonhuman beings; for them, the moral duty of achieving happiness and abundance for all implies sustaining reciprocal and respectful relations with these beings (including the State). In contrast Colombian environmental policy distinguishes between nature and culture, seeking to safeguard landscapes from human interference so that natural processes can unfold unhindered. In practice these partially connected, yet incommensurable worldviews make for a 'perfect storm' - opening opportunities for illegal mining. Drawing on recent fieldwork among the Andoke, an ethnic group well acquainted with extractivism in its different historical modalities and presently affronting the fallout of gold dredge mining we narrate how a parallel, non-state governance system makes it difficult for them to care for their land and entertain mutual and respectful relations with human and nonhuman beings (which we translate as 'territorial health'). We conclude by arguing for the need to re-imagine environmental governance in ways that more closely engage with what we call pluriversal governance: a form of (environmental) governance that does ontological justice to those involved in the environmental conflict – including, crucially, Indigenous people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Climate is a strong determinant of tropical forest productivity; therefore, it is often assumed that Amazonian forest growing on the same local rainfall regime responds similarly to fluctuations in rainfall, independently of soil differences among them. We evaluated intra‐ and inter‐annual variation of net primary productivity (NPP) components, and forest dynamics during 2004–2012 yr in five forests on clay, clay‐loam, sandy‐clay‐loam, sandy‐loam and loamy‐sand soils, and the same local rainfall regime in northwestern Amazonia (Colombia). The questions were as follows: (1) Do NPP components and forest dynamics respond synchronously to temporal rainfall fluctuations? (2) Are the responses between above and belowground components and forest dynamics similar for different forest stands? A slight and complex synchronicity among different NPP components in their response to temporal rainfall fluctuations were found; few plots showed that aboveground biomass (AGB) and stem growth were susceptible to rainfall fluctuations, while belowground components (fine roots) showed correlation with one‐month lagged rainfall. Furthermore, despite that northwestern Amazonia is considered relatively aseasonal, litterfall showed high seasonality in the loam‐soil forest group, as well as the fine‐root mass, particularly during the 2005 drought. Litterfall correlation with rainfall of sandy‐loam terra‐firme forest was time lagged as well as fine‐root mass of the loamy‐sand forest. The correlation between mortality and rainfall was weak, except for the loamy‐sand forest (white‐sand forest, 77%). High mortality rates occurred in the non‐flooded forests for the censuses that included the dry years (2004–2005, 2005–2006). Interestingly, litterfall, AGB increment, and recruitment showed high correlation among forests, particularly within the loam‐soil forest group. Nonetheless, leaf area index (LAI) measured in the most contrasting forests (clay and loamy‐sand soil) was poorly correlated with rainfall, but highly correlated among them, which could be indicating a phenotypic response to the incident radiation in these sites; also, LAI did not reflect the differences in NPP components and their response to rainfall. Overall, the different temporal behavior of NPP components among forests in relation to rainfall fluctuations suggests the important role that soil exerts on the responses of plant species in each site, besides their effect on forest dynamics and community composition.

ABSTRACT Forensic entomology is a frequently used tool to estimate the time interval between death and the discovery of the corpse. Succession of arthropods associated with cadaveric decomposition was monitored in a rural area of the Municipality of Florencia, Department of Caquetá, Colombia. Three pigs (Sus scrofa) were used as study models. Insect sampling, and monitoring of carcasses and environmental conditions were carried out every five hours. The total time from death to skeletonization was of 545 hours (22.7 days). A total of 30833 insect individuals were collected. Specimens were distributed in nine orders, 46 families, 95 genera and 106 species. Diptera was the most abundant, with 23215 individuals (75.3%), followed by Coleoptera, with 3711 individuals (12%), and Hymenoptera, with 3154 individuals (10.2%). Immature stages of Cochliomyia macellaria, Chrysomya albiceps, Hemilucilia semidiaphana and Ophyra aenescens were the main species involved in tissue consumption and acceleration of the decomposition process. Due to the presence of ants Cheliomyrmex sp., Camponotus sp. and Dinoponera sp., and coleopterans Hister sp., Acylophorus sp. and Philonthus spp., it was not possible to obtain sufficient Diptera egg masses for rearing the colonizing species. These results can be used as a standard to determine the postmortem interval in criminal investigations in the rural area of the Andean Amazon, Caquetá, Colombia.

Climate is a strong determinant of tropical forest productivity; therefore, it is often assumed that Amazonian forest growing on the same local rainfall regime responds similarly to fluctuations in rainfall, independently of soil differences among them. We evaluated intra‐ and inter‐annual variation of net primary productivity (NPP) components, and forest dynamics during 2004–2012 yr in five forests on clay, clay‐loam, sandy‐clay‐loam, sandy‐loam and loamy‐sand soils, and the same local rainfall regime in northwestern Amazonia (Colombia). The questions were as follows: (1) Do NPP components and forest dynamics respond synchronously to temporal rainfall fluctuations? (2) Are the responses between above and belowground components and forest dynamics similar for different forest stands? A slight and complex synchronicity among different NPP components in their response to temporal rainfall fluctuations were found; few plots showed that aboveground biomass (AGB) and stem growth were susceptible to rainfall fluctuations, while belowground components (fine roots) showed correlation with one‐month lagged rainfall. Furthermore, despite that northwestern Amazonia is considered relatively aseasonal, litterfall showed high seasonality in the loam‐soil forest group, as well as the fine‐root mass, particularly during the 2005 drought. Litterfall correlation with rainfall of sandy‐loam terra‐firme forest was time lagged as well as fine‐root mass of the loamy‐sand forest. The correlation between mortality and rainfall was weak, except for the loamy‐sand forest (white‐sand forest, 77%). High mortality rates occurred in the non‐flooded forests for the censuses that included the dry years (2004–2005, 2005–2006). Interestingly, litterfall, AGB increment, and recruitment showed high correlation among forests, particularly within the loam‐soil forest group. Nonetheless, leaf area index (LAI) measured in the most contrasting forests (clay and loamy‐sand soil) was poorly correlated with rainfall, but highly correlated among them, which could be indicating a phenotypic response to the incident radiation in these sites; also, LAI did not reflect the differences in NPP components and their response to rainfall. Overall, the different temporal behavior of NPP components among forests in relation to rainfall fluctuations suggests the important role that soil exerts on the responses of plant species in each site, besides their effect on forest dynamics and community composition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Acorhinotermes Emerson, 1949 is the only Neotropical Rhinotermitine genus with no major soldier. Herein Acorhinotermes claritae Castro & Scheffrahn, sp. nov. is described based on minor soldiers and an alate nymph collected in a secondary rain forest in the Colombian Amazon. The minor soldier of A. claritae Castro & Scheffrahn, sp. nov. has longer mandibular points and it is comparatively smaller than A. subfusciceps. An illustrated key to the minor soldiers of the Neotropical species of Rhinotermitinae is presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Internacional de Educación y Aprendizaje is the property of Eagora Science and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

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Two new species of Bromelioideae (Bromeliaceae) from the Colombian Amazon are described: Aechmea cardenasii and A. andaquiensis. Aechmea cardenasii is significantly different from other species of Bromelioideae, although it roughly resembles A. rubiginosa because of its simple, strobilate inflorescence. Aechmea andaquiensis belongs to a taxonomic complex that includes A. abbreviata, A. angustifolia, and A. roeseliae, but it is unique among these species due to its oblong-spathulate leaf blades and short inflorescences with densely floccose-ferruginous floral bracts. Additionally, an unexpected record of the Chocó-centered genus Ronnbergia in the eastern Andean slopes of Caquetá is reported. Finally, a short discussion is provided about the problematic usage of binomials of Streptocalyx instead of Aechmea for taxonomic catalogues. This discussion is based on the necessity to add A. confusa to the Catalogue of Colombian Plants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is now widely accepted that research about people and their interactions with wildlife provides unique and significant contributions that enhance our understanding of interspecies relationships in tropical forests. Studying human-nonhuman relationships involves not only the gaining of in-depth knowledge about local beliefs, values, and practices, but also the examination of the cosmopolitan identities of individuals as well as the impact of social and cultural processes of globalisation. Hence, it is imperative to explore the complexity of local communities living in protected areas. In this study, I consider the impact of community-based conservation (CBC) within Amazonianist societies and discuss how Western human-centred ideals of conservation can be made complementary to existing indigenous belief systems, sometimes resulting in unique and insightful outcomes. I present a case study showing how two Tikuna communities in the Colombian Amazon adopt transcultural beliefs and display innovation and resilience in the face of environmental and cultural change, and how these processes generate attitudes towards conservation initiatives and influence local livelihoods that are transformed by conservation efforts. I suggest that acknowledging indigenous populations as changing groups with dynamic, practical understandings of humans and nonhumans is a vital step towards identifying solutions to socioecological problems, where the needs of people and wildlife are met simultaneously. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes and analyzes the effects of artisanal mining on the food security of the community of Andoque del Resguardo Aduche in the Colombian Amazon. In analytical terms, the departure point for this analysis is on the different perspectives regarding the activities of the indigenous populations. Some of these activities- those which are based on the notion of “scarcity”- distort the social life of the indigenous communities. This creates a dilemma which conflicts with the concept of “abundance” in these communities. The paradox of this case is that in a world of “Amazonian abundance” the model of gold mining, based on a notion of scarcity has been introduced. The introduction of gold mining has introduced exogenous elements into these communities that fundamentally change social life. Employing a perspective that rejects cultural uniqueness, this study examines the multiplicity of practices and realities in which the different actors confront dilemmas around the use of common pool resources. The rise of access to “easy” money through artisanal mining is ultimately transforming the local cosmo-vision, which states “one should not touch that which the sun does not illuminate”.

Based on the methodologies of the indigenous Gente de Centro (People of the Center) of the Colombian Amazon, this essay seeks to replace a notion of ethnographic practice as a set of techniques for data extraction, with a commitment with other cognitive practices that accepts the ways in which knowledge is produced and validated locally. Through the narrative of two indigenous research projects, the text suggests that the disenchanted modern method -with its "semi-structured interviews", focus groups, and data collection designs- is inadequate to account for a world where everything speaks, and does so in unexpected ways. At the same time, the warning of indigenous people to monitor the effects of knowledge on the world compels us to assume a responsible attitude towards the world that the act of knowing produces, or can produce. The question is how do these methodologies, emerging from intercultural dialogue, contribute to decolonize the ethnographic work? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses the politics and aesthetics of the depiction of the encounter between the West and the non-West in Ciro Guerra’s film El abrazo de la serpiente, examining how the film deconstructs colonialist imagery and discourses, and engages with the notion and cinematic representation of indigeneity. Through an interdisciplinary approach, the article identifies and discusses the strategies employed in the film to decolonise the category of the ‘Indian’: challenging the colonial linguistic of domination and undermining the tropes of imperialist representations; staging and re-enacting colonial encounters; and subverting the power relations embedded in colonialist ethnography. The article argues that El abrazo de la serpiente acts as an instrument of political and cultural inquiry into the past and the present, and that it both proposes and enacts interculturalidad and intercultural dialogue as a cinematic approach to native culture. While the notion of indigeneity at play is not unproblematic, the film succeeds in foregrounding Indigenous points of view and ‘points of hearing’, challenging a Eurocentric politics of recognition and evolutionary epistemology in favour of a ‘coevalness’ of the native. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents the main results of an investigation into the consequences of the adoption of the cultivation of coca, the productive logic of the illicit economy, and anti-drug policies of the Colombian State have meant for the safety and food sovereignty of Afrocolombian communities in the State of Caquetá. The work was based on extensive field work carried out in the rural area of inspection of Rionegro, Municipality of Puerto Rico. The text examines the role played by the regional history, the social and economic context in the reasons that help to explain the reason for the presence of coca. It gives an account of the main features of the mode of family production that characterizes the coca in the region and finally, and it shows the impact that the counter-narcotics policy has on food security of the communities in the study area. In order to provide elements for the discussion of the alternatives to the cultivation of coca, the article shows how the production practices in the region, both legal and illegal, do not pass through the construction of a project of food sovereignty and fail to meet the basics of food safety. RESUMEN: El artículo expone los principales resultados de una investigación sobre las consecuencias que la adopción del cultivo de coca, las lógicas productivas de la economía ilícita, y las políticas antinarcóticos del estado Colombiano han significado para la seguridad y soberanía alimentaria de comunidades afrocolombianas en el departamento del Caquetá. El trabajo se sustentó en un extenso trabajo de campo realizado en la zona rural de la inspección de Rionegro, municipio de puerto Rico. En el texto se analiza el papel que juegan la historia regional, el contexto social y económico en las razones que permiten explicar el por qué de la presencia de la coca. Se da cuenta de las principales características de la modalidad de producción familiar que caracteriza la coca en la región y finalmente, y se exponen los impactos que la política antinarcóticos tiene sobre la seguridad alimentaria de las comunidades en la región de estudio. En aras de aportar elementos para el debate de las alternativas para el cultivo de la coca, el artículo demuestra cómo las practicas productivas en la región, tanto legales e ilegales, no pasan por la construcción de un proyecto de soberanía alimentaria y no llegan a satisfacer los puntos básicos de seguridad alimentaria.

The Colombian Amazon has the larger ecological conservation area in the country. It is a region where there is an interaction between biotic factors —human and non-human species— and abiotic factors —water, fuel oil, minerals. Considering that the oil industry has a special interest on the Amazon territory, with about 58,5 million of hectares, this paper deals with the question concerning the main environmental impacts of the oil industry on the region, and the social tension which that causes with the human communities that inhabit the Amazon. Thus, a substitution criterion is proposed in order to safeguard the life and the culture in this part of the Colombian territory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]