The Colombian Amazon. Urban Profiles 2015 The Colombian Amazon. general director Luz Marina Mantilla Cárdenas deputy managing and finance director Urban Carlos Alberto Mendoza Vélez deputy director science and technology Profiles Marco Ehrlich socio-environmental dynamics program coordinator Carlos Ariel Salazar Cardona 2015 Salazar Cardona, Carlos Ariel; Riaño Umbarila, Elizabeth. Urban Profiles in the Colombian Amazon, 2015 / Carlos Ariel Salazar Cardona, Elizabeth Riaño Umbarila. Bogota: Amazonic Institute of Scientific Research «sinchi». 2016 1. colombian amazon 2. urban displacement 3. population 4. human settlements 5. urban system Overall Coordination Diana Patricia Mora Rodríguez Complete work: isbn 978-958-8317-99-1 Editorial Coordination Vol. 1: isbn 978-958-59513-0-3 Santiago Moreno González © Instituto Amazónico de Investigaciones Científicas «sinchi» Design and Layout Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development Patricia Melo González / Typograma First edition: abril de 2016 Style Editing All Rights Reserved Isabel Trejos Velásquez Available at: Amazonic Institute of Scientific Research —sinchi— Photography and Cartography Calle 20 nº 5-44, Bogota (Colombia) Elizabeth Riaño Umbarila Phone number: (571) 444 2084 www.sinchi.org.co Printing Printed in Colombia Editorial Scripto s.a.s. CONTENIDO Foreword 9 1. The Colombian Amazon 19 Hydrographic Amazon 20 The Jungle Amazon 21 The Political-Administrative Amazon 22 Colombian Amazon Region 23 Changes on Land Cover 2002-2012 24 Legal Condition of the Territory 25 The Ring of Population in the Colombian Amazon 27 Mining entitlements and requests in the Colombian Amazon 33 Mining requests 2011, 2013, and 2015 34 Oil exploration blocks 47 Projects of IIRSA (Initiative for the Integration of the Regional Infrastructure of South America) 52 Sub-Regions in the Colombian Amazon 56 Final considerations 60 2. POPULATION DYNAMIC IN THE COLOMBIAN AMAZON 63 Population 63 Population Density 70 Indigenous Population 74 The Population Displacement in the Amazon 75 3. Systems of Human Settlements and Development in the Amazon Region Colombian 79 Types of Human Settlements in the Colombian Amazon 79 Urban System 93 Concentration of Population in Urban Areas (Pinchemel Index) 95 Utilities in the Colombian Amazon 98 Networks and Infrastructure 101 Final Remarks 104 4. Lessons and Prospects 111 Sustainable Development 111 Governance for Sustainability and Governance 121 Development Model for the Region 128 Bibliography 135 Attachments 144 FOREWORD esearch institutes such as Sinchi lend an inva- on environment in the Amazon GeoAmazonia) luable service to the national community due (2009)3. In 2012, several countries of the region had R to its missionary management, but also for an answer about their own definition of the Amazon, their active participation in the building of wide im- and in a work published by the Network of Georef- pact social and cultural processes. A sample of that is erenced Socio-Environmental Information (raisg in contained in the book Urban Profiles of the Colombian Spanish), “Amazon Under Pressure”, new informa- Amazon, an Approach to Sustainable Development1, pu- tion on the topic was collected. The need for a com- blished in 2004, and its re-edition, entitled The Colom- mon point of view, built by all the countries, is a duty bian Amazon. Urban Profiles 2015, delivered in a cru- that has to be continued, which requires a huge po- cial moment, when this region is the epicenter of mul- litical will, taking advantage of the technical capaci- tiple worries, due to its strategic importance. ty of the professionals and the technological resourc- In the first book, several approaches to the con- es, more and more disseminated. The new questions cept of Amazon region, in South America and in Co- don’t have en unique answer, since a research at con- lombia, were exposed. These concepts were present- tinental scale and permanently updated, and in har- ed with a detailed cartography: Amazon basin, Ama- mony with the requirements of each one of the coun- zon jungle, Amazon Cooperation Treaty, Pan-Amazon tries is required. This huge challenge is also an op- region, and, as a synthesis of all these categories, the portunity to create common agreements about man- Great South American Amazon Region, where a wide agement and sustainability of the Amazon forest that ring of population is established. allow the development of a good quality life for the Urban Profiles was a pioneer in establishing such inhabitants and for the benefit of all living beings on conceptual approaches. The analysis, interpretation, this planet. and comprehension of the world’s largest tropical The conceptual perspectives exposed at that time rainforest, from a bio-geographic point of view, and it by the researchers in charge of Urban Profiles were has been of major interest for the countries, not only supported by the arguments presented later on, cur- from this region, of the whole world. Due to the im- rent information that gets more and more relevant as portance and complexity about the extent of the South time goes by, besides presenting the wide vision and American Amazon Region, subsequent works were context in which Colombia's Amazon is inserted. carried out. Among the most notable there is a pa- The expressions Amazon, Pan-Amazon, South per from 2005 entitled “A proposal for a definition of American Amazon, Amazon Region or Great Ama- the Amazon geographic boundaries”, elaborated by a zon imply different approaches, ways of thinking, group of researchers from Italy’s Institute of Environ- and spatial representations. In general, these terms ment and Sustainability2. Between 2005 and 2006, the are referred to the largest tropical rain forest in the UNEP and the ACTO developed the study “Perspectives planet4, located in the North of South America, to 1. This work was published in February 2004 by Franz Guu- 3. programa de las NACIONES UNIDAS PARA el medio tiérrez Rey, Luis Eduardo Acosta Muñoz, and Carlos Ariel ambiente unep. TRATADO de COOPERACIÓn amazÓ- Salazar Cardona. nica OTCA. UNIVERSIDAD del PACÍFICO. 2009. Pers- 2. EVA, h.d., and huber, o., (editores) 2005. A proposal for pectivas del Medio Ambiente en la Amazonia–GEO Ama- defining the geographical Boundaries of Amazônia. Synthe- zonia. Ciudad de Panamá, Panamá. http://www.unep. sis of the results from an Expert Consultation Workshop org/pdf/GEOAMAZONIA.pdf organized by the European Commission in collaboration 4. The concept of jungle (from the Latin form silva o syl- with the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization —Jrc— va) or forest (form the Latin form boscus) is referred to Ispra, Italy. natural vegetable communities in which the trees are the colombian amazon. urban profiles 2015 | 9 the hydrographic basin of the Amazon River, to the a political construction, that indicates that the space Table 1. Drainage basin of the Amazon River Nations that share the territory of this region, to the of nine state hegemonies (Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, States that promote the sustainable development of Bolivia, Brazil, French Guyana, Surinam and Guyana), COUNTRY AREA OF THE BASIN (km2) PERCENTAGE (%) the Amazon through collective actions for preserv- it also encompasses regions and sub-regions that, Bolivia 824.000 11,2 ing the environment and the rational use of natural due to the differences about the Amazonian politics Brazil 4.989.361 67,9 resources, to the artificial boundaries of administra- of each one of the States present their own character- Colombia 406.000 5,5 tive and political convenience for the application of istics that need to be considered. Equator 123.000 1,7 fiscal incentives in specific territories, to the people The countries that are part of the Amazon Coop- Peru 956.751 13,0 who inhabit the region, to the aquatic and terrestrial eration Treaty, endorsed on July 3rd 1978 between Bo- Venezuela 53.000 0,7 fauna. These concepts, unfortunately, cannot be eas- livia, Brazil, Colombia, Equator, Guyana, Peru, Suri- Total 7.352.112 100,0 ily translated into a unique cartography, since they nam, and Venezuela, with the purpose of promoting refer to different spaces with boundaries that do not the sustainable development of the Amazon through necessarily coincide. cooperative actions that take into account the envi- Table 2. Amazonian jungle The Amazon, as a unified entity, can only exist as ronment preservation and the rational use of natural an amalgam of regions. This way, it can be said that resources, creating thus a new vision and version of COUNTRY AREA OF THE BASIN (km2) PERCENTAGE (%) there are several Amazons that conform a bigger re- the Amazon region. Bolivia 558.000 7,0 gion, where each one of them has a different regional Thus, the great Amazon region, as an integration Brazil 5.144.000 64,4 distribution, for instance: the Amazon tropical rain of the environmental and territorial concepts, con- Colombia 531.000 6,6 forest is smaller than the basin, so the Amazon rivers sents and involves the aforementioned concepts. Equator 130.000 1,6 from Brazil and Bolivia extend several degrees to the The hydrographical basin of the Amazon river is Guyana 164.997 2,1 South of the basin, having their origin in the pampas, delimitated from the division of the water and com- French Guyana 63.700 0,8 marshlands, and cerrados. But in the north, in Vene- prehends the area that the river itself occupies, to- Surinam 150.000 1,9 zuela and Colombia, the tropical rain forest extends gether with its thousands of tributaries, covering an Peru 774.000 9,7 continuously until covering an important section of extent of 7,352,112 km2 in six countries: Brazil Bo- Venezuela 473.307 5,9 the Orinoco basin; however, this jungle is considered livia, Colombia, Equator, Peru, and Venezuela. From ToTal 7.989.004 100,0 as Amazonian and with cartography in concordance this point of view, the concept of Amazon includes with that, due to its floral continuation and coverage the territories and the Andean settlers form all the expression.