COCOMOPOCA

I meet with three community groups to discuss the problems they face. One community can only be reached by river, the others by jeep along rutted tracks through the forest. We deliver World Food Programme food supplies to one village as we pass.

In each meeting, community leaders tell me that the future of their people is hanging in the balance. If their rights are protected by the Colombian government – and the country’s constitution is fully implemented - they will be able to live sustainably and peacefully. But if their rights continue to be ignored, violent displacements will continue, their way of life will be destroyed, and the rainforest will be cut down to make way for mines and plantations.

By promoting sustainable development, strengthening community groups and teaching communities how to lobby governments and big business at local and national level, SCIAF and COCOMOPOCA aim to gain collective land titles for 46 community organisations. Together, we aim to end the campaign of terror and forced evictions and help the people of Chocó to acquire legal protection for their ancestral lands, their culture and the extraordinary bio-diversity of their territory.

Jozefa, a community legal representative with COCOMOPOCA, told me:

“We are fighting hard for our right to live peacefully and productively on our lands. It has been 15 years since our right to these ancestral territories was recognised in the Colombian Constitution but we are still struggling to get the land titled.

"In the meantime we have to face illegal logging and mining companies causing environmental devastation. Our lives and livelihoods are constantly at risk. Through the project with SCIAF we have been able to ensure that our communities know their rights and are better able to defend them.”