In the Sumapaz region, not far from Bogotá, Colombia, is the Bosque de Galilea or Galilea Forest, a territory that has been the scene of peasant struggles against land grabbing for more than a century. Now the peasant movement in this region faces a new challenge: this forest is a strategic ecosystem in the face of climate change, as it contains more than 8 million tons of CO₂ in its soil and has an outstanding potential for storing aerial CO₂. This is why it is in the sights of international carbon market agents. The area could be facing a form of green grabbing.

“Galilea Forest”, a peasant territory in dispute.

For several generations the peasants of this region have fought against land grabbing and for the recognition of their right to the land. The forest is located near what in colonial times was known as “Hacienda Cunday”. One of the first records of ownership of this hacienda is found in a public deed issued in favor of the enslaver Luis Dionisio Caicedo. This accumulation of land assured his descendants local and national power throughout the centuries.

In the 19th century, the republican state allowed large landowners to retain titles to land that was inhabited by hundreds of peasant families throughout the Sumapaz. Often these titles were used by the land-grabbers to expand their domains even beyond what was initially titled.

In the first half of the 20th century, dispossessed peasants began an intense dispute over land. Mobilizations, litigation and ambitious public programs are indicative of the high level of confrontation over land in this region. During this period, some of the country’s most important peasant leaders traveled through the forest and its surroundings.

In the second half of the twentieth century, the armed conflict brought fire from the sky to the peasantry of the region. First, with the incendiary bombings of the public forces in 1955; and then, with the launching of cylinder bombs by the guerrillas in 1999. The intense crossfire did not extinguish peasant demands for formalization and land redistribution.

From peasant environmentalism to green grabbing

In the 21st century, peasant mobilization for land was transformed into the struggle for environmental conservation of the forest. Between 2015 and 2019, community organizations such as the Network of Watchmen and Defenders of the Galilea Forest mobilized their efforts to stop four concessions granted to the Nexen Petroleum and Petrobras corporations.

Since then, the peasants have taken environmental conservation as their banner. The communities asked the environmental authorities to protect the forest, so when this territory was declared a Regional Natural Park (PNR) there was jubilation among the peasants.

What was initially announced as a victory soon clouded the hopes of the peasant families. The Political Constitution of Colombia establishes a strict protection regime in all Natural Parks that makes it impossible for the agrarian authorities to title the lands that are in the legitimate possession of the peasants. 

“Hacienda Cunday” was fragmented into 219 plots that are currently linked to a carbon credit project. For some farmers, there is reason to believe that the declaration of the protected area was, in part, a change that allows the century-old latifundia [large estate] to now generate profits through a complex network of green businesses. If this hypothesis is proven, climate mitigation measures that recognize these land titles could reinforce inequalities caused by colonial land appropriation.

Although project promoters report the delivery of benefits to several peasant families, leaders in the region allege that a significant portion of the community was excluded.   

An invitation to conduct research

National and international research on the case will help determine whether the lands for which several generations of peasants have struggled were handed over to corporate control that is tinged with green or, on the contrary, we are facing environmentally just initiatives. It is necessary to investigate whether these environmental conservation measures are transforming the latifundia of colonial origin into a renewed green grabbing. 

For now, the more we look into the real estate records of the properties that today make up the forest, the more jumbled the picture becomes. Potentially lost public deeds and other apparent irregularities are some of the findings made by the peasant communities that question the legality of the “green latifundia”. 

This case could be of great national and international interest: in the Global North, it could warn investors about the social consequences of financing climate “maladaptation” measures that reinforce pre-existing inequalities, generating a boomerang effect against the region’s peasantry; and in the Global South, it could document forms of green colonialism that especially affect peasant communities.