"La Lucha es por la Vida". Rethinking the Ecological Transition through Colombian Indigenous Cosmologies, Practicies and Mobilisations.

Abstract

The eco-climate crisis can be defined as a profound civilisation crisis, leading to questioning the dominant anthropocentric, capitalist, extractivist system and its Cartesian values. Therefore, flowing among ecology, political ontology, Indigenous ecological knowledge and green extractivism, this work advocates for the need to rethink the ecological transition in broader terms, overcoming the technological realm, as to encompass the social, political, and cultural one. In doing so, it adopts a decolonial stance and engages with Indigenous cosmologies, practices, and mobilisations from Colombia. First, the Indigenous movement, which led to the creation of the Indigenous organisation CRIC and ONIC, represents a crucial point of reference, since it embodies several claims compatible with those related to the ecological transition. Secondly, the ecological practices of the Arhuaco community of Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta are appreciated through Berkes’ Indigenous Ecological Knowledge framework, thus emphasising the crucial role played by the cultural framework within the ecological transition. And finally, the limits of an ecological transition only focused on technological solutions are depicted by an analysis of wind park projects’ impacts in the Wayuu territories of La Guajira (Colombia).