Tropentag, September 11 - 13, 2024, Vienna "Explore opportunities... for managing natural resources and a better life for all"

Sociocultural indicators in seed production and conservation in the Atrato river basin - Colombian Pacific

Colombian Agricultural Research Corporation, Motilonia Research Center, Colombia

Abstract

The Atrato River in the Colombian Pacific is one of the three rivers in the world recognised as subjects of rights, this makes the State organise itself to safeguard the social and cultural activities that people develop there. As part of this recognition, the Colombian Agricultural Research Corporation - AGROSAVIA, together with the United Nations Development Program UNDP, have developed a project to produce and conserve seeds respecting their traditions, within which sociocultural indicators were raised, where variables could be identified around the social representations that the Atrato River has, as well as the seeds, governance and forms of ancestral or community food production. These variables were worked on in the municipalities of Lloró, Carmen de Atrato, Vigia del Fuerte and Riosucio, with qualitative tools and techniques such as the observation guide, sound landscapes and field diaries, allowing recognition of the territorialities constructed by people through of time, adapted to climate change, globalisation and the internal armed conflict, which exacerbates the situations of commercialisation and adoption of technological knowledge. We can find that Afro-Colombian, indigenous and peasant groups have strong roots with the territory and with the Atrato River. There are spiritual and traditional beliefs about food production, such as praying to ward off evil spirits, listening to the water to know when it is time to sow or harvest, following the cycles of the moon, and also strengthening the oral tradition in the search for food. To be able to pass on this knowledge to future generations, leaving them with a territorial attachment to the territorial expressions of the Atrato River.

Keywords: Atrato river, bains, conservation, production, sociocultur indicators

Contact Address: Juan Sebastian Valencia Sanchez, Colombian Agricultural Research Corporation, Motilonia Research Center, Cali, Colombia, e-mail: jsvalenciaagrosavia.co