Un camino para fortalecer la gestión equitativa del manejo de las áreas protegidas del sistema de parques nacionales naturales con población campesina

Abstract

Today, the communities that inhabit the protected areas of the System of National Natural Parks of Colombia -SPNN are 19.4% poorer than the rest of the country’s rural population. This situation highlights conditions of inequity, represented in limitations to these communities’ rights, access to land, land use and use of biodiversity. National Natural Parks, in its role of managing the protected areas that are part of the System of National Natural Parks of Colombia -SPNN, has developed different mechanisms to engage with peasant communities since the year 2000. However, this process has been discontinuous when it comes to the generation of land use agreements within the protected areas, resulting an institutional guideline that needs to be reviewed and strengthened based on the new public policy scenarios and enabling conditions that have emerged over the last 20 years. Such a process starts with a rights-based approach, the fair and equitable distribution of the costs and benefits of protected areas and engaging in global discussions within the framework of the Convention on Biological Diversity and its 2030 -2050 vision. One mechanism aimed at improving equity in the management of protected areas of the SPNN inhabited by peasant communities is proposed here. It is based on key elements of the dimensions that comprise the peasant as a subject. These elements are defined and identified in the models and instruments used to manage protected areas, as well as in the guideline for the generation of land use and biodiversity agreements, from the perspective of environmental justice. This is aimed at furthering peasants’ recognition as active participants in conservation.