CASAS’ member Juliana Forigua-Sandoval has published this chapter with Bibiana Duarte-Abadía and Rutgerd Boelens in the book “Rethinking environmental governance”.
Abstract: The middle basin of the Magdalena River (Colombia) is composed of wetlands and swamp complexes that are interconnected by streams and culverts. Fishing associations have witnessed their riparian water connectivity affected by different interventions such as the construction and operation of hydroelectric dams and the expansion of oil palm monoculture by large landowners. In this contribution, we propose to conceptualize river grabbing in the Magdalena river’s context as the disturbance of the river connectivity through the control of river rhythms by actors who dispossess fisher associations of their artisanal production. Specifically, based on an ethnographic analysis of the productive activities of fisher associations in the swamps of La Gloria (Cesar) and Llanito (Santander), we identify how different infrastructures and interventions disrupt the migratory cycle of fish and the flows of water among the swamps and the main river. Finally, building on water justice frameworks, we analyze the actors, strategies, and discourses involved in each case and highlight the challenges and opportunities for collective action to gain recognition and defend the rights and interests of artisanal fishers. We conclude by discussing the implications of our analysis for water governance.
Read their full chapter here: https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/105498
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CASAS
The Collective of Agrarian Scholar-Activists from the Global South (CASAS) is a community of Scholar-Activists working in critical agrarian studies.