Land at Scale, an innovative project in Colombia

Land at Scale was born with the objective of supporting the land administration processes of indigenous communities in a fair, efficient and effective way by creating land tenure security. The project focuses on improving land tenure security, economic development and sustainable natural resource management.

During this year the project executed by Kadaster, ICCO and Tropenbos has worked in the indigenous reserves of Gunmaku, Aracataca, and La Teófila, Solano. In Gunmaku, 15 young people from different watersheds were trained in the collection of land information; coffee was also chosen as a source of economic development associated with the traditions of the people and the soil and temperature characteristics. An ancestral management plan for the crop was developed, different coffee varieties were identified and a group of producers was consolidated for collective commercialization.

In the case of Teofila, department of Caquetá, the product identified for economic development work was Milpesos palm oil. During the year, 20 families from the two communities improved their oil extraction and marketing processes. Planting plans and community and family nurseries were established for the restoration and commercialization of native trees. Participatory productive restoration areas and plans to halt deforestation in the municipality were also included.

Visits were also made to determine the possibility of starting a pilot project in Riscales, Nuqui, with the Afro-Colombian community to generate capacities for geographic data management, contribute to the development of local projects and collaborate with the Ethno-Development Plan with WWF.