Fatma Ozdogan and Corinna Vulpiani (DEP 2016-17) write:
In January 2017, six students from the Masters programme on
Development and Emergency Practice travelled to Colombia with Dr Brigitte
Piquard as part of a project started by CENDEP three years ago: the observatory
of Symbolic Violence. The research theme was around resilience to conflict in
different local communities. This year the focus was also on climate change and
resilience. The aim was to analyse the similarities of resilience to conflict and
climate change.
Fifteen days of field research in the municipalities of Trujillo,
Bajo Calima, and La Rivera allowed the group to analyse the communities’ strategies for adapting to conflict and climate change. In
each locality we held discussions with farmers, teachers and community leaders,
human rights defenders. We asked about the effects of conflict and physical and
especially psychological coping strategies, as well as the impact of climate
change.
All the way through this field research, the group observed
the relation between a well-organized community and resilience. Even in the
rural areas that have been highly affected by climate change and conflict,
communities adapt to these challenges by standing together. Despite the
conflict causing large scale loss of life for years, the peace process in
Colombia creates hope.
At the end of the trip, the group shared their outcomes with
FECOOP (Foundation for Cooperative Education, the NGO that is CENDEP’s partner). Following the field research, the studies
continue in Oxford.
After more than 50 years of conflict, peace was long awaited
and desired in Colombia. There is still a long way to go before lasting peace
can be realized. However, visiting Colombia in the beginning of this peace
process was a great opportunity for us. Understanding the dynamics of the
peace, the reflections of the community and talking about 'peace' instead of
conflict allowed us to contextualize and apply what we spent the semester
studying and to understand deeply the complicated and fragile reality of a
civil war-torn country such as Colombia.
On the other hand, Colombia is facing not only the effects
of years of political disorder and violence but, especially in rural areas, has
also been affected by the growing impact of climate change. Indeed, because of
the combination of those two factors, the country maintains the second highest
record in the world for the number of internally displaced persons. For all these
reasons, we aimed to analyse and understand the phenomenon of resilience to
climate change and conflict thanks to several interviews with local actors and
activists and especially through the collaboration with FECOOP, whose work is
focused on education and development. Their main aim is to increase the quality
of education, providing alternative activities for future generations and
creating awareness in the rural areas.
What emerged the most from interviewing the youngest in the
villages is the lack of recreation and activities for young people who are in
search of a better future far from the fields where the previous generations
built their lives. Eager to keep up with the times and to become economically
independent, they end up succumbing to the allure of the crime, and consequently
fuelling the conflict.
As a result of climate change, livelihoods are changing, deforestation
and urbanization are increasing and more people are left vulnerable because of
issues such as food supply, water management, job security and lack of
education. After the peace agreement, Colombia is trying to move forward from
the violence, stigmatization and stereotyped vision that the world has of the
country. The country has huge potential to do so although there are still
massive internal problems that need to be addressed. The diversity of Colombia’s cultures and geography, such as the indigenous or
urbanized Andean Highlands, the Afro-Colombian Caribbean costs and the Pacific
lowlands or the Amazon Rainforest region, presents a variety of traditions,
lifestyles, languages, and knowledge, which complicates finding answers to these
problems.
The fieldwork of this course opened our eyes to how
difficult yet necessary the process is to overcome a dark history and heritage
of conflict in such a fragile state. We
will take with us many skills and experiences, learning how to transform a
state of conflict through mitigating climate change and adapting to a new
environment.
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