In 2020 OCC! expanded its scope and encouraged students to explore local initiatives in their city, resulting in entries from various locations. Here below you find the entries from Bogotá, the Colombian capital embedded in the highlands of the Cordillera Oriental.
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By Anyi Viviana Castelblanco Montañez
Cambium association
This entry is written by a member of the CAMBIUM association.
The Spanish version is below.
Where is the grassroots initiative implemented?
The Chiguaza urban garden and environmental classroom is located in Colombia, more specifically in the city of Bogota, in the Miraflores neighborhood. Its promoters are the CAMBIUM Association, of which I am a member. This is a collective project to build a more harmonious relationship with nature.
Who are the promoters?
The CAMBIUM Association (whose acronym in English is Climate, Environment, Research-action Uniting Worlds); is a civil society organization formed in Colombia by professionals and activists who are aware of the urgency to achieve profound changes in the ways of inhabiting the world. Members of CAMBIUM are united by a common interest in researching, training, and trying to influence public opinion on issues related to climate change, mitigation and adaptation. The association believes that local knowledge is crucial to foster this radical change.
Our objective is to directly and indirectly influence decisions regarding climate change. The association tries to achieve this goal especially through knowledge production and dissemination, working with citizens’ science and local knowledge. CAMBIUM explores global and local strategies of adaptation to climate change and transformation of society and nature relations, adopting a gender approach and an intersectional perspective.
The beginning of the urban garden. Photo by Anyi Castelblanco
Who are the beneficiaries?
In the midst of this dream, we wanted to build our environmental classroom, not only to reflect on the climate crisis, but also to generate actions that would allow us to contribute and transform our relationship with nature. To that extent, the benefit is for the community around the environmental classroom, which ceased to be “the neighborhood garbage dump” to become a green lung in the middle of the city. At the same time, universities and high schools’ students do their internships in this scenario, where in addition to learning about the current climate crisis, they work hand in hand with CAMBIUM to cultivate, compost and recover the soil.
How does this initiative engage with climate? Does it tackle mitigation, adaptation, both or other dimensions of climate change?
This is an Action Research initiative that combines research and reflection with concrete actions aiming to transform our relationship with nature, thus mitigating and adapting to the current crisis.
What are the main objectives? What are the main values?
CAMBIUM aims to recover the peasant practices of the inhabitants of the neighborhood as a way to nurture and build the community, by rescuing its memory and defending the environmental heritage of the eastern hills of a city with its mountains and water.
What is the timeline? Are there already visible effects?
At first, this environmental classroom began virtually. We began to exchange knowledge with a group of students from the Minuto de Dios’ University in 2021, Later, the opportunity arose to find a space to build our environmental classroom. This was in Miraflores, a neighborhood that grew in the context of armed violence in the country, which displaced millions of peasants, and has deepened the growing social inequality. Faced with these difficulties, many people began to inhabit the eastern hills and spread out into the high Andean jungle. Miraflores is an example of the displacement and concentration of land in a country that, according to Oxfam (2017), is the second most unequal in the world.
The research-action in process. Photo by Liza Gaitán
That place, although full of garbage, has allowed us to dream of many possibilities to learn and teach what we know. Started in 2022, our urban garden remains a pedagogical tool to talk about environmental problems and begin to transform our perspectives about the territory. While developing our initiative, we have built a close and friendly relationship with people living in the area collaborating with nearby urban gardens.
Which limits does it encounter? Are any shortcomings or critical points visible? What other problematic issues can arise from its implementation?
But we have also had difficulties. The first one was to stop conceiving the place as a garbage dump. To change the common perspective on this place, we organized collective walks aiming to uncover the history of the place and rethink our connections with it.
We continue working and transforming. Photo by Anyi Castelblanco
We have then organized walking tours with young people from different parts of Bogota to know the stories of the place, recognize the plants, understand its connections to the rest of the city, and discover the water streams that run through it. In 2023 we have organized tours through the mountains of the city, understanding the connections with the moors that surround the city and allow us to have access to clean water.
The walks allowed us to understand that we are surrounded by water and we are part of the Chiguaza river basin, hence we decided to give this name to our space. The Chiguaza water stream is part of the indigenous worldview of the city, where the waters are sacred and hide the magical stories and adventures of the Muyscas divinities. According to Rincon and Urrutia (2019), Chiguaza was born on the hill of Zuque, in the Páramo. 69 years ago, it was still an immense stream.
Chiguaza is an indigenous word that means “wave moon”. Our ancestors gave this name referring to the shadow of the moon on this river. In the Indigenous culture, the Muyscas divinities sent two beautiful girls to the mountains of the Southeast. One became the Chiguaza water stream and the other the Agua Azul water stream. The rainbow began to visit them frequently and delighted with their beauty began to speak with other divinities about them. The Zuque, one of the deities, heard about them and asked the rainbow if he could meet them.
In this way Zuque and Chiguaza met and fell in love. And in this way, a water stream was born. Likewise, Rainbow and Agua Azul fell in love too. However, the Muyscas divinities found out and punished the rainbow by exiling him . That’s the reason why the rainbow wanders the world looking for his beloved Agua Azul from river to river. In other wise, Zuque and Chiguaza were allowed to be together with the task to take care of the water stream. Since then the two water streams run parallel and in the middle of them is a small body of water and our urban garden.
How would it be potentially replicable in other settings? Is this initiative conducive to broader changes?
These initiatives can be replicated in various urban settings, anywhere in the world. This initiative allows us to understand four fundamental issues: 1. The importance of soil for life; 2. The need to be more aware of our waste and the impacts of garbage on our land and water; 3. The hard work involved in food production; 4. Urban agriculture as a real alternative to adapt and mitigate the climate crisis.
Although our dream still has a long way to go, I consider that the collective effort reveals radical transformations in the territories. Feeling and contemplating the land, our relationship with waste, composting, caring for other living beings that nourish us, witnessing the greening of a space once filled with debris, learning to nurture and see other beings grow, and noticing the increasing presence of pollinators – all of these elements allow us to understand that utopia and dreams slowly can become reality by building and uniting other worlds.
We continue working and transforming. Photo by Anyi Castelblanco
Bibliography
OXFAM (2017) Radiografía de la desigualdad. Lo que nos dice el último censo agropecuario sobre la distribución de tierra en Colombia. https://oi-files-d8-prod.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/file_attachments/radiografia_de_la_desigualdad.pdf
Rincón, C. and Urrutia, H. (2019) Mito de la Chiguaza: https://www.facebook.com/escuelitaKimy/posts/mito-de-la-chiguaza/711499029350380/?locale=es_LA
Nuestra aula ambiental: La huerta urbana Chiguaza
Anyi Viviana Castelblanco Montañez
Asociación Cambium
Esta entrada fue escrita por una integrante de la Asociación Cambium.
¿Dónde se implementa esta iniciativa?
La huerta urbana y aula ambiental Chiguaza se encuentra en Colombia, específicamente en la ciudad de Bogotá, en el barrio Miraflores. Sus promotores son la Asociación CAMBIUM, de la cual soy miembro. Este es un proyecto colectivo para construir una relación más armoniosa con la naturaleza.
¿Quiénes son los promotores?
La Asociación CAMBIUM (Clima, Ambiente, Investigación-Acción Uniendo Mundos) es una organización de la sociedad civil formada en Colombia, compuesta por varios profesionales y activistas, que nos ha permitido tomar conciencia de la urgencia de transformar nuestra relación con la naturaleza en nuestra sociedad, lo cual exige lograr cambios profundos en las formas de habitar el mundo. En CAMBIUM nos unimos por nuestro interés en investigar, formar e influir, a través de la acción y el rescate y fortalecimiento del conocimiento local, en temas relacionados con el cambio climático, la mitigación y la adaptación. Nuestro objetivo es influir directa e indirectamente en los procesos llevados a cabo por la sociedad civil y los tomadores de decisiones relacionados con el cambio climático y su relación con el ambiente y la sociedad; a través de la formación ciudadana, el reconocimiento del conocimiento local y técnico, el diseño, la documentación y la investigación sobre estrategias globales y locales con especial énfasis en la adaptación al cambio climático y la transformación de las relaciones entre la sociedad y la naturaleza, todo con un enfoque de género y una visión interseccional.
El comienzo de la huerta urbana. Foto de Anyi Castelblanco
¿Quiénes son los beneficiarios?
En medio de este sueño, quisimos construir nuestro aula ambiental, no solo para reflexionar sobre la crisis climática, sino también para generar acciones que nos permitan contribuir y transformar nuestra relación con la naturaleza. En ese sentido, el beneficio es para la comunidad que rodea el aula ambiental, que dejó de ser “el basurero del barrio” para convertirse en un pulmón verde en medio de la ciudad. Al mismo tiempo, estudiantes universitarios y de secundaria hacen sus prácticas en este escenario, donde además de aprender sobre la crisis climática actual, trabajan codo a codo con CAMBIUM para cultivar, compostar y recuperar el suelo.
¿Cómo se relaciona esta iniciativa con el clima? ¿Aborda la mitigación, la adaptación, ambas u otras dimensiones del cambio climático? ¿Cuáles son los principales objetivos? ¿Cuáles son los principales valores?
Este sueño, que se hace cada vez más real, nos permitió construir nuestro aula ambiental. Con el propósito de investigar, reflexionar y generar acciones que nos permitan contribuir y transformar nuestra relación con la naturaleza, y así poder mitigar y adaptarnos a la crisis actual. La investigación-acción es parte de nuestro proyecto, por lo que no solo hablamos de agroecología, sino que al mismo tiempo la aplicamos en nuestro entorno urbano. Por lo tanto, este escenario nos permite recuperar las prácticas campesinas de los habitantes del barrio, nutrir y construir una memoria comunitaria y defender el patrimonio ambiental de los cerros orientales de una ciudad que tiene la suerte de estar rodeada de montañas y agua.
¿Cuál es la línea de tiempo? ¿Hay efectos visibles?
Inicialmente, este aula ambiental comenzó de forma virtual. Comenzamos a intercambiar conocimientos con un grupo de estudiantes de la Universidad Minuto de Dios en 2021; sin embargo, surgió la oportunidad de encontrar un espacio para construir nuestro aula ambiental. Esto fue en Miraflores, un barrio que creció en el contexto de la violencia armada en el país, que desplazó a millones de campesinos y ha profundizado la creciente desigualdad social. Frente a estas dificultades, muchas personas comenzaron a habitar los cerros orientales y a extenderse hacia la selva altoandina. Miraflores es un ejemplo del desplazamiento y concentración de tierras en un país que, según Oxfam (2017), es el segundo más desigual del mundo.
En ese lugar, aunque lleno de basura, nos ha permitido soñar con muchas posibilidades de aprender y enseñar lo que sabemos. Nuestro huerto urbano comenzó en 2022 y sigue siendo una estrategia pedagógica para hablar de problemas ambientales y comenzar a transformar nuestra perspectiva del territorio. Por eso, hemos hecho amistades e intercambiado conocimientos con un proceso de afecto; comenzamos a crear relaciones con huertos urbanos cercanos, donde trabajamos juntas para apoyarnos mutuamente y crecer juntas.
¿Qué límites encuentra? ¿Se ven deficiencias o puntos críticos? ¿Qué otras cuestiones problemáticas pueden surgir de su implementación?
Pero también hemos tenido dificultades. La primera fue dejar de concebir un lugar como un vertedero de basura, lo que nos llevó a generar conciencia en la comunidad a través de recorridos de reconocimiento de la historia del lugar que habitamos, pero también de la conexión con él.
Aunque aún debemos seguir trabajando en el barrio, hemos recorrido con jóvenes de diferentes partes de Bogotá para reconocer las historias, las plantas, las formas en que llegamos al barrio y conocer las quebradas de agua que lo atraviesan. En 2023 hemos realizado recorridos por las montañas, comprendiendo la conexión de los páramos que rodean la ciudad y nos permiten tener acceso a agua limpia.
La investigación-acción en proceso. Foto de Liza Gaitán
Continuamos trabajando y transformándonos. Foto de Anyi Castelblanco
Los recorridos nos permitieron entender que estamos rodeados de agua y que somos parte de la cuenca del río Chiguaza, por eso decidimos poner ese nombre a nuestro espacio. El arroyo Chiguaza forma parte de la cosmovisión indígena de la ciudad, donde las aguas son sagradas y esconden historias mágicas y aventuras de las divinidades Muyscas. Según Rincón y Urrutia (2019), Chiguaza nace en la colina de Zuque, en el páramo. Hace 69 años, todavía era una quebrada inmensa, donde se consumía agua.
Chiguaza es una palabra indígena que significa “luna ondulante”; fue bautizado por nuestros antepasados, producto de la reflexión producida por la luna sobre sus aguas a lo largo de su recorrido. Cuenta una historia de amor, donde las divinidades Muyscas enviaron a dos hermosas chicas a las montañas del sureste. Una se convirtió en la quebrada Chiguaza y la otra en la quebrada Agua Azul. El arco iris comenzó a visitarlos con frecuencia y, deleitado con su belleza, comenzó a hablar de ellas con otras divinidades. Zuque se enteró de ellas y le pidió al arco iris que le permitiera conocerlas.
De esta manera, Zuque y Chiguaza se conocieron y se enamoraron. Y así nació una quebrada. De la misma manera, el arco iris y Agua Azul comenzaron un amor. Sin embargo, las divinidades Muyscas se enteraron y castigaron al arco iris separándolo de su amada Agua Azul, quien fue condenada al exilio. Es por eso que el arco iris deambula por el mundo buscando a su amada Agua Azul de río en río. En cambio, a Zuque y Chiguaza se les permitió estar juntos con el propósito de cuidar la quebrada, desde entonces lss dos quebradas corren en paralelo y en medio de ellos hay un pequeño cuerpo de agua y nuestro huerto urbano.
¿Cómo sería potencialmente replicable en otros entornos? ¿Esta iniciativa conduce a cambios más amplios?
A partir de esta historia mágica de sueños y transformación con nuestro entorno, junto con los cambios que ha generado tanto en el territorio como en nuestra mentalidad y relación con la tierra, creo que estas iniciativas deberían replicarse en diversos entornos urbanos alrededor del mundo. Esto se debe a que nos permite comprender cuatro aspectos fundamentales: 1. La importancia del suelo para la vida; 2. La necesidad de ser más conscientes sobre nuestros residuos y los impactos de la basura en nuestra tierra y agua; 3. El arduo trabajo que implica la producción de alimentos; 4. La agricultura urbana como una alternativa real para adaptarnos y mitigar la crisis climática.
Aunque nuestro sueño aún tiene un largo camino por recorrer y requiere de un mayor trabajo comunitario para consolidarse, considero que, a pesar del tiempo limitado, el esfuerzo colectivo revela transformaciones radicales en los territorios. Sentir y reflexionar sobre la tierra, nuestra relación con los desechos, el compostaje, el cuidado de otras formas de vida que nos alimentan, presenciar el reverdecimiento de un espacio antes lleno de escombros, aprender a cuidar y ver crecer a otros seres, y observar cómo llegan cada vez más polinizadores; todo esto nos ayuda a comprender que la utopía y los sueños se están convirtiendo lentamente en realidad al construir y unir otros mundos.
Continuamos trabajando y transformándonos. Foto de Anyi Castelblanco
Bibliography
OXFAM (2017) Radiografía de la desigualdad. Lo que nos dice el último censo agropecuario sobre la distribución de tierra en Colombia. https://oi-files-d8-prod.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/file_attachments/radiografia_de_la_desigualdad.pdf
Rincón, C. and Urrutia, H. (2019) Mito de la Chiguaza: https://www.facebook.com/escuelitaKimy/posts/mito-de-la-chiguaza/711499029350380/?locale=es_LA
The Rediacción Grassroot movement is a metropolitan regional research and action network, whose organizers act politically in the Sabana de Bogotá. The region located in the geographic center of Colombia has more than 4 thousand km² with very different socio-environmental aspects, such as high altitudes (average of 2,600m) and steep topography that facilitate the capture of humidity from the air and act in the creation of lakes and wetlands; and a large urban population in the fifth most populous city in the Americas: Bogotá.
By dedicating itself to advocacy on land use planning, based on respect for the main ecological structure, the Rediacción involves knowledge and proposals for adaptation to climate change that includes everything from participation in public policies to governance processes, environmental education, planting and ecological restorations. Thus benefiting natural environments, the local population and public entities that manage socio-environmental conflicts.
In the midst of so many social actors, the collective’s objectives are centered on mediating between them in order to influence the formulation of municipal and regional policies, plans and projects; forge alliances with different social and institutional actors in favor of the resolution of socio-environmental conflicts; and disseminate information related to the Sabana de Bogotá to qualify the debate on land use planning and public policies.
Non-profit making, nor governmental or party ties, the members of Rediacción believe that urban planning and land use planning are suitable instruments to guide the development of the region and should be used for the benefit of the population, always above the interests of real estate capital. They perceive the surroundings of Bogotá as a set of living beings, physical elements and their ecological processes that need to be protected and used in a sustainable way. These assumptions were suggested by Thomas van der Hammen in his Main Ecological Structure concept in the 1990s. One of Rediacción’s areas of action is the Thomas van der Hammen North Bogota Producing Regional Forest Reserve, in honor of the scientist.
For them, the vision of regional and municipal development cannot be economically based and must respond to the particularities and needs of the local level in coordination, but not subject to the agendas of Bogotá or of corporate actors. For that, they understand internet social networks as a fundamental instrument for the dissemination of knowledge, high-level debate and the construction of relationships of solidarity and collaboration. Therefore, they are interested in participating in an informed and argued way in the local and regional public debate, without partisan interests, as citizens.
The movement was born in February 2020, from the interest in the analysis and understanding of the territorial dynamics of the municipalities of the Sabana de Bogotá, especially those that have metropolitan relations with the capital. In this process, they seek to position themselves as a representative actor, capable of qualifying the public debate and influencing the processes of public policy formulation related to different aspects in the region. Some examples were the technical suggestions in the process of creation of the Metropolitan Region, Bogotá Cundinamarca, the Multitemporal Study as a basis for discussion on the change of route of the trunk of the Andes on its site (https://rediaccion.wixsite.com/ rediaccion) and the dissemination of academic research for the general public on a YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCm-3sPqZYrzpjLIgbgpIEYA).
The actors involved have a strong interdisciplinary perspective of the humanities and natural sciences centralized in the city. Luz Marina Rincón is a sociologist and has a master’s degree in Regional Development Planning. She is interested in the analysis of the creation of the Bogotá – Cundinamarca Metropolitan Region and the territorial and environmental planning of Chía and the region, she is currently a member of the Chía Territorial Council (2008 – 2016). Javier Muñoz Reyes is an architect with a master’s degree in Urban Design, a master’s degree in Territorial Planning and Environmental Management. He has experience in Design, Consultant of urban projects, Advisor in projects of Land Management. Giselle Andrea Osorio Ardila is an anthropologist, doctor in urban and regional planning. Johanna González Calderón is an environmental administrator, audiovisual and plastic artist, and farmer, with experience in participatory ecological restoration, environmental education, processes of social appropriation of strategic ecosystems and socio-environmental research. Sergio Burgos is an environmental engineer with a master’s degree in Regional Urban Planning. Iris Laverde Bohórquez is an environmental administrator and a master’s student in Environment and Development. Nixon Eduardo Mora Caicedo is an admirer and caregiver of nature, and a student at the University of Cundinamarca. Ana Milena Sastoque Herrera is a sociologist, interested in rural, labor, environment and gender issues, and is doing her master’s degree in Environment and Development.
While Rediacción’s work is bearing fruit, its ideas, resolutions and proposals are held back by social groups with conflicting interests. The greatest difficulty experienced is the reluctance of decision makers to effectively incorporate contributions and suggestions into public policies and planning instruments.
Still, they realize that their actions can be replicable in other contexts. According to Giselle Osorio: “It is replicable because we act within the framework of national norms for citizen participation, using the tools they provide us with. Our group is made up of professionals who contribute to common objectives from their fields of knowledge, so similar initiatives can arise anywhere there is a will”.
In the short-medium term, Rediacción plans to have its actions in projects and documents such as the Organic Law of the Bogotá-Cundinamarca Metropolitan Region; the Formulation of Municipal Land Use Plans; the creation and consolidation of a green belt to contain the Bogotá-Sabana conurbation; future actions for the ecological restoration of the Bogotá River ring road; and the constitution of a Natural Reserve for civil society in the Los Andes wetland.