The Kankuamo Indigenous Reserve Expansion in Colombia Promotes Community Resilience and Healing

The Andes Amazon Fund celebrates the official expansion of the Kankuamo Indigenous Reserve in the municipality of Valledupar in Colombia’s department of Cesar. Nestled in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountains, the newly expanded reserve will protect ecologically significant landscapes and reinforce the territorial integrity of the Kankuamo Indigenous People. The Kankuamo Indigenous community is one of the four ethnic groups historically settled in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, alongside the Kogui, Wiwa, and the Arhuaco peoples. 

The Reserve was created in 2003 and was formally expanded on September 16th, 2022, adding 5,173 acres. The expansion will benefit over 12,500 Kankuamo Indigenous Peoples who reside in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountains. 

In early November 2022, the Andes Amazon Fund joined our partners at the Amazon Conservation Team for an event in the municipality of Valledupar. At the event, the National Land Agency of Colombia officially delivered the title of the expansion to the Kankuamo Peoples. Now encompassing 61,000 acres (24,686 hectares), the reserve is deeply tied to the restoration of the Kankuamo community and identity.

Healing a Territory Fractured by Conflict

The Kankuamo people were historically silenced and marginalized, and saw their territories fractured during the era of conflict in Colombia. Today, the Kankuamo people seek to revitalize their Indigenous identity through the restoration of their culture, and the recovery of their territory. Their ties with the other three Indigenous groups of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta have also provided strength over the years. As an example, the Kogui Malayo Arhuaco people are now assisting the Kankuamos to identify sacred and important sites within their recovered territory, which will aid them in the management of the reserve. 

“For us, our Kankuamo Indigenous Reserve’s territorial expansion is a great achievement, particularly regarding the territorial and cultural reclamation that we are engaged in as peoples of the Sierra. Perhaps because of everything that we have historically had to live through, this step, even though it seems small, is big. This is what we seek every day, to strengthen who we are as Kankuamos—a people who have been invaded, but never conquered.”

Jaime Luis Arias, Kankuamo Governor

Acknowledgments

This victory for the Kankuamo people was achieved thanks to years of work on behalf of the Kankuamo Indigenous Community and the Amazon Conservation Team, in collaboration with the National Land Agency of Colombia.