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WORKING PAPER

This study examines the challenges of standardizing participatory mapping methods across culturally diverse water-scarce communities in Colombia. While the framework effectively captures local spatial knowledge, tensions emerge between maintaining cultural sensitivity and ensuring analytical comparability. The research reveals key difficulties in translating (non)indigenous spatial meanings into a commodity and market economy, highlighting the complex relationship between traditional ecological knowledge and formal water management systems. The findings inform theoretical debates about standardized research protocols in cross-cultural geographical research and their environmental policy implications for water governance in rural communities.

Keywords: participatory mapping, water scarcity, groundwater, rural communities, climate change, Colombia, Wayuu people. 

Territorial perspectives on water scarcity: a standardized participatory mapping framework in Colombian rural geographies (Revised and resubmitted)

1

This study situates water at the intersection of agrarian expansion, institutional development, and environmental transformation in Colombia. By focusing on the coffee sector, it builds on the centrality of export-oriented agriculture in shaping territorial, infrastructural, and institutional trajectories (Ocampo & Romero Baquero, 2024; Palacios, 1980). Coffee has long been understood not only as an economic driver but also as a catalyst for the formation of a national identity and a tool of rural integration. However, less attention has been given to the material conditions that sustained this expansion, particularly the role of water as both an economic and environmental asset with socio-political implications. This paper conceptualizes water not as a passive element to agricultural growth, but as an asset whose availability (or lack thereof), control, and meaning are shaped through conflict, negotiation, and institutional design (Boelens, 2014; Swyngedouw, 2009).
 
Within this framework, water emerges as a lens through which to examine how economic sectors mobilize state capacity and scientific authority to sustain growth under environmental constraints. Historical episodes of drought, particularly those linked to El Niño events during the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s (Figure 1), exposed the limits of Colombia’s rural water infrastructure and forced coffee producers to adapt their practices. Yet these adaptations were not only technical; they were political and institutional, revealing how water governance is formed and shaped by broader questions of rural inequality, territorial development, and ecological risk.

Keywords: droughts, coffee frontier, governance, adaptations, historical narrative, Colombia 

The Water and Coffee Paradox: Rethinking Environmental and Agrarian Change under Drought in Colombia, 1970–1997 (Revised and resubmitted)

2

Regenerative agriculture and agroecology are gaining traction as transformative approaches to address the polycrises of food security, biodiversity loss, and climate change. Yet little is known about how these approaches emerge and scale in peripheral, indigenous contexts where traditional, local indigenous knowledges and ways of knowledge are combined with scientific knowledge. This paper examines the role of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in enabling regenerative agriculture and water governance among Wayúu communities in La Guajira, Colombia. Drawing on 95 surveys, field observations, and 23 in-depth interviews with community members, stakeholders, and experts, the analysis shows that transitions in these communities rely on the recombination of diverse knowledge forms — ancestral practices, intergenerational and gendered knowledges, scientific agronomy, engineering, and climate information. FAO has acted as a key intermediary, facilitating access to water infrastructure, capacity building, and agroecological training, while also providing a platform for the co-production of knowledge. However, challenges remain regarding the selective alignment of external interventions with Indigenous knowledge systems: while technical and agronomic knowledge was genuinely co-produced, bio-indicators, medicinal ecologies, and cosmological water and land governance remained peripheral to the intervention. The findings contribute to ongoing debates about the transformative potential of regenerative agriculture, the challenges of knowledge integration in Indigenous contexts, and the role of relational values in enabling genuine agroecological transitions.

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Keywords: Epistemic justice; Regenerative agriculture; Indigenous knowledge; Water governance; International organizations; Colombia

Epistemic justice or epistemic appropiations? FAO´s role in knowledge co-production for regenerative agriculture and water governance among Wayúu communities in Colombia, submitted to Agricultural and Human Values (Under review)

3

The paper explores how Indigenous, Black, and Campesinas women in the Colombian Caribbean transform everyday practices of care into socio-environmental leadership and territorial defence. Based on oral histories collected through collaborative research on water governance and climate change, we examine how emotions and ecological knowledge converge in defending land, water, and collective well-being. Across La Guajira, Bolívar, and Sucre, women’s initiatives show that care can function as a political practice sustaining communities amid climate vulnerability and extractive pressures. Using feminist oral history and Feminist Political Ecology, our analysis situates these narratives within broader histories of exclusion and environmental transformation. The stories show that women’s socio-ecological leadership is not an extension of institutional power, but a relational practice rooted in care, reciprocity, and strength, redefining environmental governance from the bottom up.

  

Keywords: Environmental Governance; Women’s Leadership; Colombian Caribbean; Territorial Défense; Relations of Care; Climate Change Adaptation.

Gendered Histories from the Colombian Caribbean: Water Carriers, Forest Guardians, and Environmental Leadership (Accepted for publication)

4

Due to traumatic rural displacement, the Montes de María tropical dry forest in Colombia underwent a regeneration cycle during decades of armed conflict, only to experience marked degradation following post-conflict resettlement. This study quantifies the spatially varying drivers of this reversal by integrating dasymetric population grids (2005–2018), ERA5-derived rainfall anomalies (2003–2023), and harmonized Landsat Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) trajectories (2003–2024) across 26 municipalities in a Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR) framework. Demographic pressure dominates EVI decline in lowland resettlement corridors, where human return drives fragmentation and land-use intensification. In contrast, rainfall deficits exert primary control in the mountainous core, exacerbating seasonal aridity. Anomalous regrowth clusters emerge in areas depopulated during peak conflict, consistent with potential landscape-memory effects –though not causally demonstrated– where historical abandonment has fostered enduring resilience. A parsimonious three-variable model effectively delineates socio-ecological vulnerability hotspots and spatial regimes, offering an evidence-based foundation for targeted conservation interventions and bridging qualitative political ecology with quantitative biophysical analysis. These findings underscore the pervasive spatial non-stationarity of socio-ecological dynamics in fragile landscapes –where global models fail and local contexts prevail– highlighting how historical legacies (such as conflict-induced landscape memory) interact with contemporary pressures to produce heterogeneous vulnerability patterns.


Keywords: Tropical dry forest, Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR), Socio-ecological dynamics, Dasymetric mapping, Colombia, Spatio-temporal analysis

Landscape Memory in the Shadow of Conflict: Geographically Weighted Insights into Vulnerability Hotspots in Montes de María Dry Forests (Under review)

5

Groundwater aquifers host highly specialised microbial communities that play a critical role in biogeochemical cycles of water purification. However, overexploitation and anthropogenic pollution increasingly threaten the biodiversity of these unique ecosystems. This study assesses the structural diversity of microbial assemblies within the Morroa Aquifer (Colombia), a severely stressed groundwater ecosystem that provides hydric resources to over a million of residents in a region containing remnants of an endangered dry tropical forest. Using genetic data obtained through environmental DNA (eDNA) combined with Hierarchical Modelling of Species Communities (HMSC), we modelled microbial occurrences across groundwater and human disturbance gradients. The joint species distribution model demonstrated high predictive performance of site-level species richness. Controlling for well depth, overall microbial richness declined along the human disturbance axis by over half of the species richness from 94.5 to 43.6 taxa. These findings reveal that anthropogenic activities are driving severe biodiversity loss and ecological homogenization of the Morroa aquifer. Integrating eDNA-based biomonitoring into groundwater governance is urgently required to prevent the permanent collapse of vital ecosystem services.

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Keywords: microbial ecology, eDNA, groundwater biodiversity, Hierarchical Modelling

Assessing microbial groundwater biodiversity: unknown ecosystem services reflecting the impact of human disturbance in water-scarce areas. (In progress)

6

Voting on Water distribution rights under water scarcity: experimental evidence, to be presented at ESA African Meetings in June 15, 2026 (In progress)

This study investigates how scarcity and the source of inequality affect collective choices over water allocation rules. We conduct a lab-in-the-field experiment in Indigenous communities in La Guajira, Colombia, where participants vote over alternative rules for allocating water. Across four scenarios, we vary individual water endowments, water needs, and overall water availability and, between treatments, whether individual characteristics are observable. We find a strong shift in preferences: while participants initially favor egalitarian allocation, support for equality declines sharply under scarcity, with many switching to needs-based allocation. This shift depends on the source of inequality. When differences reflect endowments, participants maintain support for equality; when they reflect needs, support for unequal, needs-based allocations increases. Observability has limited effects, consistent with survey evidence that water use is already highly visible and equal sharing norms are deeply rooted in these communities. Our findings highlight how scarcity and the source of inequality shape context-dependent social norms over resource allocation.

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Keywords: Cooperation, social norms, voting, resource allocation, water scarcity, lab-in-the-field experiment

7

Water scarcity is an increasing challenge for rural communities across Latin America and the Caribbean, driven by climate change, environmental degradation, and social inequality. This systematic literature review examines 212 peer-reviewed social science articles published between 2015 and 2025, classifying responses into four categories: institutional, behavioral, technological, and ecosystem-based. Institutional responses dominate the literature, while ecosystem-based approaches remain underrepresented. The review finds that effective responses are rarely achieved through a single intervention; rather, success depends on the interaction of governance arrangements, technological solutions, and community participation. Major barriers include fragmented institutions, unequal access to resources, and weak coordination across governance levels. The review also identifies significant research gaps, particularly regarding behavioral dynamics, ecosystem-based strategies, and the long-term social impacts of water scarcity. The findings highlight the need for adaptive and inclusive water governance that combines local knowledge, institutional support, and equitable access to resources.


Keywords: Water scarcity; Water governance; Climate adaptation; Rural communities; Latin America and the Caribbean; Community-based management.

A systematic literature review of responses to water scarcity in rural Latin America and the Caribbean (In progress)

8

Colombia holds roughly 5% of the world’s freshwater, yet large inequalities in access to safe drinking water persist alongside uneven progress in neonatal survival. We examine how household water sources and environmental water quality relate to early neonatal mortality (ENM) and low birth weight (LBW), situating results within a “socio-ecological trap” framework. Linking Demographic and Health Surveys (2005, 2010, 2015) with national water-quality monitoring at the hydrographic subzone level, we analyze geographic disparities and multilevel variance. We ask whether drinking-water source affects birth outcomes; whether risks differ across unimproved sources; and how spatial variation in surface-water quality correlates with neonatal outcomes. We find that unimproved household water sources are associated with a 22% higher risk of ENM relative to improved sources, with unprotected wells posing greater risk than surface water. No significant association emerges between drinking-water source and LBW. Spatial mapping reveals marked heterogeneity in ENM and LBW across watersheds. Multilevel models indicate that ~30% of ENM variance and ~44% of LBW variance lie at the DHS-cluster level, underscoring the importance of local conditions beyond regional averages. These findings suggest that reducing preventable neonatal deaths in Colombia requires coupling clinical interventions with universal access to safe water and targeted strategies to break socio-ecological traps—where abundant water coexists with unsafe access, fragile infrastructure, and weak surveillance. 

  

Keywords: drinking water quality, early neonatal mortality, low birth weight, socio-ecological traps, Colombia. 

How water quality can affect pregnancy outcomes in Colombia (2000-2015)

9

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BOOK: Alternatives Pathways towards Ancestral Water Governance in the Colombian Caribbean: “Pacto por la Yanama” – Intercultural dialogue for sustainable and human development

The Colombian Caribbean, especially La Guajira, faces critical climate challenges such as extreme heat, droughts, and water scarcity, which affect water, social, health, and food security. The Wayúu people experience these conditions amid socioeconomic inequalities, lack of resources, health risks, and restricted mobility.

 

The book emphasizes that the Wayúu territory transcends geography: it is body, memory, and spirituality. The Guajira Ecoregion is sustained by its own sociopolitical and cultural system, where water is conceived as a common, spiritual, and collective good. However, this recognition has come late, and intercultural dialogue has been marked by the supremacy of scientific and technocratic perspectives. The work proposes creating a meeting space that balances different forms of knowledge and recognizes water as a shared source of life. 

  • Territorial perspectives on water scarcity: a standardized participatory mapping framework in Colombian rural geographies

    This study examines the challenges of standardizing participatory mapping methods across culturally diverse water-scarce communities in Colombia. While the framework effectively captures local spatial knowledge, tensions emerge between maintaining cultural sensitivity and ensuring analytical comparability. The research reveals key difficulties in translating (non)indigenous spatial meanings into a commodity and market economy, highlighting the complex relationship between traditional ecological knowledge and formal water management systems. The findings inform theoretical debates about standardized research? protocols in cross-cultural geographical research and their environmental policy implications for water governance in rural communities. 

    Keywords: participatory mapping, water scarcity, groundwater, rural communities, climate change, Colombia, Wayuu people. 

  • Supporting Indigenous Climate Adaptation: FAO’s Impact on Regenerative Agriculture and Water Governance Practices in Colombian Caribbean Communities 

    Accelerating climate change and biodiversity loss requires radical, systemic change—especially in peripheral regions of the Global South where food and water insecurity are acute. While “regenerative” community transformations are increasingly cited as pathways to resilience, how such innovations emerge, evolve, and scale in indigenous contexts remains largely undocumented. This paper examines the role of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in enabling regenerative agriculture and water governance among Wayúu communities on Colombia’s Caribbean coast. Building on long-standing Indigenous practices—communal wells, community gardens, organic production—we investigate how FAO’s scientific and engineering inputs interface with place-based knowledge under intensifying drought, falling rainfall, and rising evaporation. Using comparative evidence from four communities in La Guajira (two with FAO support, two without), we assess differences in crop diversity, cultivated area, and drought resilience. Data derive from a scoping visit (March 2024) and fieldwork (August 2024) combining surveys, in-depth interviews, and participant observation. Framing regenerative agriculture as both process and outcomes, we analyze how external support reshapes knowledge networks, governance arrangements, and ecosystem services. La Guajira’s extreme aridity offers a sentinel case for future conditions elsewhere; our findings contribute empirical insight into the co-production of regenerative innovations and inform scalable models for water security and food sovereignty in indigenous communities. 

    ​

    Keywords: aquifers, stygofauna, rural communities, climate change, qualitative interviews and surveys, Sucre - Colombia,  

  • Assessing groundwater biodiversity: unknown ecosystem services with the potential to reflect the impact of different agricultural practices in water-scarce areas 

    Aquifers sustain drinking water supplies, agriculture, industry, and diverse groundwater‐dependent biota, yet their biodiversity and ecosystem services remain poorly documented, particularly in dry tropical regions. This study assesses groundwater biodiversity (stygofauna) in the Morroa aquifer (Sucre, northern Colombia) to evaluate how land use and water quality relate to community composition and function. We sampled 28 wells and piezometers (Oct–Nov 2024), combining traditional net collections with environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding (COI and 16S markers) to build the first regional genomic reference for stygofauna. Field protocols included on-site measurements (pH 6–8.7, conductivity 391–1320 µS cm⁻¹, dissolved oxygen 2.9–7.75 mg L⁻¹) and standardized filtering/ethanol preservation; sequencing libraries were prepared with dual-indexed amplicons and Illumina paired-end runs, followed by quality filtering, OTU delineation, and taxonomic assignment against public databases. We will integrate eDNA read abundances and morphological records to test relationships between assemblages and local land use (agricultural vs. residential) using joint species distribution models (Hmsc) and ordination (PCA). Preliminary inventories include nematodes, mites, insects (e.g., Coleoptera, Diptera), and other invertebrates, indicating detectable variation among sites and land-use contexts. By coupling eDNA with conventional sampling, this work (i) delivers a baseline of groundwater biodiversity for a water-scarce Colombian aquifer, (ii) proposes stygofaunal metrics as indicators of ecosystem integrity under agricultural pressures, and (iii) provides a practical framework for monitoring aquifer health where access is difficult and taxonomic resources are limited. Findings aim to inform groundwater governance and conservation in data-poor, drought-prone landscapes.

    ​

    Keywords: aquifers, stygofauna, environmental DNA, rural communities, climate change, Sucre - Colombia, 

  • The Water and Coffee Paradox: Rethinking Environmental and Agrarian Change under Drought in Colombia, 1970–1997 

    This study situates water at the intersection of agrarian expansion, institutional development, and environmental transformation in Colombia. By focusing on the coffee sector, it builds on the centrality of export-oriented agriculture in shaping territorial, infrastructural, and institutional trajectories (Ocampo & Romero Baquero, 2024; Palacios, 1980). Coffee has long been understood not only as an economic driver but also as a catalyst for the formation of a national identity and a tool of rural integration. However, less attention has been given to the material conditions that sustained this expansion, particularly the role of water as both an economic and environmental asset with socio-political implications. This paper conceptualizes water not as a passive element to agricultural growth, but as an asset whose availability (or lack thereof), control, and meaning are shaped through conflict, negotiation, and institutional design (Boelens, 2014; Swyngedouw, 2009).

    ​

    Within this framework, water emerges as a lens through which to examine how economic sectors mobilize state capacity and scientific authority to sustain growth under environmental constraints. Historical episodes of drought, particularly those linked to El Niño events during the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s (Figure 1), exposed the limits of Colombia’s rural water infrastructure and forced coffee producers to adapt their practices. Yet these adaptations were not only technical; they were political and institutional, revealing how water governance is formed and shaped by broader questions of rural inequality, territorial development, and ecological risk.

    ​

    Keywords: droughts, coffee frontier, governance, adaptations, historical narrative, Colombia 

  • Anthropocene Signatures in Caribbean Colombia’s Dry Forests: A Landsat-Based Socio-Ecological History of Climate Vulnerability (1972-2025)

    The change in Colombian Caribbean dry forests, vital ecosystems for rural economies and livelihoods, has remained largely unexplored in its historical dimension. These forests serve as cornerstones of local economies, providing essential resources through timber and non-timber forest products, supporting agricultural and pastoral practices via water regulation and soil protection, harboring unique biodiversity, offering alternative income through rural tourism and NTFP harvesting, and enhancing community climate resilience. This research fills a critical knowledge gap by analyzing half a century of socio-ecological transformations (1972-2024) in these vital ecosystems, leveraging the complete Landsat image time series – from MSS to OLI. 
    Exploiting the progressive enhancement of Landsat sensor capabilities, we reconstruct a detailed socio-ecological history of how forest dynamics have become intertwined with climate-sensitive regional economies. Our analysis reveals that forest cover decreases, quantified using multi-temporal spectral indices, correlates significantly with phases of economic intensification, particularly the expansion of agricultural frontiers and other land-use change drivers. Furthermore, we demonstrate how changes in the dry forest, detectable from satellite, serve as an early indicator of variations in water resource availability – crucial for subsistence agriculture and ecosystem-dependent rural communities. 
    These results offer novel perspectives on the complex interplay between historical economic drivers, environmental vulnerability, and water resource management in drought-prone Caribbean landscapes, providing essential insights for climate adaptation policies and sustainable land management.

    ​

    Keywords: environmental history, dry forests, land use change, Landsat, time series analysis 

  • How water quality can affect pregnancy outcomes in Colombia (2000-2015) 

    Colombia holds roughly 5% of the world’s freshwater, yet large inequalities in access to safe drinking water persist alongside uneven progress in neonatal survival. We examine how household water sources and environmental water quality relate to early neonatal mortality (ENM) and low birth weight (LBW), situating results within a “socio-ecological trap” framework. Linking Demographic and Health Surveys (2005, 2010, 2015) with national water-quality monitoring at the hydrographic subzone level, we analyze geographic disparities and multilevel variance. We ask whether drinking-water source affects birth outcomes; whether risks differ across unimproved sources; and how spatial variation in surface-water quality correlates with neonatal outcomes. We find that unimproved household water sources are associated with a 22% higher risk of ENM relative to improved sources, with unprotected wells posing greater risk than surface water. No significant association emerges between drinking-water source and LBW. Spatial mapping reveals marked heterogeneity in ENM and LBW across watersheds. Multilevel models indicate that ~30% of ENM variance and ~44% of LBW variance lie at the DHS-cluster level, underscoring the importance of local conditions beyond regional averages. These findings suggest that reducing preventable neonatal deaths in Colombia requires coupling clinical interventions with universal access to safe water and targeted strategies to break socio-ecological traps—where abundant water coexists with unsafe access, fragile infrastructure, and weak surveillance. 

      

    Keywords: drinking water quality, early neonatal mortality, low birth weight, socio-ecological traps, Colombia. 

  • Gendered Histories from the Colombian Caribbean: Water Carriers, Forest Guardians, and Environmental Leadership

    The paper explores how Indigenous, Black, and Campesinas women in the Colombian Caribbean transform everyday practices of care into socio-environmental leadership and territorial defence. Based on oral histories collected through collaborative research on water governance and climate change, we examine how emotions and ecological knowledge converge in defending land, water, and collective well-being. Across La Guajira, Bolívar, and Sucre, women’s initiatives show that care can function as a political practice sustaining communities amid climate vulnerability and extractive pressures. Using feminist oral history and Feminist Political Ecology, our analysis situates these narratives within broader histories of exclusion and environmental transformation. The stories show that women’s socio-ecological leadership is not an extension of institutional power, but a relational practice rooted in care, reciprocity, and strength, redefining environmental governance from the bottom up.

      

    Keywords: Environmental Governance; Women’s Leadership; Colombian Caribbean; Territorial Défense; Relations of Care; Climate Change Adaptation.

  • Alternatives Pathways towards Ancestral Water Governance in the Colombian Caribbean: “Pacto por la Yanama” – Intercultural dialogue for sustainable and human development 

    The Colombian Caribbean, especially La Guajira, faces critical climate challenges such as extreme heat, droughts, and water scarcity, which affect water, social, health, and food security. The Wayúu people experience these conditions amid socioeconomic inequalities, lack of resources, health risks, and restricted mobility. The book emphasizes that the Wayúu territory transcends geography: it is body, memory, and spirituality. The Guajira Ecoregion is sustained by its own sociopolitical and cultural system, where water is conceived as a common, spiritual, and collective good. However, this recognition has come late, and intercultural dialogue has been marked by the supremacy of scientific and technocratic perspectives. The work proposes creating a meeting space that balances different forms of knowledge and recognizes water as a shared source of life. 

Project deliverables

  • Survey and interview data from study sites

  • Social cartography (maps)

  • Traditional and oral history

  • Educational material

  • Workshop reports

  • Economic experiments

  • Policy impact models

  • Communication plan 

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