Colombia River Stories:improving socio-environmental understandings for building sustainable peace
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Glasgow
Department Name: School of Social & Political Sciences
Abstract
Colombia is in the process of transitioning from one of the most protracted civil conflicts in the world to peace. However, one of the major societal issues for post-conflict transitions in Colombia is how to ensure the inclusion and participation of vulnerable and marginalised groups in transition processes so that their knowledges, abilities and capacities are represented, and so that they can influence post-conflict development. This raises questions of how innovative community- engaged and participatory processes can achieve greater inclusivity in peace building processes. It also raises the question of how different conflict actors can be encouraged and facilitated to articulate their knowledge and experience of conflict in ways that enable their actions to be explained to one another, and that support a shift from narrow understandings of the causes of conflict based on personal experience to more expansive understandings that are based on collective experiences.
In this research, we focus on riverine communities along the Atrato River - the main artery of Choco. These communities have been deeply impacted by armed actors who are engaged in widespread, illegal alluvial gold mining which is a key factor in their forced displacement and the loss of traditional, sustainable livelihoods. Despite a 2017 Colombian Constitutional Court ruling to empower riverine communities with 'bio-cultural rights' that protect their land title and livelihoods, they remain marginalised. They struggle to make their voices heard and to influence and inform peace building processes. This marginalisation has also been experienced by the river itself, whose voice has been silenced through the abandonment of state-sponsored environmental monitoring programmes at the height of the conflict. As a result, the effects of conflict and alluvial mining on the form and function of the river, and the impacts of these on interactions between armed actors, the river, and the communities it sustains are poorly understood. This will only be addressed if marginalised voices of communities and the river are articulated and amplified so that their knowledges, abilities and capacities can be integrated into sustainable peace building processes. Achieving this is the primary aim of this project.
Conceptually, our project builds on a key emphasis of peace processes worldwide: the capture and re-telling of testimony so that conflict actors can better appreciate the complexities of the conflict in which they are engaged, and the inter-relationships and feedbacks between their actions, and those of others, which fuel the conflict. Such knowledge is a fundamental precursor to the development of sustainable and feasible strategies for peace. The project is structured and designed to elicit, analyse and co-produce testimonies as an integrated 'river story', sourced from multiple participants and perspectives - including marginalised human actors and the river itself. The project therefore uses an innovative and multi- disciplinary methodology that brings social scientists and natural scientists together - integrating their research methods and techniques to capture human stories through community-level, participatory research and the river's story through field- based scientific monitoring and environmental reconstruction and mapping. The story books that are produced, and the policy briefs that they underpin, will be the vehicles through which policy-makers are bought into dialogue with the marginalised voices of both riverine communities and the river itself, and thorough which they improved understandings of the key actors and drivers of conflict in Choco' and the priorities and strategies for sustainable peace building, will be gained.
In this research, we focus on riverine communities along the Atrato River - the main artery of Choco. These communities have been deeply impacted by armed actors who are engaged in widespread, illegal alluvial gold mining which is a key factor in their forced displacement and the loss of traditional, sustainable livelihoods. Despite a 2017 Colombian Constitutional Court ruling to empower riverine communities with 'bio-cultural rights' that protect their land title and livelihoods, they remain marginalised. They struggle to make their voices heard and to influence and inform peace building processes. This marginalisation has also been experienced by the river itself, whose voice has been silenced through the abandonment of state-sponsored environmental monitoring programmes at the height of the conflict. As a result, the effects of conflict and alluvial mining on the form and function of the river, and the impacts of these on interactions between armed actors, the river, and the communities it sustains are poorly understood. This will only be addressed if marginalised voices of communities and the river are articulated and amplified so that their knowledges, abilities and capacities can be integrated into sustainable peace building processes. Achieving this is the primary aim of this project.
Conceptually, our project builds on a key emphasis of peace processes worldwide: the capture and re-telling of testimony so that conflict actors can better appreciate the complexities of the conflict in which they are engaged, and the inter-relationships and feedbacks between their actions, and those of others, which fuel the conflict. Such knowledge is a fundamental precursor to the development of sustainable and feasible strategies for peace. The project is structured and designed to elicit, analyse and co-produce testimonies as an integrated 'river story', sourced from multiple participants and perspectives - including marginalised human actors and the river itself. The project therefore uses an innovative and multi- disciplinary methodology that brings social scientists and natural scientists together - integrating their research methods and techniques to capture human stories through community-level, participatory research and the river's story through field- based scientific monitoring and environmental reconstruction and mapping. The story books that are produced, and the policy briefs that they underpin, will be the vehicles through which policy-makers are bought into dialogue with the marginalised voices of both riverine communities and the river itself, and thorough which they improved understandings of the key actors and drivers of conflict in Choco' and the priorities and strategies for sustainable peace building, will be gained.
Planned Impact
The project will develop a series of 'River Stories' to exploit the timeliness of the Colombian Constitutional Court Ruling T- 622, which recognises the River Atrato as a bearer of rights and calls on both communities and the state to be its 'Guardians'. The ruling identifies the rights of communities to physical, cultural and spiritual survival, guaranteeing their traditional livelihoods. The ruling calls on the Colombian state to ensure the rights are enforced - and it demands that local people are empowered to manage their river properly and demand the proper implementing of the ruling. We will work with the Ministry for Environment and Development, international NGOs and specialist networks to improve the processes of sustainable peace building in Colombia, particularly with Afro-Colombian communities. Our impact strategy is directly informed through the co-produced priorities formulated through longstanding relationships with Colombian and UK partner organisations.
Our pilot research in Chocó in August 2017 highlighted that a key challenge facing riverine communities is the effect of non-regulated alluvial gold mining, which undermines both livelihoods and security. However communities face a lack of available, accessible and reliable data on how the socio-environment has been affected by alluvial gold mining and conflict. This research will inform their strategies to engage with state and international actors to push for the rehabilitation of their environment and the development of sustainable peace.
The project targets populations at local, regional, national and international level. By having communities and practitioners as partners, we also locate impact at the centre of the research model so that fresh understandings that are generated can be fed directly into, and influence, policy debates. Knowledge created by the research will have usable implications beyond the case study sites. Three main impact strategies will be developed:
1.Co-production with communities of a range of outputs targeted at different decision makers and available in different formats in order to democratise of the voices that are captured, shared, amplified and integrated during reconciliation and peace building processes.
2.Capacity Building: We will build capacity among community members alongside the Atrato River in environemtal monitoring technquies so that they can act as 'Guardians' of the river (as mandated in Court Ruling T-622) and thus ensure a more inclusive and sustainable transition to peace.
3.Communication of river stories, which has the dual purpose of raising awareness among different constituencies of the interconnected challenges to peace in Choco' with regard to the wider socio-environment and ensuring that the voices of Afro-Colombian communities in Choco' are included processes of sustainable peace building. Research outputs will inform communities' strategies to engage with state and international actors to push for the rehabilitation of their environment and the development of sustainable peace.
Our pilot research in Chocó in August 2017 highlighted that a key challenge facing riverine communities is the effect of non-regulated alluvial gold mining, which undermines both livelihoods and security. However communities face a lack of available, accessible and reliable data on how the socio-environment has been affected by alluvial gold mining and conflict. This research will inform their strategies to engage with state and international actors to push for the rehabilitation of their environment and the development of sustainable peace.
The project targets populations at local, regional, national and international level. By having communities and practitioners as partners, we also locate impact at the centre of the research model so that fresh understandings that are generated can be fed directly into, and influence, policy debates. Knowledge created by the research will have usable implications beyond the case study sites. Three main impact strategies will be developed:
1.Co-production with communities of a range of outputs targeted at different decision makers and available in different formats in order to democratise of the voices that are captured, shared, amplified and integrated during reconciliation and peace building processes.
2.Capacity Building: We will build capacity among community members alongside the Atrato River in environemtal monitoring technquies so that they can act as 'Guardians' of the river (as mandated in Court Ruling T-622) and thus ensure a more inclusive and sustainable transition to peace.
3.Communication of river stories, which has the dual purpose of raising awareness among different constituencies of the interconnected challenges to peace in Choco' with regard to the wider socio-environment and ensuring that the voices of Afro-Colombian communities in Choco' are included processes of sustainable peace building. Research outputs will inform communities' strategies to engage with state and international actors to push for the rehabilitation of their environment and the development of sustainable peace.
Organisations
- University of Glasgow (Lead Research Organisation)
- University of Cartagena (Collaboration)
- The Technical University Ibadan (Collaboration)
- AB Colombia (Project Partner)
- Ministry of Environment (Project Partner)
- Dail Eireann (Project Partner)
- Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund (Project Partner)
Publications
| Title | Faces of the Atrato/Rostros del Atrato |
| Description | A set of 15 mixed media portraits of River Guards (socio-environmental defenders) from Chocó Colombia, created by Glasgow based artist Jan Nimmo in collaboration with US photographer Steve Cagan. |
| Type Of Art | Artwork |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Impact | The work has just been completed and two exhibitions (in Colombia and Scotland) are planned for late 2022 |
| Title | Historias del Rio |
| Description | A song - Transcript, composition and video - to raise awareness about the effects of mechanised mining on the River Atrato |
| Type Of Art | Composition/Score |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Impact | 639 views on YouTube and used in workshops in riverine communities in Chocó. |
| URL | https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/socialpolitical/research/politics/projects/colombiariverstories/maps/ |
| Title | Rios Solidarios/Rivers in Solidarity |
| Description | The Ríos Solidarios project is for people from anywhere in the world to create artwork which sends messages of love and solidarity from their river to the communities of the Atrato river in Chocó, Colombia. The project aims to raise awareness of the socio-environmental devastation affecting the Atrato and the communities who live there. Through the creation of artworks, the project will forge and strengthen networks of solidarity, centred on an understanding of rivers as the lifeblood of communities across the globe. To raise awareness of rights granted by the Colombian Government in 2016 to the Atrato river in Chocó, Colombia and the situation facing its communities; To create solidarity between the Río Atrato and other river communities around the globe, highlighting the need for rivers and their communities live in peace and be free from conflict; To explore the fundamental importance of rivers to human survival; To illustrate both the diversity and the fragility of river ecology; and To raise awareness about conflict and our right to exist in peace. |
| Type Of Art | Artistic/Creative Exhibition |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Impact | Over 50 original artworks created to send messages of solidarity from rivers in Ireland, Mexico, UK and Switzerland to the Atrato, thus raising increased awareness of a. river rights and b. socio-environmental conflict in Colombia. Participation of two secondary schools in Glasgow and one HEI in Ireland. |
| URL | https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/socialpolitical/research/politics/projects/colombiariverstories/riosso... |
| Description | Our project directly addresses SDGs 6: Clean Water and Sanitation and 16: Peace and Justice Strong Institutions, through collaborative research in Chocó Colombia, the most ethnically diverse, poorest and affected by an ongoing humanitarian crisis due to the protracted armed conflict. Chocó is an area rich in biodiversity and mineral resources. Rivers play a central role in the culture, economy and social life of the people of Chocó. However, gold mining linked to the country's long-running internal conflict has caused devastating social and environmental damage along the river Atrato. Communities' success in securing that the Atrato gains legal recognition as a subject of rights (T-622) marked a significant step forward in socio-environmental protection. However, a major challenge to implementation has been the lack of robust scientific data on the state of the river. Our project sought to address these challenged and its key findings/activities are: 1. Multiple interviews and workshops with key stakeholders in policy communities in Colombia, as well as inhabitants of the two municipalities of Rio Quito and Medio Atrato, uncovered fresh insights into individual and community knowledges of the conflict ecosystem in Chocó over time and the changing meaning of the river for communities whose cultural identities and livelihoods are so connected to it. 2. All new mining areas have been mapped from satellite imagery for the period 2008 - 2019 - primarily from Sentinel 1 radar imagery that can penetrate cloud cover. Using satellite radar imagery from ESA's Sentinel-1a and Sentinel-1b satellites we can detect the locations of gold mining dredges, the associated areas of deforestation and excavation at weekly intervals. Analysis of changes in the location of the area-weighted centroids of the new mining areas through time identifies a clear pattern in the spatio-temporal dynamics of the mining. Their trajectories show mining originated in the upper catchment and moved progressively downstream over the analysis period. 3. New and context appropriate citizen science methodology generated community led data sets to monitor river health. Our partner, Diocese of Quibdó - Pastoral Social, ensures sustainability by embedding in its public health programme. This builds capacity among riverine communities in recognising how different elements of river health are linked (using the model of a functional pyramid) as well as providing clear tools on monitoring river health and environmental change. We have trained volunteers in river monitoring techniques. Training materials (manual and videos) are available to all participants (and online) and have been adapted for use by World Wildlife Fund in their work in Chocó. 4. Mining has had a dramatic impact on the form of river channels in mining related areas and suspended sediment constitutes a major pollutant (deeper research needed). The relationship between the river and its flood plain has been fundamental changed and disconnected. Comparative analysis of the Rio Quito channel pre mining (circa 1980) and post mining shows a fundamental change in the character of the channel. The pre-disturbance, single-thread meandering channel has been replaced by a multi-thread channel in all reaches of the 90km-long main channel. Connected channel lengths have increased by more than 2.5 times in the most disturbed reaches with in excess of 2 channel bifurcations per km of channel observed. This increases vulnerability of communities to flooding (and drought). Together these different data sources were cross analysed and validated within communities. We have shared data (including a substantial technical report) with key stakeholders in Colombia, including relevant government departments such as Ministry of Environment and Human Rights Ombudsman, as well as communities, River Guardians and advocacy organisations who have used this to draw attention to the humanitarian and human rights crisis in Chocó and in their advocacy work. |
| Exploitation Route | A key impetus for this research is to co-produce accessible data for communities to advocate for the rights of their river. To this end: 1. CARITAS declared the Atrato an emblematic case for their Colombia Working Group (04/2019-2021). Partners Caritas Colombia, SCIAF and ABColombia are using our research findings in their advocacy programmes. They are developing education and awareness building initiatives (to which we contributed through our citizen science component) and developing international awareness raising activities around the specific case of the Atrato River. We provided both overview reports and video testimonies to advocacy teams. 2. We secured funding for a River Guardians' delegation to Europe: we organised workshops in Glasgow and Nottingham, and meetings at the UK, Scottish and EU parliaments, with key governmental and civil society bodies to raise awareness of and advocate for the implementation of T-622 and the on-going Humanitarian crisis in Chocó. 3. We met, provided advice and shared data with the Colombian Ministry of Environment (feeding into the development of a River Restoration Action Plan). We developed a technical report on the Atrato Subcatchment Sediment Load Estimation & analysis of mining impacts on the planform of the Rio Quito which quantifies the ways and extent to which alluvial gold mining in the Chocó has impacted the geomorphological form and function of the rivers in which it occurs. It specifically focusses on the assessment of mining impacts on: total river sediment loads; river suspended sediment concentration and turbidity; river channel planform. The results presented contribute to the wider project objective of understanding the ways in which mining-driven changes to river form and function intersect with, and influence, the socio-economic, social-political, and socio-cultural systems that drive alluvial gold mining and conflict in the Chocó. 4. We met and shared data with the Environmental Ombudsman in Colombia and now sit on the Expert Committee to advise the organisations charged with implementing T-622, including a substantial technical report on damages and changes to the river and a data base of maps of illegal mining in the river from 1994-2020. The satellite images archive consists of temporal satellite images between 1994- 2020 that were pre-processed and processed in order to highlight changes that were observed along the river bank due to anthropogenic action. A temporal change detection analysis has been evaluated by highlighting the observed changes through time. 5. We provided evidence to an official hearing of the court-mandated follow up committee for Acción Popular de Río Quito No. 25-000-23-24-000-2011-00655-01 to trace the socio-environemntal impact of mining on the River Quito, drawing together social science and natural science data from the project. 6. We secured additional funding to work with our partners the Diocese of Quibdó in their response to the covid 19 pandemic, and to strengthen their early warning infrastructure (GOAL 3: Good Health and Well-being) 7. We hosted an event at the University of Glasgow during Cop26 to highlight the intersections between climate crisis, conflict and covid 19, using the Atrato as an emblematic case (Goal 13: Climate Action) 8. We developed 2 art projects. Firstly a participatory project, Rios Solidarios/Rivers in Solidarity to develop connections between different rivers and to draw attention the the Rio Atrato through art and secondly a series of artworks by Glasgow based artist, Jan Nimmo, in collaboration with US based photographer, Steve Cagan, to document activism and change along the River Atrato through mixed media digital portraits of river guardians. Interactive exhibitions were held in Scotland and Colombia. |
| Sectors | Communities and Social Services/Policy Environment Government Democracy and Justice Security and Diplomacy |
| URL | http://www.colombiariverstories.com |
| Description | Our impact strategy is directly informed through our relationships with Colombian and UK partner organisations and addresses SDGs 6 and 16 in a direct way. The pandemic meant that partners were unable to travel, so we shifted a lot of our activities online and Colombian partners took a more active lead in local level dissemination and communications. This led to changes in what we had originally planned in terms of our outputs. Raising awareness and capacity at a community level: In January 2019, we facilitated a number of workshops in Chocó to develop our citizen science programme with communities along the Atrato River. The research team trained volunteer community members in basic techniques to monitor river health in two municipalities and have been successful in collecting weekly data since April 2019. In Rio Quito, the newly trained team tested drinking water samples for the presence of coliform bacteria, presented findings to the community and were able to offer guidance on boiling water etc. This element of our research has been embedded into the public health programme of the local Pastoral Social (Caritas Colombia). In addition to workshops in communities, an online video training course and written training manual in Spanish have been developed and are publicly available on the project website and YouTube. We have held a series of engagement meetings with WWF Colombia and delivered a training workshop with WWF on 4 August 2021. They have accessed our open source training materials and are using them as a basis for their own citizen science programme. When the pandemic made us cancel our final trips to Colombia to communicate the research to local stakeholders, we formally strengthened our existing partnership with Diocese of Quibdó -Pastoral Social who took the lead on dissemination and communication. This involved a radical rethink of our planned 'story book' and instead, the communications strategy revolved around song, an educational game (cards) and radio programmes, which were shared through social media. These are available as open source materials on You Tube. Raising awareness at a national (Colombia) level: We continue to develop our relationships with national and international organisations to feed into advocacy to demand the implementation of Constitutional Court Ruling T-622. Members of the research team have held a number of targeted knowledge exchange meetings with both governmental and non-governmental organisations in Colombia. We have formally fed into the implementation of the Ruling T-622 through our assessment of the baseline study and the review of the River Restoration Action Plan and revisions were made in response to our recommendations. The team participated in meetings and workshops organised with key Colombian governmental bodies including the Ministry of Environment and the Human Rights Ombudsman, as well as NGOs such as Siembra and WWF. Knowledge exchange meetings were held with officials developing responses to Court Ruling T-622. Raising awareness at an international (Europe) level: We developed a series of targeted advocacy activities to inform, support, and increase the impact of actions coordinated by the CARITAS network (Colombia Working Group) and local river guardians in support of the River Atrato as an emblematic case. In October 2019, we organised workshops in Glasgow and Nottingham, and meetings at the UK, Scottish and EU parliaments. We met key governmental and civil society bodies in London, Brussels and Paris to raise awareness of and advocate for the implementation of T-622 and the on-going Humanitarian crisis in Chocó. The Minister for Equalities and Older People cited our research in the debate on international Human Rights day at the Scottish Parliament. Together with partners ABColombia and SCIAF, we hosted socio-environmental/human rights defenders from Colombia at Cop 26 and organised a workshop at the University of Glasgow, RIVERS OF PEACE: THE RIGHTS OF NATURE, BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION AND PEACEBUILDING IN CHOCÓ, COLOMBIA. Two interactive art exhibitions were held at the University of Glasgow in 2022, as well as an ongoing virtual exhibition, to raise awareness and send solidarity to Colombia. To date, over 50 original artworks have been made. Although no gender statement was required at the outset, the research was designed in dialogue with Afro and Indigenous groups in Colombia. Our initial consultations included developing relationships with a mix of men and women and was underpinned by the recognition of the constitutional rights of ethnic communities to prior consultation. As far as possible, the methodology was designed to be inclusive and respectful of difference along the intersecting axes of ethnicity, gender, sexuality and age. In recognition of the male dominance of some political and community spaces, we worked closely with the Chocó Women's Network and other local women's groups to ensure that women's voices and experiences were not silenced during the research. It is our contention, however, that more targeted research is necessary to understand the relationship between gender, conflict and environmental activism. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2020 |
| Sector | Communities and Social Services/Policy,Environment,Government, Democracy and Justice |
| Impact Types | Cultural Societal Policy & public services |
| Description | Building capacity in citizen science and water monitoring |
| Geographic Reach | South America |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Impact | Further strengthening of citizen science water monitoring in Chocó through WWF project, building on our training manuals and videos. |
| Description | Letter to Minister in response for draft T-622 Action Plan |
| Geographic Reach | South America |
| Policy Influence Type | Implementation circular/rapid advice/letter to e.g. Ministry of Health |
| URL | https://www.abcolombia.org.uk/colombia-river-stories-letter-to-minister-murillo/ |
| Description | Letter to T-622 Scientific Advisory Board in response to T-622 Action Plan |
| Geographic Reach | South America |
| Policy Influence Type | Implementation circular/rapid advice/letter to e.g. Ministry of Health |
| Description | Presentation of evidence to Comité de Verificación del cumplimiento a las órdenes fallo de la Acción Popular de Río Quito No. 25-000-23-24-000-2011-00655-01 |
| Geographic Reach | South America |
| Policy Influence Type | Contribution to a national consultation/review |
| Description | Report to early warning system on rapid expansion of illegal mining on Atrato River |
| Geographic Reach | South America |
| Policy Influence Type | Implementation circular/rapid advice/letter to e.g. Ministry of Health |
| Impact | The report complied by members of our research team with our partner ABColombia generated an 'alert' for the early warning system that monitors security threats. This can afford additional protection measures for communities. |
| Description | River Stories Project Team appointed to T-622 Advisory Board |
| Geographic Reach | South America |
| Policy Influence Type | Membership of a guideline committee |
| Description | Agile crisis management at the community level: meeting the challenges of protracted humanitarian crisis in Chocó, Colombia |
| Amount | £45,052 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Government of Scotland |
| Department | Scottish Funding Council |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 06/2021 |
| End | 11/2021 |
| Description | Festival of Social Science 2020 |
| Amount | £1,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Economic and Social Research Council |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 08/2021 |
| End | 11/2021 |
| Description | Nigerian illegal mining: Can we learn from Colombian 'worst practice' to avert catastrophic socio-environmental impacts? |
| Amount | £11,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Government of Scotland |
| Department | Scottish Funding Council |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 09/2019 |
| End | 06/2020 |
| Description | Responding to COVID-19 in Chocó, Colombia |
| Amount | £152,332 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Government of Scotland |
| Department | Scottish Funding Council |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 04/2020 |
| End | 08/2020 |
| Description | University of Glasgow - ESRC IAA Fund |
| Amount | £13,600 (GBP) |
| Organisation | University of Glasgow |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 01/2020 |
| End | 09/2020 |
| Description | University of Glasgow Knowledge Exchange Flexible Fund |
| Amount | £13,400 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | GKE221 |
| Organisation | University of Glasgow |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 02/2019 |
| End | 09/2019 |
| Description | University of Nottingham ESRC Impact Accelerator Account Mode A |
| Amount | £2,480 (GBP) |
| Organisation | University of Nottingham |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 09/2019 |
| End | 11/2019 |
| Description | Water Stories: Indirect impacts of the socio-environmental conflict on communities' health in Chocó, Colombia |
| Amount | £75,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Government of Scotland |
| Department | Scottish Funding Council |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 09/2019 |
| End | 06/2020 |
| Title | Colombia River Stories Datasets Archive, 1994-2020 |
| Description | The goal of the project is the environmental monitoring of water resources using an innovative and multi-disciplinary methodology that brings social scientists and natural scientists together - integrating their research methods and techniques to capture human stories through community-level, participatory research and the river's story through field-based scientific monitoring and environmental reconstruction and mapping. The social science data of the project includes in-depth life history style interviews with individuals from the Afro-Colombian and Indigenous communities of the Atrato. The project used purposive sampling, recruiting participants through local contacts and then 'snowballing' for additional participants. As part of our citizen science programme, monitoring of the Rio Quito was carried out on a weekly basis by a local community. The monitoring consisted of measurement of in-situ parameters (turbidity, pH, conductivity, dissolved oxygen and temperature) and water sampling of Rio Quito. They also monitored the bacterial contamination of their drinking water. The hydrogeochemical data sets were based on a range of analytical results carried out on water (river and rain) and soil (riverbank and river bottom) samples, predominantly from the Rio Quito and the town of Quibdo. The parameters being acquired were the water temperature, pH, specific electrical conductivity (SEC), total dissolved solids (TDS), oxidation reduction potential (ORP), dissolved oxygen (DO), alkalinity, major anion and cations, water stable isotopes and suite of dissolved and total metals in water. The satellite images archive consists of temporal satellite images between 1994- 2020 that were pre-processed and processed in order to highlight changes that were observed along the river bank due to anthropogenic action. A temporal change detection analysis has been evaluated by highlighting the observed changes through time. Atrato Subcatchment Sediment Load Estimation & analysis of mining impacts on the planform of the Rio Quito quantifies the ways and extent to which alluvial gold mining in the Chocó has impacted the geomorphological form and function of the rivers in which it occurs. It specifically focusses on the assessment of mining impacts on: 1. total river sediment loads; 2. river suspended sediment concentration and turbidity; 3. river channel planform. The results presented contribute to the wider project objective of understanding the ways in which mining-driven changes to river form and function intersect with, and influence, the socio-economic, social-political, and socio-cultural systems that drive alluvial gold mining and conflict in the Chocó. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | Data has been shared with communities and stakeholders along the Atrato through a series of targeted events and a multimedia communication strategy to help build their capacity in evidence based socio-environmental advocacy. |
| URL | http://reshare.ukdataservice.ac.uk/id/eprint/855298 |
| Description | Jesus Collaboration |
| Organisation | University of Cartagena |
| Country | Colombia |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Reciprocal visits by research staff Email and Skype meeting exchange Hosting a visiting PhD student |
| Collaborator Contribution | Selection of student to send to Glasgow Analysis of samples Contribution of senior staff time to collaboration |
| Impact | Hosting a visiting student from Cartgena £75,000 SFC GCRF award with activities ongoing. |
| Start Year | 2018 |
| Description | Sola collaboration |
| Organisation | The Technical University Ibadan |
| Country | Nigeria |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Hosted visiting researchers Organised and hosted thematic workshops |
| Collaborator Contribution | Provided data and communicated information |
| Impact | £11,000 SFC GCRF project which is ongoing. |
| Start Year | 2019 |
| Description | A River with Rights? Stories of struggle for biocultural rights in the Colombian armed conflict |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | 80 people attended a public lecture on processes of struggle for biocultural rights in the Colombian armed conflict. Testimonies were shared by Colombian Human Rights Defenders who work along the Atrato basin. The talk was followed by general discussion, and the porject PI received multiple emails afterwards to request further information. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.eventbrite.com/e/a-river-with-rights-stories-of-struggle-for-rights-in-the-colombian-arm... |
| Description | A River with rights? Interrogating spaces for socio-environmental resistance in Chocó, Colombia |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Mo Hume presented paper on research at the Annual Association of Geographers in Washington DC. The paper sparked questions and discussions afterwards and Hume was invited to give a further talk in UK. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | http://www.aag.org/galleries/conference-files/AAG_2019_DC_print_program.pdf |
| Description | Article for PHYS.ORG online newsletter about the preliminary fieldwork and mapping of illegal giold mining by the Colombia River Stories project team |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | Article for PHYS.ORG online newsletter about the preliminary fieldwork and mapping of illegal giold mining by the Colombia River Stories project team, aimed at the general public, particularly secondary school students. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://phys.org/news/2018-09-aim-colombia-illegal-gold.html |
| Description | Article for The Drouth - 'Humanitarian Crisis, Dignity and Hope on the Río Atrato' |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | An article written for the launch of The Drouth's new website, primarily aimed at engaging public audiences at a national level. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | http://www.thedrouth.org/humanitarian-crisis-dignity-and-hope-on-the-rio-atrato-allan-gillies/ |
| Description | Bang to Rights - Rights Lab Workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | A workshop bringing the Atrato River Guardians and the Nottingham Rights Lab researchers together to explore the potential of future research and finding opportunities. Attended by 20 rights lab researchers. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Bang to Rights MSc workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | 35 MSc Environmental Leadership and Management students attended a workshop and lunch with three Atrato Guardians visiting the UK - sparking questions and discussions around the role of environmental rights and raising awareness of the issues presented by the Atrato River. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Bang to Rights Public Lecture |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | An evening public lecture attended by ~65 members of the general public and University from across the Nottinghamshire region. Presentations by Nick Mount, Todd Landman and the Atrato River Guardians (visiting from Colombia) aimed at raising awareness and debate around the intersections of violence, conflict, environmental rights and gold mining in the Atrato. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://chocoriverstories.org/bang/ |
| Description | Bete River Health and Citizen Science Workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | River health workshop in Bete. Introduced community to concepts of river health and engaged community in the production of 'rich pictures'. Capacity building delivered in equipment and methods for undertaking citizen science water quality monitoring. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Blog for LSE Latin America and Caribbean Centre - 'From Bolivian cocaine to Colombian gold, low-level involvement in illicit economies is often driven by poverty and marginalisation' |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Blog for LSE Latin America and Caribbean Centre on the relationship between illicit economies (such as illegal gold mining), conflict and development. The blog aimed to engage public interest in the research, as well policymaker, NGO and academic audiences. It has been shared widely on social media platforms. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/latamcaribbean/2019/04/05/from-bolivian-cocaine-to-colombian-gold-low-level-... |
| Description | CAFOD roundtable |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | A round table between the project team, Atrato Guardians and practitioners / academics examining the case of the Atrato and exploring opportunities for future collaboration. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Capacity building instructional videos for river health monitoring |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
| Results and Impact | Series of short videos training people in river health monitoring. Used as a training resource for communities participating in Citizen Science (after face to face workshops) |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-sdkXb_EI5fCRJApZcSBYw |
| Description | Citizen Science Workshop Pilot UTCH |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | 8 members of the UTCH Limnology Research Group attended a pilot of the citizen science workshop to be run in the Bete and Paimado communities. Delivered 'rich picture' of river health and raised questions about how communities could be engaged to monitor river health. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Coliform testing - Paimado |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Coliform testing of Paimado water supply and reporting of results to community. Community leaders in Paimado had raised concerns about the safety of their drinking water supply and requested that we test it. We did so, finding high coliform counts and were able to advise the community of the importance of boiling their drinking water - especially for vulnerable groups. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | European Commission DEVCO meeting |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Meeting with DEVCO staff focused on Colombia and Latin America with objective of lobbying European Commission for action in pressuring Colombian Government to support the peace deal and implement T-622 in full. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Exhibition at Times Higher Education Global Sustainable Development Congress |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | We were invited to exhibit artworks produced by our project partner, Jan Nimmo, to showcase our research at Times Higher Education Global Sustainable Development Congress held at the University of Glasgow 21 Oct-2 November 2022. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.timeshighered-events.com/gsd-congress-2022 |
| Description | Geographical Association Lecture |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | 150 A-level students and teachers attended the Nottingham Branch Autumn Geographical Association Lecture that explored the potential of environmental rights in the context of the Atrato River. An extensive discussion followed with a number of follow up emails from students asking for more information. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/education/events/2019-20/ga-20nov.aspx |
| Description | IDEAM Hydrology Team Event |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Workshop at IDEAM to examine data needs and availability for effective hydrological / water quality monitoring and modelling of the Atrato in the context of T-622 ruling. Resulted in development of data sharing agreement and raised debate about whether the current river / water quality monitoring programme is adequate for the T-622 ruling. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Interactive Exhibition |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | 6850 members of the public attended an interactive/participatory exhibition/workshop as part of a wider University of Glasgow 'doors open' event to showcase our research. The interactive exhibition draws on collaboration between the University of Glasgow, SCIAF and Atrato communities. Glasgow-based artist Jan Nimmo created a series of mixed media portraits of River Guardians, people who work to protect their river which were exhibited alongside a short video to give background to the context of river rights and socio-environmental conflict in Chocó. Around 80 people joined us to porduce artwork to send messages of hope and solidarity from Glasgow to Colombia. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Invited talk |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Invited presentation at the University of Strathclyde Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering 'Fingerprinting the Hydrosphere: The power of stable isotopic tracers' Presentation to c. 50 academics (mainly staff with some further students) |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | MASS Doctoral Training Programme Water Challenge |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | An 8-week challenge engaging PhD students from the Leverhulme MASS DTP in capacity building in the area of rainfall-runoff modelling as a part of socio-environmental research. Developed skills in the use of distributed hydrological modelling software, GIS and overcoming the challenges of modelling in sparse data contexts. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/mathematics/prospective/research/mass/mass.aspx |
| Description | Meeting with BEIS staff including UK PACT Colombia Lead |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Meeting with key BEIS staff focused on Colombia with objective of lobbying UK Government for action in pressuring Colombian Government to implement T-622 in full. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Meeting with Colombian Ombudsman team with responsibility for follow up on T-622 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Research team members attended a series of meetings with the Ombudsman's office in Bogotá and shared preliminary research findings. This has resulted in our membership of the Expert Committee to advise on the implementation of T-622. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Meeting with FCO Latin America staff |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Meeting with key FCO staff focused on Colombia with objective of lobbying UK Government for action in pressuring Colombian Government to implement T-622 in full. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Meeting with Frances Fitzgerald MEP |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Raising the case of the Atrato, the Colombian peace process and the T-622 sentence with Frances Fitzgerald MEP (ex-Irish justice minister). Objective of bringing a resolution to the European Parliament. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Meeting with Irish Ambassador to Colombia, HE Alison Milton |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Mo Hume met with HE Alison Milton, Irish Ambassador to Colombia, to inform her about the context in Chocó. She asked various questions about the research and has requested follow up information. The meeting was useful to facilitate further meetings with Irish MEPs at the EU parliament in October 2019 to encourage parliamentary questions around the situation of Human Rights in Colombia. Frances Fitzgerald MEP has requested further information. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Meeting with Matt McCarthy (MEP) aides |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Meeting to lobby MEPs to raise questions about / propose resolution in support of the peace process and T-622 sentence in the European Parliament |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Meeting with Minister Christina McKelvie, Scottish Government |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Research team members together with River Guardians and HUman Rights Defenders from Colombia attended meeting with Minister Christina McKelvie to raise awareness about humanitarian crisis in Chocó, Colombia. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/report.aspx?r=12422&mode=pdf |
| Description | Meeting with the Defensoría del Pueblo |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Meeting with three representatives of the Defensoría del Pueblo, working on the rights of indigenous and ethnic groups in Chocó. The aim of the meeting was to share information about the research project and explore ways of collaborating to support the implementation of T-622. The Defensoría offered ongoing support to the project and were very keen to see the results of the study. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Meeting with the UK Permanent Representation to the EU |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Meeting with representatives from UK, German and Finnish permanent representations to the EU with the objective of raising awareness about the Atrato ruling and the Colombian peace process. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Meeting with the UK Permanent Representation to the EU, Germany and Finland |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Team members, together with River Guardians and partner organisation representatives, met representatives from the permanent delegations of UK. Denmark and Finland to raise awareness about Court Ruling T-622 and the Humanitarian Crisis in Chocó. After presentations, the diplomats asked questions and requested further information. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Mongabay Video - Toxic River |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Provided expertise to, and appeared in, Mongabay's Toxic River video released online on 10th October 2019. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://news.mongabay.com/2019/10/toxic-river-mining-mercury-and-murder-continue-to-plague-colombias... |
| Description | Newspaper article: A river of life, a river of death |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Article that explores the socio-economic drivers of conflict on the Atrato basin in Colombia in one of the main Scottish Sunday papers. The article is based on an interview with two Human Rights Defenders who were visiting Glasgow to engage in advocacy around humanitarian crisis in Chocó, Colombia. Research team provided background information and translation for the journalist. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.sundaypost.com/fp/a-river-of-life-a-river-of-death/ |
| Description | Paimado River Health and Citizen Science Workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | River health workshop in Paimado. Attended by school children, their teachers and members of the community council. Built capacity in the understanding of river health and its causes and effects. Generated a team of citizen scientists to undertake water quality monitoring. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Paimado community council workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
| Results and Impact | Workshop to explore initial findings from community river water sampling and analysis (citizen science). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Paper delivered at University of Strathclyde: Natural Resources Governance, Conflict and Socially Committed Futures A Conversation between Latin America and Europe |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Mo Hume gave a paper at Natural Resources Governance, Conflict and Socially Committed Futures: A Conversation between Latin America and Europe at the University of Strathclyde. around 70 people attended and links were made with environmental scholars and activists. Follow up communications have suggested potential for further research collaboration. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.engage.strath.ac.uk/event/612 |
| Description | Participation in Tierra Digna Diploma - Socio-environmental Activism |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | I took part in a training workshop run by NGO Tierra Digna with 20 community leaders in Chocó, Colombia. The workshop addressed socio-environmental activism. As part of this, I introduced the participants to the key themes of our research project, and we discussed how the results of the study might inform their activism. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Participation in advocacy project led by Caritas Colombia on the Atrato River: Atrato: Un rio con derecho a vivir |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | Team members shared preliminary research findings in the form of a report and provided video/written testimonies to inform the advocacy campaign of CARITAS Colombia on defending the rights of Atrato. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://especiales.caritascolombiana.org/quibdo-rio-atrato/ |
| Description | Podcast - Recovering Community |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Members of the research team took part in a University of Glasgow podcast, entitled Recovering Community. The podcast discussed findings of the research project and raised public awareness of the challenges facing research partners in Choco. The podcast is available on all major platforms. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly91b2Znc3BzLmxpYnN5bi5jb20vcnNz/episode/MWM2ZjQzODItMDQ4OC... |
| Description | Poster presentation at the 2018 Geological Remote Sensing conference (GRSG2018) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | This was a Poster presentation with a brief (3-minute) summary to the audience. The poster summarises the history and extent of illegal gold mining in the Choco study region, the uses of satellite remote sensing to detect and monitor the illegal mining and associated deforestation, and the preliminiary findings with regard to the Colombia River Stories project. The audience was mainly remote sensing professionals, academics and postgrad research students, including representatives of extractive industry companies (e.g. Shell, Rio Tinto, Anglo American). From the audience questions and comments, many were impressed with the River Stories objective of linking with local communities and seeking to build local capacity in using freely available remote sensing data and GIS freeware to produce maps that helped to strengthen community resilience. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.grsg.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/GRSG-AGM-and-Conference-Abstract-Book-2018-081218... |
| Description | Presentation at the annual conference of the Geological Remote SEnsing Group, Frascati, Italy. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Presentation on the remote sensing findings of the Choco River Stories project, at the annual conference of the Geological Remote SEnsing Group, at ESA / ESRIN Frascati, Italy, 12 Dec 2019; an audience of c. 80 people with questions and discussion after my presentation. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.grsg.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/GRSG2019_Programme_draft_V8.pdf |
| Description | Presentation to Understanding Insurgencies workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | I presented early-research from the Colombia River Stories project to the research consortium Understanding Insurgencies (approx. 20 academics and practitioners). This resulted in new contacts for the project and an invitation to join the consortium. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | http://understandinginsurgencies.exeter.ac.uk/tag/glasgow/ |
| Description | Press release |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | A press release and short article on the project were developed with our partner SCIAF and published on the University of Glasgow Website and in the Scottish newspaper, The National |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/news/peopleprojects/headline_604768_en.html |
| Description | Project Blog |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Blog for the School of Geography, University of Nottingham |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | http://blogs.nottingham.ac.uk/geography/2018/08/28/the-real-rumble-in-the-jungle-violence-conflict-g... |
| Description | Project Website |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Project website www.chocoriverstories.org |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018,2019 |
| URL | http://www.chocoriverstories.org |
| Description | Project team response to Atrato Restoration Action Plan |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Project response to the Action Plan published in response to the T-622 ruling. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Project website blog - 'Chocó's rubbish and the rights of nature' |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Blog describing Gillies' fieldwork experiences in Chocó, published on the project website to encourage engagement with our research. The project website had 683 visitors in 2019. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://chocoriverstories.org/portfolio/blog/ |
| Description | Project website blog - 'Communities monitor river health on the Atrato' |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Team blog describing citizen science programme activities, published on the project website to encourage engagement with our research. The project website had 683 visitors in 2019. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://chocoriverstories.org/portfolio/blog/ |
| Description | Publication of Colombia River Stories Letter to Minister for Environment, Colombia, on ABColombia webiste |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | The Colombia River Studies team wrote a letter to the Colombian Minister of the Environment, Luis Gilberto Murillo, regarding the situation in the Atrato River in Chocó. In the letter, four key questions around the approach and methods that underpin the Environmental Action Plan were identified, and suggestions on how to improve on these were outlined, highlighting the need to ensure that experiences and lessons learned from previous similar projects will be considered in efforts to devise an effective plan and avoiding possible pitfalls. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.abcolombia.org.uk/colombia-river-stories-letter-to-minister-murillo/ |
| Description | RIVERS OF PEACE: THE RIGHTS OF NATURE, BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION AND PEACEBUILDING IN CHOCÓ, COLOMBIA |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | 124 views YouTube (livestream) and over 50 in person attendees at a workshop held during COP26. An international panel of speakers explored how agendas of natural habitat restoration and biodiversity protection may be interwoven with peacebuilding efforts and issues of socio-environmental justice. The panel directly addressed the UK COP26 Presidency campaign theme of safeguarding and restoring natural habitats and ecosystems to preserve the planet's biodiversity. It will introduce attendees to debates around cutting-edge socio-legal innovations on biocultural rights and the rights of nature. We localised international environmental debates in the context of Chocó, where demand for gold fuels armed conflict and the destruction of the environment. These global forces not only hold catastrophic consequences for the planet's biodiversity. The panel sparked questions and discussions, with various participants requesting further information and one media article about the event/issue in the US paper National Catholic Reporter: https://www.ncronline.org/news/earthbeat/colombias-choc-region-river-guardians-protect-rights-rio-atrato |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Irco9Xo6cHA |
| Description | Rios Solidarios |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | We have published seven blogs with contributors to our Rios Solidarios project. The project aims to build solidarity with research partners in Chocó through the creation of artworks that describe our connections with local rivers. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021,2022 |
| URL | https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/socialpolitical/research/politics/projects/colombiariverstories/riosso... |
| Description | SCIAF blog |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | I collaborated with Mo Hume on a blog for SCIAF raising awareness of the human rights crisis in Chocó and the research project. The blog has been shared on the social media channels of the project and SCIAF. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.sciaf.org.uk/news/278-the-struggle-for-human-rights-in-choco-colombia |
| Description | Seminario Internacional sobre dinámicas socio-ambientales de los ecosistemas del Chocó biogeográfico |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Over 100 people - students, civil society representatives, local community leaders, national academic experts and research teams - attended the first international seminar on socio-environmental dynamics of the ecosystems of Chocó, at which there was a formal launch of the Colombia River Stores Project. PI Hume and Co-I Teeuw presented research project overview and some initial findings. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.utch.edu.co/portal/es/noticias/2012-la-utch-desarrolló-conversatorio-sobre-sobre-dinámic... |
| Description | TUC Meeting with Guardians and Project Team |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Meeting with key TUC staff focused on Colombia's peace process with objective of understanding how the TUC can help pressure the Colombian Government to implement T-622 and ensure ILO Convention 169 is being adhered to. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | UTCH Limnology Research Group - Citizen Science Discussion |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | The UTCH Limnology Research Group attended a discussion exploring how citizen science could be used to monitor river function. This sparked debate around the opportunities and barriers to citizen science in Choco communities and the exchange of experiences of working with communities to undertake environmental monitoring in the Atrato Basin. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | UTCH Student Training |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Training workshop on the field collection, calibration and analysis methods for quantifying suspended sediment concentration in river water. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | University of Cartagena, Colombia, Seminar on sustainable geothermal development and envrionmental impacts of mining |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | I was invited to provide a seminar to ca. 50 postgraduate and undergraduate pupils from the university (and some staff) on hydrogeological investigations and my active research. Much interest was generated and we are now exploring the possibility of hosting visiting students from the University of Cartagena on these subjects. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | University of Nottingham Vision Magazine Feature - Gold's Devastating Price |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Colombia river stories featured in the University of Nottingham 'Vision' Magazine - its main outward-facing research publication issued annually. The magazine has a wide distribution and readership and is distributed to external organisations, University partners and the media. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/vision/gold-devastating-price |
| Description | Webinar: Using satellite radar to assist legal action by Colombia forest peoples against illegal gold mining: the Rio Atrato basin, Colombia. GEO Indigenous Summit, Dec 8th, 2020 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | This was a webinar presentation that was open to the public but focused on indigenous communities globally, with many of their representatives participating in the conference. There was a lot of interest in the legal status granted to the Atrato River, its environment and its communities; as well as interest in the use of satellite imagery as evidence by the Colombia Government Ombudsman, regarding the policing of areas will extensive destructive illicit mining. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5l9X220GKg&feature=youtu.be |
| Description | Workshop on River Rights at University of Glasgow |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | One day interdisciplinary workshop, bringing together academics, policy makers and third sector to discuss rights of nature, through the lens of the Atrato case. Part of a series of events to raise awareness of the Atrato case in Europe. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.gla.ac.uk/news/headline_678538_en.html |
| Description | Workshop with Nigerian researchers to share knowledge in socio-enviromental impacts of gold mining. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Research team presented findings and lessons learned from Colombia to a group of Nigerian researchers who were visiting the University of Glasgow around the socio-environmental impacts of gold mining. There was significant debate and we are exploring the possibilities of collaborative, comparative research. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | http://cradall.org/content/sfa-february-newsletter-glasgow-strengthens-ties-africa |