Comunicación para el cambio social: propuestas del pueblo jiwi frente a las afectaciones ambientales creadas por los proyectos de desarrollo que rodean su territorio

Abstract

The indigenous community known as Sikuani, but self-styled Jiwi people, from the Wacoyo indigenous reservation (8,050 ha.), Municipality of Puerto Gaitán, department of Meta, is surrounded by several "development" projects, especially agribusinesses, which import the territory, the health of its inhabitants and the environment. Among these, the oil company (CEPCOLSA), the Fazenda company for the production of pork meat, for whose food the community leased 1,000 hectares, stand out. from its shelter for the alternate planting of transgenic corn and sorghum for pigs' feeding, the rubber plantations of the Mavalle company (3,500 ha.) and oil palm plantations, among others. The food security of the inhabitants of the resguardo has been affected and many of its inhabitants have chosen to be employed in the previously named companies in order to have subsistence income. The environment has been affected by the extensions of land dedicated to agribusiness and the foul smells coming from the raising of pigs, especially during the winter season, causing respiratory illnesses, fevers and acute headaches especially among children and people of the Third Age. Given this situation, the representatives of the indigenous reservation are interested in a participatory project in the field of communication, development and social change that allows the general population to be involved in a reflective process around this problem that they It allows to propose alternatives to the current situation from their own perspectives and conceptions of development, contributing to the life plans of the community.