Citizen Participation as a Transcendent Element of Environmental Peacebuilding: Assumptions for its Effectiveness
art by Sonya Montenegro (USA) of The Far Woods
(Haga clic aquí para la versión en español)
Jorge Iván Hurtado Mora (Universidad Externado de Colombia); Lizeth Carolina Quiroga Cubillos
Undoubtedly, the internal conflict that governed Colombia for times produced dramatic effects related to the legal doctrine. However, it is perhaps the environment as a victim of war,[i] that is the element that has passed through theoretical research with less success. In fact, in the Peace Agreement, the environment did not have an autonomous place, but rather, was treated as a transversal element. Therefore, the challenge remains to reestablish the imbalance produced by years of illegal intervention in the territories, and it is essential to generate democratic spaces to prevent and overcome socio-environmental conflicts and to seek effective spaces for citizen intervention.
Context
Citizen intervention in environmental management is the result of a constitutional structure based on the Social Rule of Law and Participatory Democracy, which suggests the claim of the common welfare and the need to guarantee democratic spaces for a direct relationship between society and public administration. Since 1991, a new environmental perspective has been adopted for Colombia, where the environment is both a responsibility of the State, a collective right, a limitation to private property, and a driver of the economic development model.[i]
In the framework of the Peace Agreement signed by the Colombian State and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia—People’s Army (FARC-EP) in 2016, it was pointed out that citizen participation was fundamental because "the implementation would be done (...) with the participation of territorial authorities and different sectors of society." In this sense, the agreement recognizes the economic, cultural, and social needs and particularities of the communities. It guarantees socio-environmental sustainability and seeks to implement the different measures with the participation of citizens, without prejudice to the legal powers of environmental and local authorities who play an essential role in the planning and environmental regulation of the territory. This implies closing the participatory gap in the country towards new spaces for peacebuilding.[ii],[iii]
In short, this constitutional framework measures the need to protect a superior right of the environment and guarantee the role of communities in conservation decision-making that allow progress towards environmental governance from a territorial peace approach.[iv]
What’s been done
The National Government has recently acted in various ways to secure, at the highest level, the right to enjoy a healthy environment and to citizen participation within the framework of a stable and lasting peace:
First, the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development (Minambiente) created the Regional Centers for Environmental Dialogue as a strategy for the management and positive transformation of socio-environmental conflicts generated by access to and use of natural resources. They were intended as educational and participatory processes that contribute to environmental management and territorial peace in accordance with principle 10 of the Rio de Janeiro Declaration of 1992 and the Sustainable Development Goals—SDG 16—"Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions."
Secondly, in 2018, the Minambiente began the construction of the Environmental Zoning Plan, based on participatory spaces that involve key actors such as institutional, productive, social, as well as environmental sectors, ethnic groups, women, youth, and other sectors. In this sense, the Minambiente advanced participatory pilots including one in Chocó, Córdoba, Antioquia, Cauca, Nariño, and Valle del Cauca in 2019, which included the identification of socio-environmental conflicts and the search for alternative productive solutions.
Looking forward
Since the environment is a collective right, its protection should be considered a matter of State, which would prevent a political process from easily permeating it over evidence-based scientific considerations. What follows are some recommendations for citizen intervention in the sustainable management of the environment to contribute effectively to environmental peace:
1. Citizen participation in environmental management must transcend rhetoric. Citizen spaces and the inputs generated there must be sufficiently involved in public decision-making.
2. Without quality information there is no effective participation. That is, it is vital to guarantee citizens access to the public environmental information that is relevant to them, so that from it, the intervention is effective. If quality information is almost always technical, the obligation arises on the part of the public administration to guarantee its understanding by citizens.
3. It is imperative to differentiate participation from socialization. Participation should be understood to involve the citizen in the process to understand the problem and build solutions for public decision. And socialization refers to informing the citizen, the result of a process where he did not intervene.
4. It is imperative for the Colombian State to ratify the Escazú Agreement, classified as an international instrument on the rights of access to broad and effective citizen participation, public information, and environmental justice.
5. In the short or medium term, the advisability of creating an environmental jurisdiction, composed of judges with comprehensive environmental training, should be considered, so that the orders and sentences issued involve the defence of the environment and take into account times and effectiveness of execution. Progress must be made from the simple recognition of a right, in order to achieve the material effectiveness of that protection.
Footnotes
[i] Constitución Política de Colombia [Const]. Art. 58. 7 de julio de 1991 (Colombia).
[ii] Cancillería. Acuerdo de Paz (2018) Acuerdo de Paz. 6. (https://www.cancilleria.gov.co/sites/default/files/Fotos2016/12.11_1.2016nuevoacuerdofinal.pdf)
[iii] Consejería Presidencial para la Estabilización y Consolidación (2018) (https://www.portalparalapaz.gov.co/publicaciones/811/explicacion-puntos-del-acuerdo/)
[iv] Franco Gantiva, A.M. (2020) ‘Conflictos socioambientales en Antioquia’, Entre la construcción de la paz territorial y de la paz ambiental, Estudios Políticos (Universidad de Antioquia), 59. DOI: 10.17533/udea.espo.n59a08