Indigenous resistance to mining in post-conflict Colombia

Abstract

Indigenous peoples’ relationship with mining involves tensions and conflicts that intensify in armed conflict and post-conflict environments. Studies of the intersection between mining, armed conflict and post-conflict peacebuilding portray Indigenous people as passive recipients post-conflict natural resource governance interventions. This paper challenges that perspective by demonstrating the active, highly organised and complex roles Indigenous people play in mineral resource governance in a post-agreement environment. Despite Colombian government interest in positioning high value mineral resource extraction as a platform for prosperity and peace, illegal gold mining has become a central source of finance for violent armed groups, and legal mining has been linked to threats to Indigenous rights. Many Indigenous communities in Colombia oppose mining. This paper examines Indigenous participation in natural resource governance concentrating on the resistance to certain forms of mining by the Nasa Indigenous people of North Cauca. It is based on an interpretative, layered ethnographic case study comprising archival research, interviews, and participant observation across various Nasa organisational and territorial domains. I find that the Nasa build on their strong moral and institutional frameworks for resistance to structure and implement a response to mining. I illustrate the Nasa's determinant role in post-conflict mining governance, as well as the moral tensions and dilemmas, and the risks the Nasa face in responding to mining in a violent context.