Summary
In July 2024, the nonprofit Amar Madre Tierra Foundation filed a lawsuit with a Colombian court in the Magdalena region against mining operations that they claim violate the rights of the tropical dry forest (Colombia’s most threatened ecosystem) as well as jaguars and macaws living in the tropical dry forest of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, a mountain range in Northern Colombia.
The lawsuit asks Colombia to recognize that jaguars, macaws, and the nation’s tropical dry forest have the legal rights to “life, health and integrity.” Both jaguars and macaws are considered “umbrella” species (they are indicators of overall habitat health), and protecting them has cascading benefits for the ecosystems in which they live. The lawsuit also asks to recognize the rights of sacred Indigenous spaces located throughout the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, and invites the court to adopt a “biocultural” approach that prioritizes ecosystems’ vital processes and Indigenous communities’ ancestral knowledge systems and values. Four Indigenous peoples, the Arhuaco, Kogui, Kankuamo and Wiwa, consider this forest be the “heart of the world.”
The complaint alleges that, since 2007, mining operations have negatively impacted the forest and sacred spaces by contaminating rivers, streams, and the atmosphere, which has put the ecosystem into “a critical state of fragmentation and degradation.” At least 150 mining licenses have been issued in the region, with more than 130 mining applications pending.