An indigenous community in the Amazon learns basic land surveying to fix the errors of the past.
One glance at the shape of Itilla reveals that the person who determined the community’s oblong borders, was unaware of the realities of forest-dwelling communities in the Amazon. The Itilla reservation is an unusual 45 kilometers long and two kilometers wide. The territory looks more like a city block than the collective territory of a community in the Amazon.
Itilla, home to over 250 people, is located in Colombia on the northwestern edge of the vast Amazon rainforest. The community is accessed from San José de Guaviare, over 100 kilometers of dirt road followed by a boat ride down the Itilla river. Over 20 years ago, Amancio Yukuna, the community’s school teacher, was there when a public servant came to measure the Itilla reservation.
“The agent got out of the boat and walked a couple of kilometers. He took some photos and then turned around and got back in the boat and left,” Yukuna remembers.
Although the creation of the reservation was seen as an achievement, this territory of straight lines left out the most important aspects of their lives: the forest and everything within.
“Little by little we realized that we weren’t happy with the borders of our collective land,” explains Yakuna. “We are missing all the places we need to survive, where we hunt and fish and our sacred sites. There are no rivers or lagoons or any water, it’s all outside of our territory.”
A Forested Country
The majority of Colombia’s forests are concentrated in the Amazon and considered one of its most valuable resources. Today, these forests are threatened more than ever by the expansion of cattle ranching, illicit crop plantations, and illegal mining. All of these activities drive deforestation and put indigenous communities in a vulnerable position.
To push back against deforestation, in 2018, the Colombian government almost doubled the nearby Chiribiquete National Park, bringing its total area to 4.3 million hectares, making it the world’s largest protected area of tropical rainforest. With the expansion of Chiribiquete, the 8,000-hectare Itilla reservation was swallowed.
“In the past, it was all spoken. We simply told the government: ‘this is our territory’. But today, there is technology, and the information is organized and systematized. It’s more important than ever that the government recognize the entirety of our territory,” explains John Jairo García, Itilla’s current Captain, or political leader.
With support from USAID and Colombia’s mapping authority IGAC, the families of Itilla have embarked on a new way to interact with their territory: using GPS and viewing the map on a tablet.
The Intercultural Geography School is the first of its kind and a groundbreaking opportunity to involve indigenous communities in the mapping of their territories while transforming the way they view the forest around them. The school, which included cartography professionals from IGAC, equipped 40 members of the Itilla community with the knowledge and skills to collect land use information, to document their territory, and create a map that can be used to update the boundaries of their land.
Following a multi-day training on land surveying concepts and how to use GPS tablets, the novice land surveyors first documented the forty something homes and buildings in their community, including the maloca where the community gathers for traditional ceremonies. After that, in small teams, they ventured into the forest surrounding their community to document the natural and cultural resources that are vital for their survival and growth.
This is the first time that an indigenous community has carried out government-sanctioned land surveying and reflects a significant step towards more inclusive and participatory rural land administration. The activity is part of USAID’s commitment to the Colombian government to survey and update the boundaries of the expanded Chiribiquete National Park.
Eleonora Garcia and Hermes Londoño visit a nearby lagoon where the community often fishes.
“If rural communities learn mapping exercises in an effective way, they can understand why it is useful and how the community fits into their territory. Through mapping, communities can get to know their surroundings better and strengthen their spatial relationships.”
A Map of Instruments
Itilla’s community does not view the surrounding rivers and forests as natural resources. They prefer the word instruments. Under their vision of the natural world, the plants and animals of the forest and rivers have been offered to them as mere instruments that humans can use to connect with the spiritual universe of the Amazon.
Medicinal plants, forest food products, fish, and wild animals are all examples of these instruments. The bamboo-like plant caño de carrizo is used by the community to make the pan flute, which is used in traditional ceremonies and dances to communicate with ancestral spirits. Knowing where these plants grow and the animals inhabit is paramount to cultural preservation.
“Out there in the forest is where we find our sacred sites. Our elders have shown us where to go to find these sites and how to use the instruments they offer. We know the trails that the jaguars use, we know what fish are living in the lagoons and rivers,” explains Hermes Londoño, one of the community members who learned to map Itilla territory with a tablet and GPS.
Since launching the mapping initiative, Hermes and his neighbors have carried out expeditions, some during multiple days, to reach the farthest sites in the community’s territory.
In August 2024, the community finished the mapping exercise, logging hundreds of GPS coordinates, complete with descriptions and land use types. The completed map was printed and hung in the maloca for the community to view. For the majority of the community, it was the first time they had viewed their territory on a two-dimensional map that overlays sacred sites and land usage over the 2002 borders of the collective land rectangle.
“With this exercise, we are telling the government that we have formed our territory with our own team and we want to use these resources. Everybody is looking at this zone wanting to exploit the original forests, but these forests support our lives and are the basis of our cultural values. And now, we have documented it.” says Captain Garcia.
Under Captain Garcia’s leadership, they unanimously agreed to send this information to the IGAC and eventually to Colombia’s National Land Agency to expand the boundaries of their territory from the current 8,000 hectares to more than 102,000 hectares.
If they are successful, proper land use management and administration in protected areas like national parks could also consolidate indigenous land rights to disincentivize further deforestation. USAID bases its strategy on the logic that addressing land tenure issues and developing modern concepts of land administration with indigenous communities will lead to improved biodiversity conservation and open the doors to climate change mitigation.
Since 2000, Catatumbo has been synonymous with the presence of illicit crops and a drug trafficking corridor. In this region, which borders Venezuela and includes 10 municipalities from Norte de Santander, there are an estimated 30,000 hectares of coca.
Recent studies show that Colombians are eating more and more avocados. Over the last five years, consumption has risen from 6 to 10 kg per person, per year. The trend bodes well for regions like Catatumbo, where conditions are apt.
“The avocado is a highly profitable crop and brings income to families. We have been replacing illicit crops with avocado,” says Diomar Contreras, avocado producer from the Afrucar association in El Carmen, Norte de Santander.
“We need knowledge, we need training, and these partnerships allow us to know what the producers need to be able to sell to larger markets. That is why we need to come together, so that smallholder farmers can reach big clients and offer that added value that formal markets require.”
For decades, rural communities in Colombia have faced challenges related to not owning the land they live on. The lack of secure tenure has consequences and keeps thousands of families from accessing government programs and subsidies that could improve their opportunities for success.
In 2024, Carlos received the registered land title to his farm in San Jacinto, Bolívar, thanks to USAID’s support to increase land formality in rural areas affected by the conflict. In San Jacinto, experts surveyed 3,700 parcels and delivered some 1,100 cases to Colombia’s National Land Agency for titling. So far, the government has issued over 600 land titles to farmers like Romero.
Secure land tenure is still just part of the larger picture to improve rural development. For Carlos, a property title means being able to peacefully cultivate yams, but it does not immediately make him a more successful farmer.
Carlos Romero’s wife, Luz Dary, also benefits from the strategy, first by being included as landowner on the land title, but also thanks to the accompanying social outreach strategy to improve the understanding of women’s rights. The role of women as caregivers is just as important as the role of the men who work the land. In rural areas, women are almost exclusively responsible for caring for children, senior citizens, and people with disabilities; as well as for guaranteeing the food security of their families.
I am a Senior Gender Advisor with the USAID Bureau for Resilience, Environment and Food Security (REFS). I have been with USAID for about 6 years. Before joining the Agency, for over a decade, I worked at the International Center for Research on Women, last as a Senior Economist. That is where I first started working on women’s land and property rights as a key priority not only for increasing women’s economic security and wellbeing, but also for increasing their empowerment across many spheres of their lives. One of the first research projects I worked on explored the linkages between women’s land tenure security, access to housing, and human health and well-being in South Africa and Uganda. In this work, we explored the impact of secure land and property on women’s ability to protect themselves from HIV and reduce gender-based violence (GBV). Together with colleagues, I also developed one of the early survey instruments to better understand and measure women’s rights to land and assets. The tool helped analyze relationships between different types of land ownership and women’s perceptions of longer-term security of their land and assets and ability to make decisions over their land and assets. Finally, I had the privilege to work with grassroots organizations across East Africa and support the development of paralegal programs that raised awareness about women’s land rights, supported community-level conflict resolution, and enhanced women’s access to justice.
In this interview, Diomara Montañez, the mayor of Sardinata, talks about the community expectations, the transition to licit economies, and what a property title means to the people of Sardinata.
What does a property title mean to the residents of Sardinata?
The government is designing a transformation strategy for the region that includes Sardinata. What does that strategy include?
How has the USAID-supported municipal land office improved land administration and the sustainability of a formal land market in Sardinata?
Central to the oral history of the Santo Madero community is the legend of a miraculous tree that fell in a violent storm only to reappear a few days later, upright and green. The event, which reflects the magic realism that Colombia is known for, has evolved into a vital part of local folklore and is celebrated by the Afro-Colombian community every year.
“For black communities, the ancestral territory is an ancient issue that was not born in Colombia. The Colombian government has to guarantee land rights so that Afro-Colombian and indigenous communities can maintain their culture and carry out their traditions,” he explains.
Santo Madero is nestled in the Montes de María region of the Caribbean where thousands of people were caught in the conflict and subjected to extreme violence and massacres. For more than a decade, residents regularly faced threats and extortion, leading to the loss of income and jobs based on agriculture and prompting many to search for a new life in nearby cities. By 2010, many feared that the traditions of the Palenque diaspora would be lost forever.
In 2016, in the wake of the historic Peace Agreement, USAID began working with the 
USAID has designed and utilized protocols that include free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) and the designation of an ethnic liaison delegated by the community.
In 2018, José Hernández, the founder of gourmet exporter SumaPaz Foods, discovered the secrets of Colombia’s sesame in the hills of Montes de María in the Caribbean region. In the municipality of Córdoba Tetón, SumaPaz began working with families involved in sesame for generations. In 2023, USAID’s Land for Prosperity Activity facilitated a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) that includes SumaPaz, government agencies, and over 600 families from the region.
In Colombia we have special water and biodiversity conditions, and we want to preserve this wealth. We also have communities with a lot of needs, and this natural wealth can improve their quality of life. We believe that the best way to protect our ecosystems is to produce food organically.
Colombia has different ecosystems and microclimates that give food different nuances and flavors. For example, our sesame is very well liked in Germany, where they want a sweeter and less astringent sesame for baked goods. It also works very well to make oil. The chapter of Colombian coffee has already been written, but right now we are writing the chapter on Colombian sesame.
We can grow. The European market is growing and we also want to look to the USA. According to our analysis, we have the capacity to export at least 2,000 metric tons per year right now. This year, we could export 350 tons, or 18% of our annual capacity. And if one day we manage to produce and export 2,000 tons, by then the demand would have probably grown even more.
For thousands of years, sesame seeds have been a key ingredient for a wide variety of Greek foods, from tahini to sesame bar snacks to Greece’s most popular street food, the indistinguishable, sesame-covered rings known as koulouri.
The story of sesame in this region of Colombia mirrors the ugly violence that engulfed it in the early 2000s, when the leftist group FARC expanded its control of the region and the rise of paramilitarism caught rural communities in the middle, leaving villages full of victims in its wake. Rebels and paramilitary groups moved through rural towns stealing the communities’ most important assets: livestock.
To help rebuild these communities, USAID facilitated a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) that includes SumaPaz, government agencies, and over 600 families from the region. The PPP was signed in 2023 and is valued at nearly USD $1.8 million. The PPP’s objective is to increase production and processing of artisanal sesame, promote organic certification, and establish sustainable market channels, especially in high value markets like Europe and USA.
With organic certification under their belt and technical support from SumaPaz, sesame farmers have already exported four containers of high-quality sesame to buyers in the European market. Each container equals approximately 18 tons of sesame for gourmet food buyers in Greece and Germany.
