Fighting change: Interactive pressures, gender, and livelihood transformations in a contested region of the Colombian Caribbean

• Published in: Geoforum 2021-10, Vol.125, p.9-24
• Main Authors: Cely-Santos, Marcela, Hernández-Manrique, Olga Lucía
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Access; Afro-descendants; Agrobiodiversity; Case studies; Change agents; Conflict; Coping; Coping strategies; Diversification; Evaluation; Gender; Gender segregation; Insecurity; Livelihood; Livelihood diversification; Men; Oil palm; Petroleum; Post-conflict; Psychological distress; Scarcity; Seasonal variations; Seasonality; Security; Segregation; Sexual division of labor; Social control; Stress; Water scarcity; Women
• ISSN: 0016-7185; 1872-9398
• DOI: 10.1016/j.geoforum.2021.06.014

•Rural livelihoods were influenced by seasonality, agrobiodiversity loss, conflict and agrarian change.•Armed conflict and oil palm expansion severely affected land and water access.•Reduced land and water access decreased opportunities for livelihood diversification.•The armed conflict induced women spatial confinement to the domestic sphere.•Livelihood diversification, mostly led by women, was key to overcome scarcity months. Livelihood insecurity emerges from the interaction of factors and pressures affecting people’s ability to cope with change. Yet, the effects of interactive stressors on the dynamic nature of livelihoods and their underlying gendered relationships are still unexplored. We evaluated a case study in Maria La Baja, a municipality in the Colombian Caribbean severely affected by the Colombian armed conflict and oil palm expansion. With the pacification of the conflict in the late 2000s, traditional inhabitants aimed to reconstruct their livelihoods amidst a context of reduced access to resources. We assessed how local livelihood strategies have been affected by the interplay of socio-political distress, agrarian change, agrobiodiversity loss, seasonality, and unequal access to resources for men and women. We conducted surveys and interviews to 1) characterize local livelihoods and their transformations; 2) evaluate current livelihood insecurity and pressures; and 3) assess whether disruptions in local livelihoods have equally affected men and women, and influenced their mechanisms to cope with change. Current livelihoods in Maria La Baja have been largely characterized by months with water, crop and income scarcity. These effects have been shaped by the reduced access to resources and social control that resulted from the armed conflict and oil palm expansion. Such pressures also induced the spatial segregation of women. Diversification of livelihood activities was a coping strategy to overcome the effects of resource scarcity. Despite segregation by gender, diversification was greatly conducted by women. Women-led diversification may become more important in contexts of increasing socio-ecological change.