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The Serranía de Manacacías faces heightened environmental risks. While pending procedures aim for official declaration by Colombian Goverment of this region, spanning San Martín, Puerto Gaitán, Puerto López, and Mapiripán, is crucial for biodiversity conservation. Housing 1,200 plant species, 454 bird species, and 182 mammals, including the tapir, the area's strategic location and environmental sensitivity make it vital for preservation. Balancing conservation efforts with addressing these security concerns is essential for the sustainable protection of the Serranía de Manacacías.
The woman gold miner uses gold panning technique that is based on a different weight of elements, in Remedios, Colombia on July 19, 2018. Gold nuggets are denser than a rock so they settle to the bottom of the pan. With a mining tradition of more than two centuries that has created a production chain on which more than 85 thousand people depend, also widows and single mothers hammer rocks twelve hours a day to look after their children, a mining culture that prides the natives of both populations that goes through different processes for the search of the material. Of the municipalities of Segovia and Remedios in the department of Antioquia, about 5 million ounces of gold have been extracted in the last 170 years, about 142 tons of metal from the mountains of these municipalities.
CAQUETA, COLOMBIA - MARCH 4: An overview of the deforestation in the forest at the rural area of Puerto Rico, Caqueta, Colombia on March 04, 2023. Deforestation and conflict have been two of the most significant issues plaguing the Colombian region of Caqueta for decades. The region, located in the southern part of the country, has been the site of intense violence and environmental degradation, with the two issues often intersecting and exacerbating each other. Colombia’s vast forest is fast receding, partly because guerrillas and criminals are clearing land for farming, ranching, and other pursuits. These unregulated activities are causing both dire environmental harm and deadly conflict.
SOPO, COLOMBIA - JANUARY 30: Members of firefighting teams and the community work diligently to extinguish the flames in the municipality of Sopo, Cundinamarca, Colombia on January 30, 2024. As the year kicks off, the scorching temperatures and intense sunlight in Colombia are taking a toll, resulting in widespread damage and adverse effects. Alerts have been raised in the hills surrounding Bogotá, as well as in various vegetation zones across several municipalities, including areas in Cundinamarca and Boyaca. The recent outbreak of fires reignites hours of distress and emergency response, amplifying the challenges faced by communities in the vicinity of the Colombian capital.
Rigoberto an Indigenous from the Ticuna Ethnic shows the process of the latex of the rubber tree (Hevea brasiliensis, native of the Amazon) extracted by making shallow diagonal cuts in the bark, and this practice killed thousands of indigenous at the beginning of the last century in Leticia, Colombia.
BOGOTA, COLOMBIA - SEPTEMBER 21, 2017: Luisa Choachi, 14, of Colombia seen during women's Individual Fencing training for different contest like the women's individual fencing event in Argentina 2017 and the preparation for the Olympic Games, on September 21, 2017 in Bogota, Colombia.
BOGOTA, COLOMBIA - JUNE 14 Students practice making a diagnosis on a humanoid robot called Nova, programmed at the University of the Andes in Bogota, Colombia on June 14, 2022. The SinfonIA Uniandes team made up of professors and students from the Electronic Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Systems Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Law programs of the Universidad de Los Andes, qualified for the RoboCup@Home 2022 league in the Social Standard Platform League category, which will have a place in Bangkok, Thailand.
A traditional Wayuu settlement is made up of five or six houses that made up caserios or rancherias. Each rancheria has a name after a plant, animal or geographic place. A territory that contains many rancherias is named after the mother’s last name, because of the matriarchal structure of the Wayuu culture.
The Wayuus never group into towns and rancherias are usually isolated and far from each other, to control and prevent mixing of their goat herds.The typical house is a small structure called piichi or miichi, generally divided into two rooms where they hang hammock ”Chinchorro” to sleep and to keep personal belongings such as cotton made purses and ceramics to keep water. Living quarters can be either rectangular or semi-circular and the rooftop is made up of dried cactus hearts.
Traditionally, the walls are made out of yotojoro a wattle and daub of mud, hay and dried canes, but some of them have shifted towards a more modern construction style, like using cement and other materials. Close to the main house they erect a common area, similar to a living room named luma or enramada, but almost in the open. It’s made out of six pillars and a flat roof and serves as a common area for everyday duties and where visitors are attended, business activities are handled and where relatives hang their hammocks for the noon power nap.
BOGOTA, COLOMBIA - JANUARY 12: A bullet hole is seen in a window of the Toyota truck (replica) showing a picture of one of the Fifteen judicial officials who were investigating crimes committed in the area, were rounded up by a group of gunmen and shot. Twelve of the officials were killed, while three survived. This massacre occurred on January 18, 1989, and is know as The Rochela massacre, in Bogota, Colombia on January 12, 2018. Colombian Prosecutor's office opens a new exhibition of History of the Violence in the Country, In a country where violence has been the protagonist of the recent history due to scourges such as drug trafficking, armed conflict due to political ideologies and corruption, it is not unreasonable to open a museum in which the main pieces of this story are exhibited. The visitors have an access to those evidences seized by the investigating entity during the 25 years of existence and the fight against crime. Emblematic objects like the Jetski in which Pablo Escobar strolled through the lakes of his hacienda and key pieces for the development of the armed conflict just ended in the Andean country, like the computers seized from the FARC military leader "The Mono Jojoy" after the bombing in which he was killed. The incidence of drug trafficking in presidential campaigns, cassettes and recordings that at the time were key tests to demonstrate how the mafia seized the policy and the replica of the jeep in which 12 judicial officials were killed in a massacre occurred on January 18, 1989, at La Rochela, Simacota municipality, Colombia, pretend that young Colombians know closely the facts that have marked the history of their nation.
A colony of white herons in treetops share space with three red heron's (Eudocimus ruber) at the Guaviare river in Colombia on March 24, 2021. The Guaviare department, the door of the Colombian Amazon is becoming a tourist destination for sighting hundreds of birds or pink river dolphins, in this way industry is being consolidated to stop deforestation at the door of the Colombian Amazon. River dolphins are amongst the world’s most endangered cetaceans. Virtually wiped out in Asia as a result of competition with people for living space and fish, South America’s rivers present the best chance for ongoing freshwater dolphin survival.
LA MONTANITA, COLOMBIA - SEPTEMBER 29: A view of the built community at the Territorial Space of Training and Reincorporation (ETCR) developing projects to earn a living in La Montanita, Caqueta, Colombia on September 29, 2021. In the old Territorial Space for Training and Standardization (AETCR) of La Montañita, Caquetá. A large crop of pineapples, of the honey gold variety, planted on 3.1 hectares as the main source of income for more than 160 ex-combatants in the process of reincorporation belonging to the Cooperativa Multiactiva Para El Buen Vivir Y La Paz Del Caquetá (COOMBUVIPAC ).
ANTIOQUIA, COLOMBIA - NOVEMBER 02: Inés Cano, mother of Luna Valentina, 17, a girl with refractory epilepsy, Whom thirty-nine convulsions per hour tortured Luna for eleven years, after using medical cannabis, Luna has improved her quality of life, and Ines helps others with her Foundation "FundaLuva" where people have been treating seizure disorders, childhood epilepsy: Dravet syndrome and Lennox-Gastaut syndrome and Cancer in Santa Helena, Antioquia, Colombia, on November 02, 2021. The cannabis plant and the coca leaf have been stigmatized in Colombia and in the world, but due to their healing power they represent millionaire income for the health sector in the country, it is expected to increase production by 600 percent in the next two years.
REMEDIOS, COLOMBIA- JULY 22: A miner works at a gold mine "El Aguinaldo" 400 meters underground in Remedios, Colombia on July 22, 2018. The municipalities of Segovia and Remedios at the department of Antioquia in Colombia, about 5 million ounces of gold have been extracted in the last 170 years, about 142 tons of metal from the mountains of these municipalities. A mining tradition of more than two centuries that has created a production chain on which more than 65.000 people depend, a mining culture that prides the natives of both populations that goes through different processes for the search of the material.
MONGUI, COLOMBIA - JUNE 13 : Is seen a woman manufacturing a soccer balls in Mongui, Colombia on June 13, 2018. A town while still relatively undiscovered and with its proximity to Bogot
Common squirrel monkey (Saimiri scivreus) victim of wild trafficking is seen at URRAS on October 8, 2018 in Bogota, Colombia. Wildlife Trafficking is now the fourth largest illegal industry in Colombia, after drugs, guns and human trafficking, based primarily on the trade of live monkeys, birds, reptiles, and exotic animals is now worth $17 million each year, lifting the veil on the shadowy networks behind a lucrative, but widely underreported transnational criminal activity. Colombia is one of the most biodiverse countries on Earth. Unfortunately this natural richness lends itself to large profits in illicit animal trafficking. One in seven of all species on Earth can be found within the country, including 467 different types of mammals, 1,768 birds, 609 amphibians and 475 reptiles.
SOACHA, COLOMBIA - NOVEMBER 09: Rubiela Giraldo, mother of Diego Armando Marín who has been kill back in 2008 poses for a photo in Soacha, Colombia on November 09, 2021. The mothers and relatives of victims of extrajudicial killings by the Colombian army, known as “false positive” killings still searching for their sons, believed to be killed by soldiers during the former president Alvaro Uribe Velez period. The 6,402 civilians were killed by the military between 2002 and 2008 and falsely passed off as enemy combatants. The number of killings, known as "false positives", is almost three times higher than previous estimates. The inquiry is by a special court looking into crimes committed during a half-century of conflict between troops and left-wing rebels.
SIBUNDOY, COLOMBIA - MAY 24: Kamentsá Indigenous Community in Putumayo's Sinbundoy municipality, an ancient culture, is taught mainly in the family, but due to the relationship with the settlers, the Kamëntsá language is being lost, given that long ago there has been discrimination, especially towards young people who studied in schools in Sibundoy, Colombia on May 24, 2022. The culture of the Camëntsá people encompasses a large number of traditions, including speaking in the mother tongue, promoting thought, beliefs, and traditions, such as the day of the dead, dances, and their own music. The culture in the Camëntsá is something sacred and respectful that brings together the feelings of the elders and the existence of the indigenous people.
LA MONTANITA, COLOMBIA - SEPTEMBER 29: A group of former FARC members who started their reincorporation path to civilian life are seen in the built community at the Territorial Space of Training and Reincorporation (ETCR) developing projects to earn a living, such as a pineapple harving in La Montanita, Caqueta, Colombia on September 29, 2021. In the old Territorial Space for Training and Standardization (AETCR) of La Montañita, Caquetá. A large crop of pineapples, of the honey gold variety, planted on 3.1 hectares as the main source of income for more than 160 ex-combatants in the process of reincorporation belonging to the Cooperativa Multiactiva Para El Buen Vivir Y La Paz Del Caquetá (COOMBUVIPAC ).
MEDELLIN, COLOMBIA - APRIL 27: Macro Butterfly Portrait of a citrus butterfly, Heraclides anchisiades, plays a beautiful and vital role in the fertilization process In Medellín, Antioquia on April 27, 2024. The female carefully deposits her eggs on the leaves, while the male releases pheromones to attract her. In a fleeting yet crucial encounter, gametes unite, initiating the creation of new life.
BOGOTÁ, COLOMBIA - 04 de enero: Varios grafitis se tomaron las calles de la localidad de la Candelaria en Bogotá, Colombia, el 4 de enero de 2018. Colombia se está desprendiendo de su reputación política negativa por medio de un renacimiento cultural y artístico. Esto se hace más evidente gracias al arte urbano. Los grafitis, que adornan las calles de la ciudad, permiten revelar la creatividad ilimitada de estos artistas. Con el paso de los años, el arte urbano se ha apoderado de las paredes de Bogotá, convirtiéndola en un foco para el surgimiento de nuevos talentos y para que artistas de otras naciones, de renombre mundial, se reúnen aquí para mostrar su arte. 21 artistas, entre ellos dos nacionales, once locales (de la ciudad) y ocho internacionales de países como Brasil, Perú, México, Francia y Estados Unidos, tuvieron la oportunidad de expresar sus obras en la ciudad. (Juancho Torres - Agencia Anadolu). ( Juancho Torres - AA ) Bolivar Colombia
LA DORADA, COLOMBIA - SEPTEMBER 02: Members of the Colombian military forces, the US among fifteen nations took part in a multilateral search and rescue exercise hosted by Colombian Air Force (Fuerza Aérea Colombiana or FAC) at Palanquero Base in La Dorada, Caldas, Colombia on September 02, 2021. Angel de Los Andes allowed the 15 partners to practice responding to realistic simulations of search and rescue situations, aeromedical evacuation, casualty evacuation, and airdrop operations. Aircraft from Columbia, Brazil, and the US participated in the exercises. Aeromedical evacuation teams responded to a mass casualty situation simulation during an earthquake scenario.
GUAVIARE, COLOMBIA - MARCH 25: Rock art is seen at el Raudal del guayabero in Guaviare, Colombia, on March 25, 2021. Rock paintings made in South America around 8,000 - 12,000 years ago. The art, created on rock faces in the Serranía de la Lindosa, on the northern edge of the Colombian Amazon, is a riot of ochre-colored geometrical patterns, handprints, and images of animals and humans. The people who made these works of art were, it is believed, among the earliest humans to occupy the region, after migrations across what is now the Bering Strait some 25,000 years ago.
Mojojoy worm, one of the most exotic dishes for the Indigenous in the Amazon region is seen at the indigenous market place. In the Amazon, mojojoy is a key protein source in the indigenous diet, contributing to a nutritionally rich and diverse food culture. The traditional diet includes fish, wild game, mojojoy, and plant-based proteins, supporting essential bodily functions. This dietary practice reflects a deep connection to the environment, emphasizing sustainable harvesting and cultural significance. The indigenous approach aligns with principles of environmental stewardship, highlighting the interconnectedness of diet, culture, and community well-being in the Amazon region.
PROVIDENCE ISLAND, COLOMBIA - APRIL 22: A man rides his horse at the Beach in Providence Island in Colombia, April 22, 2023. Providencia boasts stunning beaches with powdery white sand and turquoise waters teeming with vibrant marine life. What sets it apart, however, is its extraordinary coral barrier. Providencia is home to the world's third-largest coral barrier, known as the "Seaflower Biosphere Reserve," which spans over 1.2 million hectares. What makes it even more special is that it is one of the most pristine and well-preserved coral reefs on the planet, with an incredible array of coral species, fish, and other marine creatures thriving in its waters.