What will you explore in your PhD project?

In my PhD research I will explore the role of Environmental Human Rights Defenders as agents of change for cultural and biodiversity conservation and climate change mitigation, focusing on two case studies in the Colombian Amazon rainforest from an intersectional decolonial perspective. Intersectionality and decolonial perspectives are a key lens to understand and support the transformative role of Environmental Human Rights Defenders, to dimension their vulnerability, understand the obstacles they face and the different violences they are exposed to. Such a lens also helps contextualize and qualify the transformations Environmental Human Rights Defenders mobilize as agents of change for cultural and biodiversity conservation and to identify how to support their roles.

Environmental Human Rights Defenders are at the forefront of the global fight against biodiversity loss, environmental degradation, extractivism, cultural erasure and the protection of the climate. Far from being single individuals, they tend to embody and represent much larger collective mobilization processes with their political goals, cultural characteristics and worldviews, from which they not only resist and “defend” but actively enact and reproduce alternatives to development and more sustainable ways of being on earth. Because of this, across the world Environmental Human Rights Defenders suffer a diverse range of violence, threats and intimidation from those who find their economic and political interests challenged by their activism.

What did you do before starting your PhD at LUCSUS?

I hold bachelor degrees both in Law and Anthropology from the Universidad Los Andes (Bogota, Colombia) and a master’s degree in Political Ecology, Degrowth and Environmental Justice from the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology, Autonomous University of Barcelona (ICTA-UAB). Prior to joining LUCSUS, I was coordinating the Environmental Justice Module of the Masters in Political Ecology, Degrowth and Environmental Justice (ICTA-UAB) and before that I coordinated the same master program for two years. In Colombia I have worked with various communities in different environmental and cultural projects: with the indigenous Wiwa community in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta (Colombia) supporting processes of cultural reinforcement; with peasant organisations from the Cauca and Cundinamarca in environmental governance and climate change adaptation processes; and with the Mayor’s Environmental Office of Bogota D.C accompanying urban populations facing what now is being recognized as climate change displacement.

What made you want to apply for PhD studies at LUCSUS?

I knew about LUCSUS through the work of top researchers I had been encountering in my research path. LUCSUS’ interdisciplinary and collaborative approach to research and its renown in the field of Sustainability Studies definitely drew my attention. Adding to this I found the project itself  very much aligned with my research interests,  highly relevant for the time and context and as a fertile soil for academia to enter in dialogue with grassroots struggles mobilizing transformative change towards sustainability.

What excites you most about your work as a PhD student?

Being a PhD student at LUCSUS is such an amazing opportunity to continue learning and acquiring research skills while developing as a researcher in a very vibrant and convivial research community. Beyond this, what excites me the most is the possibility to contribute through my research to a more just and sustainable future for all, through the work and support of those who everyday put themselves at the frontline to push for these transformations.

What do you hope your research can contribute with to society?

I hope my research can contribute to an understanding and visibilization of the transformative role of EHRD within the current multiple crises, focusing not only on their experiences as victims of violence and threats, going beyond what they resist and delving into what it is they propose, enact and defend. 

There is a strong need to decolonize the Environmental Justice framework in academia and to visibilize the ontological and epistemological politics that are at the very heart of environmental justice struggles and territorial defense. In particular, coming from indigenous and peasant populations their activism might not only be focused on defending natural resources, but other-ways-of-being on earth, other worlds, other natures -as opposed to different cultural visions of the same nature- and in this sense, different understandings of biodiversity conservation, of the current socio-ecological crises and of the strategies to tackle and face it. I hope that through my research I can contribute to generate a nuanced understanding of this diversity and how to support these perspectives and practices from academia, society and policy.