As part of its advocacy strategy, IRI-Colombia convened the municipal government of Orito to present an account of the progress of the Territorial Development Plan, in terms of protection of Amazonian tropical forests and biodiversity, as well as deforestation control.
“Let’s stop deforestation!” is the call we make from the mayor’s office. Indigenous communities constantly remind us that we must always keep in mind the care of the forest and its biodiversity. I am grateful for these spaces, because to protect our Amazon, all actions are necessary, both from the individual to the institutional,” said the municipal mayor of Orito, Edison Ramírez, who was present at the meeting.
“Orito has a forestry vocation of high biodiversity, but we cannot continue to maintain it if the local, indigenous, peasant and Afro-descendant communities cannot live from conservation,” added the mayor’s advisor, Carlos Hernán Castro, who explained the projects carried out by the municipal government, including a flagship program whose purpose is to recognize environmental conservation as a productive system. “We want anyone to go to the Agrarian Bank and be able to take out a loan because they are going to dedicate themselves to a production line called conservation,” he said.
This great goal is developed in a transversal way through the strategic axes of the Territorial Development Plan, “Territorial planning around water” and “Productive transformation and climate action”. This was explained by the mayor’s advisor, who also referred to some challenges they face, such as the concept of economy, related exclusively to private goods and not the common good, and the construction of roads. “We need them because they make things easier for us, but when one is opened, they begin to destroy everything around them. However, the roads are not the problem, but we who believe we have the blessing to end everything when they are built,” he said.
Additionally, the representative of the municipal government referred to other programs such as the aqueduct, solid waste management, wastewater discharges, the construction of housing for the rural sector, compliance with environmental determinants; the implementation of a platform that promotes the commercialization, at a lower cost, of sustainable agricultural products produced in the region; and the updating of a Basic Territorial Planning Plan with a vocation for conservation and in collaboration with the communities.
The accountability took place on November 15 in the auditorium of the Orito Chamber of Commerce, within the framework of the formation process of the local chapters IRI-Orito, IRI-Churuyaco and IRI-Siberia.
Click here to read the full Spanish edition of the November IRIboletín.
