Community-based conservation (CBC) processes are expected to provide positive outcomes for the environment and society by recognizing and engaging local communities in natural resource management, even when established in conflict contexts. However, questions remain about how CBCs can emerge and thrive in hostile contexts. This study focuses on the Santa Clara Agro-environmental Association’s conservation efforts in Colombia’s Serranía del Pinche region. It aims to understand how the CBC organization and its conservation outcomes are maintained through the development of the Colombian armed conflict, inquiring specifically on what capacities helped them navigate or even transform conflict dynamics.
Through, interviews, satellite image analysis, and a participatory workshop in the field, the research found four capacities to be crucial for social-ecological change and conflict navigation: nurturing a sense of place, exerting agency and leadership, mobilizing collective action, and negotiating with diverse stakeholders. Although the Association may not directly address the drivers of conflict in this setting, findings show it contributes to transforming local conflict dynamics mainly by fostering collaborations with diverse stakeholders (NGOs, academia, local and regional government representatives). Such collaborations fostered a new understanding of the social-ecological system and contributed to adjusting structures and norms that recognize and incorporate community autonomy over the territory. Then so, contributing to peace on the local scale.
By uncovering CBC capacities that sustain conservation efforts amidst conflict, this research offers new insights into resilience-building in conflict-affected regions. Lastly, it also highlights the need to have a multilevel approach to consider broader political and socio-economic dynamics to address the root causes of the context comprehensively.
