Shifting agriculture systems in the Colombian Amazon, locally known as chagras, have been traditionally managed by indigenous peoples following their traditional ecological knowledge (TEK). However, different socioeconomic drivers of change are affecting indigenous chagra TEK, resulting in changes in practices and land-use patterns. This study examines TEK transformations from 1970 to 2016 and their relation to rainforest management in the Ticuna indigenous resguardo of El Vergel (Leticia Municipality, Amazonas Department). It employs an ethnographic case study design that articulates quantitative data on land-use variables related to chagras and qualitative ethnographic data describing dimensions of TEK and its perceived transformations, including knowledge of the environment, practices and management systems, social institutions, and worldviews. Our findings reveal that TEK transformations entail changes in land-use, including size of production area, temporality of land-use, and cultivated diversity. This study contributes to a reinterpretation of TEK transformations and emphasizes the importance of the chagra as an adaptive system. The TEK transformations related to chagras imply a constant reattunement of relations that bind people and their environments. Rather than being frozen in an ethnographic past, people have responded to social and economic drivers to meet their current needs and aspirations. Likewise, understanding TEK transformations and their relation to changes in land-use practices provides relevant insights about social-ecological dynamics in the Amazon rainforest to navigate change and provide the basis for a discussion of how to enrich management decisions to move toward sustainability in tropical forests.

From a comprehensive diagnosis of the associated basins, islands, and wetlands of the coastal lagoon system of Ciénaga Grande de Santa Marta, Colombia, this work describes feasible options for the recovery of its ecosystem’s health and ecological resilience. Firstly, the state of the coastal lagoon was assessed, finding that hydrology, wave climate, and the morphological changes of the coastline explain recent changes in the coastal wetlands. Key variables were used to describe the level of conservation or degradation of the coastal lagoon system and to identify measures to improve its ecological functions. Finally, to mimic some of these functions and improve connectivity of the ecosystems, green infrastructure alternatives were proposed for the short and medium term to recover the services of these ecosystems and restore their resilience.

It is an increasingly accepted idea that biological diversity stabilizes ecosystem processes and the services they provide to society. By reducing biomass fluctuation, biodiversity could mitigate the impact of changing environmental conditions on rural incomes as long as people exploits a diverse set of natural assets. This effect is analogous to the risk-spreading function of financial portfolios. This paper presents evidence of the portfolio effect for an open-access artisanal fishery in an estuarine ecosystem, located in a Colombian Biosphere Reserve. Using catch statistics from 2002 to 2018, we evaluate the contribution of catch diversity to the stabilization of fishing income. We find that changes in catch composition are related to seasonal and interannual variations in salinity conditions. The portfolio effect arises from asynchronous fluctuations of fish species due to fluctuating environmental conditions. Catch diversification, instead of specialization, help achieve resilient fisheries.

En el presente documento se analizará el desarrollo histórico jurisprudencial que ha hecho la Corte Constitucional colombiana sobre la noción de Autonomía Universitaria[1], buscando identificar la naturaleza jurídica de este concepto y su alcance, lo que servirá como contexto para estudiar cómo la Corte Constitucional ha entendido y desarrollado esta institución que le asiste a las universidades del país. Para este efecto, se han estudiado cerca de cien sentencias que la Corte Constitucional ha dictado desde el año de 1992, momento en que inició actividades, hasta el mes de agosto del 2018, teniendo en cuenta sentencias de constitucionalidad, de revisión de tutela y de unificación jurisprudencial, que además han sido sistematizadas de acuerdo con los escenarios constitucionales que plantean[2] y con la frecuencia de citación que hay entre ellas, resultados que se plasman en dos documentos anexos de este artículo.   [1] En adelante en el presente texto se referirá a la Autonomía Universitaria simplemente como AU. [2] Un "escenario constitucional" es el patrón fáctico típico (con su correspondiente campo de intereses contrapuestos) en el que la Corte ha especificado, mediante subreglas, el significado concreto de un principio constitucional abstracto. Véase: Diego López Medina, El Derecho de los Jueces, 2a. ed., Legis, Bogotá, 148 (2006).