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.

The Ciénaga Grande de Santa Marta is a wetland complex characterized by its high productivity and different systems of biodiversity use associated with water. The Ciénaga receives fresh water from rivers descending from the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. Changes in the water dynamics of these rivers since the early twentieth century have been causing serious social and ecological changes in the region. The Aracataca river is one of these rivers that showed a drastic change in its water availability. In this research we study the relation between cooperation and hydrological dynamics that shapes the water governance system in this basin. The study combines quantitative data obtained from the hydrological description and qualitative information derived from interviews and a role-playing game workshop, which was analyzed from a social-ecological perspective. The analysis shows that the historical management of water, characterized by conflicts between individual and collective interests, power asymmetries, and the heterogeneity between actors, has established a problematic scenario. Our analysis at river basin scale showed difficulties in water governance regardless of water annual variability, thus requiring structural changes that allow the development of coordinated processes toward collective action. This research identifies elements that can enrich the management discourses of the Aracataca river basin and the Ciénaga as a whole, highlighting the importance of understanding environmental issues as problems of common pool resources.