This Council is located in the Municipality of Buenaventura in the Valle del Cauca department, in the Choco biogeographic region, which has been recognized internationally as one of the most biologically diverse areas on the planet. The Council includes 679 families with 4000 inhabitants approximately. It is mostly occupied by black communities, settled all along the shores of the Calima river mainly. This Council possesses a collective heritage and mythology that marks it as a human group with a common history, based upon it origins as slaves brought from Africa to America in Colonial times.
The Council has developed a series of principles and values to govern the territory including the following:
- Protection of traditional knowledge
- Recovery and fostering of traditional culture
- Enhancement of processes and settings for relationship building and socialization between elderly and youth
- Enhancement of local autonomy
- Generation and strengthening of sense of belonginess
One of the main problems related today with the land property in this Council is the presence, from around 2000, of illicit crops which has led to the presence of illegal armed groups, which started a dispute for the territory and caused the displacement of many inhabitants of the Calima river low basin. In 2003, the population started to come back to their territory.
After the displacement of their inhabitants in 2000 and during and after their return in 2003, this Council has negotiated with institutions such as Buenaventura Mayor’s office, International Organization for Migration, the Valle del Cauca department governor’s office, the Colombian Rural Development Institute, among other, in order to get projects for housing, food security, basic sanitary services, and collective land titling. The experience of this Council has been used as an example in the Manuals of Good Practices for Peace produced by United Nations Organization.
The Council also has worked with diverse institutions regarding biodiversity management and other topics. Among these institutions are: Valle del Cauca Autonomous Regional Corporation National (CVC), Service for Learning (SENA), Buenaventura’s Mayor Office, Valle del Cauca governor’s Office, and Tropical Forestry Centre of Bajo Calima. In the Process of Black Communities, this Council has been a group of political and defense representation. This Council has used some legal resources in order to guarantee that they are taken into account in the process of previous consultation of communities for carrying out some projects such as roads.