THE GREEN GOLD

The Embera are Colombia's third largest indigenous group with an estimated population of around 71,000. They are a nomadic people found in different regions of the country although 50% of the population resides on the coastal pacific basin of the department of Choco. Other important groupings are located in the departments of Antioquia, Risaralda, Quindio, Caldas, Valle, Cauca, Putumayo, Caqueta and Narino.

‘Embera' translated from the indigenous language means ‘people' (or ‘gente' in Spanish). These indigenous peoples constitute one of Colombia's most socially complex and diverse ethnic groups which is reflected linguistically, geographically and within Embera mythology. The Embera continue to petition the Colombian government to respect, uphold and protect their fundamental collective and individual human right. Such demands include reclamations for their rights to life and dignity, food security, greater access to healthcare, and the right to ethno-education.

Land rights also continues to be an issue of the utmost importance and the Embera are calling on the government to grant the outstanding legal titles for 10 more Embera reservations and increase the area coverage of twenty more.The Embera are also negatively affected by the government's controversial anti-narcotics strategy funded by Plan Colombia involving the indiscriminate aerial fumigation of ancestral territories. The Embera say this is causing enormous damage to both the life and livelihood of their communities and many people have been forced to move to other areas or become displaced. In addition to all of the above, economic projects involving massive deforestation for the setting up of mega-scale palm oil and banana plantations is another serious problem and form of aggression being waged against them. Mega-projects for industrial scale cattle grazing and the unmitigated felling of trees for the timber industry also pose serious threats to the communities. Such activities are also involving the wholesale destruction of the natural environment in a region of the country known in Colombia as being  the ‘pulmon del mundo'.

When I visited the Embera I went with them inside the forest where they wanted to show my a sacred place. The story goes that people who bathed in the source of a small stream were cured by the water. It is an important place for them. I asked women and men to pick herbs and plants from this forest and explain to me what they used them for.