00:04My name is Adel Iles, I am one of the leaders of the Jacome reservation.
00:11We are here analyzing a territorial issue, a case of deforestation.
00:24This entire area, from this meadow to the expanded property (just so you know), is an area of deforestation.
00:35They are practically all pastureland.
00:38On the shores of this territory, everything related to livestock farming is handled.
00:43We are practically surrounded by cattle farms.
00:49And I think there is also a part of the impact on us in terms of water consumption.
00:56That is to say, the reserve has no drinking water, because up there are pastures, the cattle come down and waste water.
01:06The manure is there.
01:07It rains, the water is received by the stream and that accumulates some of the pollution.
01:16And that's where we go to the stream, get the water, and consume it directly from the stream.
01:22That is one of the health-related impacts.
01:53To reach the Coreguaje indigenous reserve of Jacome.
01:56In the Colombian Amazon, you have to travel two hours from Puerto Arango, near Florencia, the capital of Caquetá, to
02:03San Antonio de Getuchá via the Orteguasa River, one of the most important in this department.
02:09In San Antonio, after changing boats, the journey to the land of the Coreguaje can take between one
02:15or two hours depending on the condition of the Jacome ravine, which connects the Orteguasa River with the reserve.
02:29At this time, compared to the previous period, in this month of July, the water should be at a
02:37high level.
02:38As it is now, at this low level, it was like this in December, at the beginning and end of December.
02:47And now, look, it's July and almost, if things continue like this, starting next week it will be impossible
02:54enter a canoe.
02:56The river began to change because of the cattle grazing. They were also cutting down everything along the riverbank.
03:04river and then they were knocking all that down and then they were carrying away all the trees.
03:11The river, then, was teeming with fish. Those big fish, milkfish, plaice-sized, spotted ones. Those milkfish weighed about 12, 10 arrobas.
03:22and even bigger.
03:24Bigger than a bigger hug.
03:27We didn't need to go out to the river to catch a pintadillo or even the same charapa turtle that one
03:35I found myself there in the lagoon.
03:37There was no need to go upstream or downstream because right there, in every era, there had been
03:43charapas.
03:43And today, well, fishing, that's the impact. Fishing, transportation, and currently, well, inclusion
03:53from neighboring settlers who have already cut down all of that.
03:57Although Caquetá, along with Putumayo, was one of the first departments in the Colombian Amazon to experience the introduction of cattle
04:04bovine towards the 18th century,
04:06The consolidation of this activity occurred from the second half of the 20th century.
04:10Since 2001, when the Colombian Agricultural Institute began recording the total inventory of cattle,
04:16Caquetá has been, by far, the Amazonian department that concentrates the largest number of cattle.
04:22If one takes into account that not all the municipalities of Meta, a historically cattle-ranching department, are part of the
04:28Amazon.
04:29Despite being historically a cattle-ranching region, unlike the rest of the Amazonian departments,
04:34In the last decade, cattle ranching in Caquetá has been growing at the same dizzying pace as the rest of
04:40the Colombian Amazon.
04:41There's been a lot of deforestation because this used to be mountainous, it had more mountains, but now the neighbors are also raising a lot of livestock.
04:57And they are affecting the water; the stream is drying up more.
05:02Because once you're outside the protected area, just by looking, you can tell, "Here it is."
05:12The problem is, because from there on it's all pastureland.
05:16Between 2016 and 2025, according to ICA figures, the registered cattle inventory for the municipality of Milán increased by 53
05:240.4%.
05:26During that same period, there has been a progressive transformation of the territory in an area of 5 kilometers around the reserve,
05:33according to an analysis carried out by MapBiomas Colombia for this research.
05:37While in 2016 forest cover predominates and is relatively continuous and homogeneous around the reserve,
05:44By 2024, a greater presence of clear, fragmented, and heterogeneous areas is observed.
05:50especially towards the northern, southern and southwestern sectors of the area of influence.
05:55The period of greatest increase in cattle inventory coincides temporally with the stage in which it becomes most evident
06:01the transformation of the coverage, the organization noted.
06:04There's less water coming in too, because people are cutting down trees and that's drying up the lakes as well.
06:12The headwaters where the water comes out also dry up, and then it reduces all of that.
06:18I've noticed that fish species have been declining because the water is drying up, so...
06:29Even the fish have nowhere to stay, so there is no more fishing.
06:33Terrestrial animals such as agoutis have also decreased; they are no longer found here, there is no more hunting.
06:43According to the analysis carried out for this report, in the micro-basin where the Coreguaje indigenous reserve of Jacome is located, the
06:50of the Orteguasa and Penella rivers,
06:52The water surface area decreased by 2,573 hectares between 2000 and 2023, making it the one with the most water
06:59He lost throughout Caquetá.
07:01The problem is not only one of quantity, but also of quality.
07:07The water quality is no longer the same; it's undrinkable. We, who have been drinking water from any source, are no longer able to tolerate it.
07:15directly broken,
07:16But for us, that quality of hot water, with its mojo flavor and a color that is not transparent but yellow,
07:27It's not suitable for drinking.
07:28And that is mainly the cause of some new diseases, skin outbreaks, that sometimes one cannot
07:38to control that with traditional medicine,
07:41because these are new diseases, which require a different approach.
07:46Climate change is very noticeable nowadays, first of all with the stages within the calendar, because previously when it was
07:58summer, it was summer,
08:00It wasn't even time for a little rain, and after a while the sun came out.
08:04Winter was winter, winter was a time of water, where all the rivers overflowed, everything was like a lake
08:13in those mountains.
08:14With all these changes, right now one doesn't have the same security as before.
08:20For example, in summer, when going out to work, the sun is heating up twice as much as it used to.
08:30In October 2025, the Amazonian Institute for Scientific Research, CINCHI,
08:35He announced the results of a study on vulnerability and climate risk in Caquetá.
08:40Although the study is not publicly available, CINCHI assured that hydrographic subzones such as that of the Orteguaza River, among
08:47others,
08:48They present a very high climate risk if current climate change trajectories, land use dynamics and transformation continue
08:55of the territory.
08:55As an urgent priority action, the CINCHI study recommended moving forward with the recovery of vegetation cover
09:01with the aim of increasing the size and number of forest patches.
09:05Here we are in a space, on a piece of land where we are sowing seeds for the recovery of the natural ecosystem.
09:17We are dreaming of planting 120 hectares, restoring 120 hectares, because as an indigenous reserve we have also suffered from the issue of fumigation with
09:27glyphosate.
09:28And that chemical has damaged a large part of our territory.
09:34Within that seedbed we have 25 species of seedlings, already plants that have already been germinated from seeds.
09:47While the Coreguaje indigenous reserve of Jacome is progressing in its ecological restoration process,
09:52Researchers question the contradictory approach that the Colombian State has historically taken towards the Amazon.
09:59On the one hand, while the State promotes conservation and restoration programs,
10:03On the other hand, it has invested at least 1.5 trillion pesos in loans for livestock farming in the Amazon.
10:10through the Agricultural Sector Financing Fund Finagro between 2018 and 2025.
10:25I would like to live in a quiet community, with lots of forests and mountains.
10:33that children have to consume, how to identify.
10:41So we want the children to know what we are doing, what we work on.
10:48So we want to see the result of what we are working on today.
10:52What we are looking for is, first, to establish a forest there, at least on the banks of the ravine,
11:03And may the owner there, the spirit, also return, and may he be the one who helps us again to put
11:13the appropriate water level.
11:17And what we also seek with trees, for example, the canangucha palm, is that it helps us to filter the water.
11:24There are more fish present, which helps us.
11:27There are also some types of aquatic animals that help us filter water.
11:33With this restoration, we want to have forest animals, not livestock.
11:39But it will always be a slow process, but I believe it is possible to achieve that.
11:49No!
11:50No!
11:52No no!
11:54No!
11:56No!
11:57No, no, no, no, no, no.
12:26No, no, no, no, no, no.
