Roodaba Mir

Project Description:

Our research project explored the complex relationship between environmental protection, Indigenous rights, and green economic tools like Debt-for-Nature Swaps (DNS) in Colombia, especially in the Amazon and Andean-Amazonian regions. While trying to move toward a cleaner energy future (called an energy transition), we looked at how Colombia is also expanding mining projects for materials like copper and molybdenum through an example of a Canadian Mining company called Libero Copper. These materials are essential for renewable technologies but mining them creates new social and environmental problems. To support the overarching goals of the project, I helped gather and analyze information about Colombia’s energy policies, its history of extractive economies, and how financial tools like DNS are being used to pay off debt by promising to protect nature. I conducted literature reviews that explained how DNS work, by exchanging part of a country's debt for environmental promises and how they’ve evolved over time. I researched and evaluated contracts and legal agreements that demonstrate how these swaps have been used in countries like Costa Rica, Ecuador, Peru, and Belize, and especially how Colombia is planning to use them to protect forests and biodiversity. I also studied critiques of DNS, pointing out that they can exclude Indigenous people, have unclear rules, or allow foreign countries to influence environmental decisions in the Global South. My work showed that while DNS can help protect nature and reduce debt, they often don’t give enough power to the local communities who are most affected. For example, in Colombia, there are concerns that DNS and new green energy projects may repeat past patterns of extractivism, harming the environment and Indigenous rights in the name of sustainability. To this end, I conducted a historical review and synthesis of past extractivist practices in the Amazonian region. Another part of my research looked at the long history of extractive booms in the Colombian Amazon, such as the quinine, rubber, oil, and coca booms. These periods brought a lot of economic activity but caused major harm, especially to Indigenous communities and their ancestral territories. I wrote about how public debt has pressured Colombia to approve extractive projects, creating a cycle where more resources are taken from the Amazon to repay loans, which leads to more environmental and social harm. I also reviewed Colombian laws and energy policies, showing how they support renewable energy but also continue to depend on fossil fuels and mineral mining. I explained how Indigenous resistance and legal tools, such as the Escazú Agreement and Indigenous territorial governance, offer alternatives to these harmful models. DNS tools, to be sure, can be improved to enhance Indigenous autonomy and the environment.

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