The Colombian government is adamant that it will resume aerial spraying with glyphosate, negatively impacting indigenous and Afro-descendant peoples without their free, prior and informed consent (FPIC).

Attempts to resume aerial spraying in Colombia clearly illustrate how the right to free, prior and informed consent is being curtailed. The Ministry of the Interior has recently certified that the new Programme for the Eradication of Illicit Crops through Aerial Spraying with Glyphosate (PECIG) will not affect indigenous or Afro-descendant peoples who have land titles, and FPIC is therefore not required.

This certificate denies the rights of indigenous peoples whose territory has not been legally recognised due to government negligence. It also assumes that the programme will only affect those areas that will be sprayed, when in reality it is not possible to prevent the glyphosate from being carried further afield by rivers or on the wind and affecting communities well beyond the sprayed area.

The government is ignoring studies showing that aerial spraying has in the past pushed illegal plantations further into the forest. Hence current chemical crop eradication plans risk pushing land encroachment and deforestation into currently intact indigenous territories to the east and south. The programme will thus also threaten neighbouring indigenous peoples that are entitled to consultation and prior consent. Current controversial and contested plans target 12 of the 16 municipalities in the department of Caquetá. However, within the four municipalities that will not be sprayed, but who now face threats of land invasion, there are several titled indigenous reserves and untitled ancestral lands under claim with known indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation. In addition to disregarding the risk that more trees will be felled to make way for new plantations and pasturelands deeper within the forest, the government refuses to recognise the very real possibility that aerial spraying will also affect these adjacent areas, as harmful herbicide will be carried by rivers and dispersed by the wind.

Photo: Luís Pérez