![]() ![]() ![]() With it, would go the traditional lives of its indigenous inhabitants, who are dependent on the health of their land and the sacred sites it contains. These threats have brought this natural paradise to the brink of no return. Mining, which implies the contamination and erosion of watersheds, threatens the health of more than 30 rivers that flow out of the Sierra these are the water sources of the departments of Magdalena, César, and La Guajira. ![]() Many of these concessions were granted without the prior consultation of the indigenous communities, which represents a persistent and systematic violation of their rights. The Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta is currently threatened by 251 mineral concessions, hydroelectric projects, agriculture, urban sprawl, and infrastructure projects. According to their worldview the land is sacred and shared in divine communion between humans, animals, plants, rivers, mountains, and the spirts of their ancestors.ĭespite this ancestral inheritance, development projects proposed for the region have failed to take the opinions of these indigenous groups into consideration. The indigenous Arhuaco, Kogi, Wiwa, and Kankuamo people protect and care for this natural treasure with an authority they have inherited from their ancestors. The melting snows of the highest peaks form rivers and lakes, whose freshwater flows down steep slopes to the tropical sea at the base of the mountains. The sheer changes in elevation create a wide variety of ecosystems within a small area, where the diversity of plant and animal life creates a unique exuberant region. It is the highest coastal mountain system in the world, a place where indigenous knowledge and nature’s own wisdom converge. Rising abruptly from Colombia’s Caribbean coast, the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta reaches 5,775 meters (18,946 ft.) at its highest points, the peaks of Bolívar and Colón. Preserving the legacy of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Heart of the World ![]()
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