Families from the Wiwa community of Gomke are building a new settlement called Shegunamke on lower slopes of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in Colombia. This move is described as a voluntary adaptation strategy to protect social, educational, and spiritual cohesion amidst intensifying climate pressures and the presence of paramilitary groups.
Their ancestral settlement, located higher on the mountain, had become increasingly isolated and dangerous due to severe weather events and paramilitary violence. The community aims to preserve its social and spiritual structures by establishing the new settlement in a safer, more accessible location. The Wiwa have also acquired land at higher elevations, leaving it untouched to protect water sources and páramo ecosystems.
Source: Mongabay