Consultas populares mineras en Colombia: Condiciones de su realización y significados políticos. El caso de La Colosa

This article studies the conditions in which referendums (consultas populares) on mining are held in Colombia and their effects on the democratic political system. It is in the form of a case study of the referendums which arose from local communities' opposition to the La Colosa mining project, in the town of Cajamarca (Tolima). The analysis is based on theoretical approaches to the structure of political opportunity and local mobilization in the context of participatory democracy. The holding of a referendum (or “consultation with the people”) results from short- and long-term political and institutional changes and the use of different mechanisms for spreading opinions. In the same manner, the article points out that such referendums have impacts on the political sphere: they mobilize a large part of the population, influence political agendas and institutional norms and open new opportunities for debate and democratic participation

SDG 1 no poverty: building sustainable communities: a framework for supporting community livelihoods and poverty alleviation in resource regions

This chapter proposes the use of the sustainable livelihood framework (SLF) as a powerful conceptual approach for research aimed at understanding the interaction between global investment, local livelihoods and poverty reduction in resource regions. The chapter applies the SLF as a tool to develop recommendations for poverty alleviation, showing how it can contribute to SDG 1 No Poverty. The innovative application of the SLF helps us understand the ways in which key areas of research connect and interact as constituent components inherent in the framework. This chapter also argues that this framework helps increase our understanding of the ways communities build capacity to forge sustainable livelihoods in resource regions. It thus presents a justification for the use of the SLF, followed by an examination of the SLF principles, their implications for communities and relevance for empirical research in this field. The chapter also shows the way in which the SLF can be modified for application to local circumstances through case studies conducted in two resource regions of Colombia. Nevertheless, the findings of the research can be applied to other resource locations elsewhere