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Although Felipe Henao had witnessed with joy since childhood the dazzling and colorful nature that surrounded his home at the northern gate of the Colombian Amazon, he only learned that this vast and magnificent backyard where his childhood games had taken place was the frontier of a true universal relics.
Whistle Q-ida in Chiribiquete. Courtesy of Whistle Q-ida
It was June 2018 and on the radios of the town of El Calamar, Guaviare, with no more than 9,000 inhabitants, amidst the stifling humidity, only a single fuss could be heard: the news that Unesco had declared the Serranía de Chiribiquete National Park a national park of heritage mixture of humanity. Located between the departments of Guaviare and Caquetá, the park became a huge piece of land of about 4.3 million hectares with the announcement of almost 1.5 million hectares. And there he was, Pipe, as his friends knew him, the son of a generation of settlers who came from the interior of Colombia, emboldened by the cattle boom that was destroying thousands of acres of Amazon forest and witnessed the very edges of his city being destroyed he now laid out a land that would be celebrated around the world as an ancient and natural relic.
But what was Chiribiquete? How come no one, not even he, a perpetually curious student, knew of the importance of this country? It was not the name of a parrot, nor of a tree, nor of an indigenous town, as many of the town’s young people believed. As described in the book Chiribiquete: the Cosmic Maloka of the Jaguar Men, by Carlos Castaño, the anthropologist who discovered this treasure in the middle of the jungle, this was a sacred land of shamanic pilgrimage, the archaeological site with the oldest human evidence of Colombia, the land of the Jaguars, with the highest density of cats in the country, an inaccessible area where 100-meter-high stone walls are painted with ocher figures, hands, spirals and scenes that tell the stories and rituals of the past. With the wondrous discovery of treasure ahead of them, Pipe, who had been active in tending the jungle since the age of 11, realized he had a new and important mission.
“To think that seven park rangers – originally seconded from the government – four of whom only perform administrative tasks in the city, would be able to protect and care for an area of more than four million hectares was an illusion , it was also doomed to protect the park. That’s why we turned to the relevant institution, the national parks, so that they could train us. Are there better guardians than those of us who were children of these lands? But we didn’t have an answer for that, so we, the young people, decided to train and become the ‘Guardians of Chiribiquete’ without the support of anyone but the community,” explains Pipe, who is now using the power of social networks to expand his work , where he calls himself Pipe Q-ida. “We wanted to be the voice of the territory, of the jaguar, to promote environmental education. For this includes not only protection through law and order but also the education of its people. There’s no point in cities educating them about the dangers of deforestation when nobody here in the jungle knows there are consequences. Just as in other decades they taught us to destroy the Amazon in order to live, today we must teach to take care of the Amazon in order to survive,” explains the young man, who is now 28 years old.
Pipe Q-ida and his friends, including Andrea Rodríguez, William Tribales, Jhon Edwin and Jefferson Hilarión, founded the Chiribiquete Guardian School, a nine-day program taught in schools across the region. Today there are already more than 1,000 young people throughout the territory who have attended courses teaching the importance of the Amazon or the environmental benefits of the virginity of Chiribiquete, from which, for example, 60% of the water of the Amazon comes. In addition, they are trained in activism, international treaties and agreements, leadership and an essential tool, communication, which is essential to attracting the attention of more young people. “They call us the influencers of the jungle,” says Pipe, with grace and almost sparking eloquence, who, by using social media for his educational programs, feels that the destiny of being a rancher, growing coca, or growing palm trees no longer exists only future attracted by the youth of this Amazon. “Now they see that there is a chance to protect their deepest roots, the territory, and beyond that to be recognized for it,” he says.
View of the Chriribiquete area Courtesy of Pipe Q-ida
However, the task is much more complex than the vastness of the jungle would suggest. According to an article by the Foundation for Conservation of Nature and Sustainable Development (FCDS), livestock farming increased in the Amazon foothills after 2015, after the signing of the peace accords that led to the demobilization of the armed groups, making them unstable and dangerous areas. In a way, his departure opened the door to areas to be exploited, in addition to the state’s reconversion of many illegal coca farmers into ranchers. In just four years, the organization says livestock in the region has increased by 77%.
Coming to terms with these old economies, leveraged by major political powers, is no easy task for young activists. “We are volunteers willing to give our knowledge, time or labor to take care of the jungle. And because of this, we must face everything from protecting our lives, which are always threatened, by insisting on continuing to take care of the jungle, to the frustration of not having the money to save the ecosystems, that we see in danger and must face our own struggles. against our economic dreams. I’m 28 years old, I was supposed to have a house and I traded that house for a community dream,” explains Pipe Q-ida.
From their experience in the classroom, their exchange with researchers from all over the world and the jungle itself, the School of Guardians of Chiribiquete identified five impending risks for the national park. Of greatest concern seems to be the illegal appropriation of land that by law should not belong to anyone, but which is already the subject of disputes over illegal titles giving ownership. “The problem is, whoever appropriates logging, then plants cattle or coca, and then looks for a water source to bring in tourism,” insists Pipe, who has focused his educational programs on understanding the high cost to humanity spread illegal appropriation. “We need to convoke the Chiribiquete Wardens in all parts of the world because this park is so big, so relevant and so complex that only Colombians cannot care for it. The duty belongs to humanity”.
To address the problem of deforestation, which has reached 20,000 hectares in the last year alone, Pipe and his entourage of enthusiastic guardians are hosting a community-chosen day of reforestation of affected areas to conclude their program. Thanks to donations, they receive seedlings of Moriche, Abarco, Cedar, Cabo de Hacha, native species that can help restore the balance of the jungle. “Our dream now is to buy a piece of land to have our own nursery where endemic species grow and where we can receive experts and professors from all over the world who come to teach us more tools to protect this paradise that you can imagine is like the movie ‘Avatar’, full of these vertical plateaus that seem to float in the sky called tepuis, like that, but in real life,” explains the activist.
A group of Pipe Q-ida students. Courtesy of Pipe Q-ida
But as difficult as their fight against the ranchers, who do not want to be stigmatized as bad people for what they have been doing all their lives, it was just as difficult to keep national and especially foreign tourism out of the park. The Serranía de Chribiquete National Park cannot be visited, it is protected from all human visits, and yet the town of El Calamar, one of the gates of this reserve, does not stop people who want to know what experts have baptized as the Sistine Ancestral Chapel. For those tempted to discover these lands, Pipe has a very powerful message: “This is a paradise that I truly invite you NOT to discover. Chiribiquete is not visited, only breathed, because its power is in the air. Come to San José del Guaviare, there is everything in Chiribiquete but on a smaller scale: cave paintings, indigenous communities, tepuis, jungles, cats, rivers, waterfalls and with public access. But the park is the park and we have to leave it that way if we want other generations to breathe it.”