Mangroves and coral reefs are recognized for their importance for the development of sustainable projects, adapting to climate change, mitigating the force of the waves, and decreasing the threat in the face of extreme events such as tsunamis and hurricanes. 

After supercyclon Amphan hit India and Bangladesh in 1999, or the tsunami that occurred in Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, and Indonesia in 2004, only the villages that had preserved their mangroves endured minor human life and infrastructure losses. 

In the case of the recent hurricanes Eta and Iota that passed near San Andrés, we measured winds up to 39 knots (72 km/h); however, thanks to only one mangrove tree, we saw how the wind speed was reduced to 6 knots (11 km/h), confirming, again, their great protection service to houses and infrastructure, inclusively in category 1 to 3 hurricane conditions. 

Another function of this ecosystem –considered as the oldest on Earth– is to provide a safe harbor for biodiversity. For instance, the research project entitled, “Assessment of ecosystemic services linked to the mangrove ecosystem in forests with a contrasting hydric regime on an island of the Seaflower Biosphere Reserve”, funded by the Universidad Nacional de Colombia (UNal) showed a high presence of herbivore marine species, such as the parrotfish, above all in their juvenile stages at Old Point Regional Park.

Important barrier, but at risk

Several research projects carried out by UNal-Caribbean during Seaflower expeditions (Serranilla Cay, Albuquerque Cay, and Providencia and Santa Catalina Islands) have helped to determine that coral reef barriers play an important part in the protection of coasts in insular territories. They can inclusively diminish up to 95% of wave height which generally are present in the east Caribbean area, and that in periods of high swells and winds can measure up to 5 meters on the outer side of the barrier. Thanks to this –specifically to factors such as wave shoaling and friction produced on the seafloor– the waves break and lose force, in some cases, passing from 5 meters to 50 cms. 

Furthermore, the research project, entitled “Relationships between the complexity of coral reefs and the ecosystemic services on oceanic islands of the Caribbean, Seaflower Biosphere Reserve” has carried out samplings –through autonomous diving and drone aerial imaging– that have helped to determine some natural barrier deterioration conditions, related to erosion, which impact not only the marine life but also the welfare and economy of coastal communities. 

As the case of Sound Bayin San Andrés, where the hotels and houses have almost completely lost their beaches, furthermore, the road has also collapsed, disconnecting the south sector from the rest of the island. The scenario is far away from what the locals remember, saying they could play softball on these beaches due to their extension. 

The loss of general structural coverage, besides the considerable reduction of stony corals (acoporidae), caused a speedy coral height decrease and loss of seafloor structural complexity reflected in a “flattening” of the floor bed described by Mexican, American, and Australian researchers. This situation increases the level of energy that arrives at the coast in form of waves and currents and accelerates erosion. 

Therefore, the research carried out by UNal-Caribbean is focused on recording the structural complexity of the coral in coral barriers, contributing to the formulation of management strategies, and proposing solutions based on the services that these ecosystems provide to nature. 

For this, they use traditional techniques and new digital methodologies, such as photogrammetry to rebuild the 3D structure of the reef and study its relations with diverse functions of these ecosystems more profoundly. This with support from Australian researchers, thanks to a doctoral scholarship exchange program with the Australian Academy of Science, that allowed, among others, to have internships in Australian Marine Research institutions, which by the way has the largest coral reefs in the world and San Andrés, the third-largest coral reef. 

Furthermore, through independent diving, we saw healthier coral reefs, with great structural complexity and abundance of fish and other wildlife, that help not only to protect the coasts but also for the food safety of the community as the turn into “natural farms,” key for natural and native high nutritional value protein, in an island which imports more than 90% of its food. 

The case of the pandemic

Despite the quarantine and the measures imposed due to the pandemic that impacted tourism –the main producer of income for the islands–, and thanks to these natural farms, the mangroves, and marine grasses– several families had the opportunity to solve their nutritional needs through fishing.

What follows in the research is to continue an environmental economic appraisal that translates into benefits from the ecosystemic services provided by the reefs and make visible its importance, providing arguments to understand the profitability and strengthening of the coral reefs, and invest in solutions based on nature through preservation, rehabilitation, and strengthening of the coral reef and mangroves of the Archipelago. 

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In 1941, months before the U.S. got involved in the world war, the Fifth George Vanderbilt Expedition of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia (ANSP) visited the island, followed by the Catherwood-Chaplin West Indies Expedition of 1948. The last American expedition took place in the mid-60s, organized by the University of Florida and the ANSP. 

In the 70s, Colombian marine sciences began a process of appropriation of the research in Colombia, that despite having two coasts that surround the country we still had “our backs turned to the sea.” It should be noted that the surge of 40 years ago is due to a group of young scientists of the former Punta de Betín Institute of Marine Research, known today as the Marine and Coastal Research Institute (INVEMAR, for its Spanish acronym) where we formed the 1^st Providencia Expedition, to become knowledgeable of the vast treasures of the island, slightly observed by previous expeditions. 

This effort opened the way for numerous other Colombian scientist expeditions to carry out projects, growing our knowledge of the natural wealth of the island. Hence, in 1995, the Colombian government appointed the 1,600 hectares (3,954 acres) area north of the island as the Old Providence-McBean Lagoon Natural Park, more than 90% of which is today a protected marine area.

For 2000, the academia and natural resources management entities helped the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to appoint the marine as a Biosphere Reserve, under the name Seaflower Biosphere Reserve. Finally, in September of 2019, the Colombian Ocean Commission (CCO, for its Spanish acronym) and its associated institutions, including the Universidad Nacional de Colombia (UNal) Caribbean campus carried out its traditional annual expedition to the Reserve. In this manner, the participating researchers will have a prolific wealth of data that will allow us to qualify and quantify the damages caused by Hurricanes Eta and Iota. 

In 1941, months before the U.S. got involved in the world war, the Fifth George Vanderbilt Expedition of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia (ANSP) visited the island, followed by the Catherwood-Chaplin West Indies Expedition of 1948. The last American expedition took place in the mid-60s, organized by the University of Florida and the ANSP. 

In the 70s, Colombian marine sciences began a process of appropriation of the research in Colombia, that despite having two coasts that surround the country we still had “our backs turned to the sea.” It should be noted that the surge of 40 years ago is due to a group of young scientists of the former Punta de Betín Institute of Marine Research, known today as the Marine and Coastal Research Institute (INVEMAR, for its Spanish acronym) where we formed the 1^st Providencia Expedition, to become knowledgeable of the vast treasures of the island, slightly observed by previous expeditions. 

This effort opened the way for numerous other Colombian scientist expeditions to carry out projects, growing our knowledge of the natural wealth of the island. Hence, in 1995, the Colombian government appointed the 1,600 hectares (3,954 acres) area north of the island as the Old Providence-McBean Lagoon Natural Park, more than 90% of which is today a protected marine area.

For 2000, the academia and natural resources management entities helped the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to appoint the marine as a Biosphere Reserve, under the name Seaflower Biosphere Reserve. Finally, in September of 2019, the Colombian Ocean Commission (CCO, for its Spanish acronym) and its associated institutions, including the Universidad Nacional de Colombia (UNal) Caribbean campus carried out its traditional annual expedition to the Reserve. In this manner, the participating researchers will have a prolific wealth of data that will allow us to qualify and quantify the damages caused by Hurricanes Eta and Iota. 

But, what makes the coral reefs of the San Andrés Archipelago and particularly those of Providencia, a Caribbean wonder? Looking for an answer, we could focus on its extensive coral reef barrier close to the Quitasueño Cay, along with its 50 km (31 miles), the second-longest in the Caribbean. We could also mention the ample fish populations, which feed and nourish the people of Providencia and those that visit this privileged Colombian reserve. 

Considering that the Great Caribbean –from the subtropical coasts of the United States to the outpour of the Orinoco River– recently recorded 1,577 fish species, of which 499 have also been recorded in Providencia (almost a third part). This dazzling variety is distributed among 96 families, including fish of great commercial value, besides others essential for maintaining the health of the reef as well as others that comprise the complex network of biological and ecological interactions, a basic condition for maintaining the healthy functioning of the tropical shallow seas.

The fish of economic importance include members of several families, including jacks (Carangidae), swordfish, mackerels, and bonitos (Scombridae), snappers (Lutjanidae), and groupers (Serranidae); however, certain often underrated groups, such as chubs (Kyphosidae), are part of the local cuisine of the so-called rondón providenciano. Several of these species – in danger of extinction in the western tropical Atlantic– still maintain populations in Providencia. 

On the other hand, some groups play an important role in maintaining the coral reef, as they control the proliferation of algae, which due to the rapid growth, tend to cover and overshadow the reef. I can highlight the parrotfish, part of the Labridae family, a conspicuous group of tropical fish with bright colors and complex life stories. Due to overfishing of the most appreciated species such as snappers and groupers, fishermen are resorting to parrotfish, some of which are longer than 3.2 feet.

Providencia is the only location of the Seaflower Reserve where all species of Caribbean parrotfish were discovered, including great sized fish and rainbow, blue, and midnight parrotfishes. 

Although numerous families are not of monetary significance or have a marked ecological role, they do provide significant beauty to the coral reef and at the same time are a link to the complex network of reef structures and trophic interactions (nutritional cycle) that maintain the coral reef healthy. I should mention the families of cartilaginous fish (Ginglymostomatidae, Carcharhinidae, Dasyatidae, and Urotrygonidae), efficient predators of fish, and invertebrates and numerous groups of bony fish, such as the Muraenidae (moray eels), Holocentridae (squirrel and soldier fishes), Gobiidae (goby fish), Pomacentridae (damselfishes), Chaetodontidae (butterflyfishes), Labrisomidae (blennies), and Balistidae (triggerfishes). 

Another common saying is the crises provide opportunities. In my opinion, this is very true in this catastrophic moment, as we need to ratify to the world that we Colombians are going to focus our efforts not only to rebuild Old Providence but also that we will devote to complying with the inevitable task the planet provided us: preserving the beauty and diversity of marine life of the archipelago.

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It also needs ample communitarian participation from the people that endured the rigors of the recent hurricane and that abruptly lost loved ones, lands, emotional reference locations, and material possessions. People left in a fragile state, with anguish, perplexed or stressed from hours of undergoing hurricane Iota.

The history of the Caribbean is full of cases of how repeated hurricanes and fires made for repeated repopulation, expropriations and territorial dispossessions concealed as humanitarian help, risk management, and crisis attention. Dispossessions understood as violent processes of socio-spatial and socio-environmental reconfiguration, restricting the capability that communities have to decide their sustenance and life form by themselves, making rebuilding more traumatic than the hurricane itself¹.

Rebuilding a territory is the same as repairing it. Providencia is now a space of cohabitation of multiple layers of devastation²: the one that left slavery on the island, the descent of cotton, the secession from Panama, the fragmentation of “sea territories” due to a ruling from The Hague Court, of the voids left by youngsters that one day disappeared in the middle of the Caribbean when riding a speed boat and the footprints of Hurricane Iota. 

An island is a network of social and cultural relationships intertwined by a long-lasting history; of social-racial hierarchies implanted in sectors of the island, of the skin tones and their bodies, of last names, etc.  But it is also a place where these communities have imagined life projects according to their cosmic visions, counter-hegemonic to the coloniality of the state nation. However, the asymmetrical relationships of power between the colonizing state and these “sea territories” have hindered said projects to potentialize and come to fruition. Rebuilding is then an opportunity to build the present and future once again in islander format.

Activating mechanisms of communitarian participation means acknowledging the ethnicity of the native community (raizal) and its right to be consulted, “allowing ethnic groups to have a say on the management, legislative and other decisions, that could impact them”³. Remember that all decisions over a territory that impacts the lives and location of ethnic populations should be summited to this mechanism. But above all, to value their ecological, architectural, economic, maritime, fishing, and political knowledge, hopefully establishing a fluid non-hierarchal dialogue in Creole, Spanish, and English. Remember that the language is spirit and the Ubuntu raizal who directs materialization of its rebuilding.

This would be a great step that for the first time a Colombian government acts on an intercultural radical perspective, demonstrating that political management of cultural difference is taken seriously. The disaster left by Iota, helped the government to take this challenge of relating in another manner with people of African, British, and Spanish roots with a different language and despite that the Virgin Mary of Santa Catalina survived Hurricane Iota⁴, it is a land of Baptist and Adventists Protestants.

For years, the people of Providencia have advocated for their right for self-determination, not only for its condition of ethnic people recognized by the Colombian government and international legislation but for its relationship practices with the “sea territory”, which have allowed them to sustain a tight bond with the great biodiversity of the tropical southwestern Caribbean where it is located and the reason it was appointed as a Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO in 2000⁵. 

Therefore rebuilding should revolve around the sustainable bio-cultural relationship of the raizal people, without imposing visions of economic development or unconsulted architectural proposals in name of a massive and predator tourism: The island society will not support biophysical unsustainable proposals!

After any catastrophe, people are physical and psychologically depleted, their solidarity and emotional support networks are affected or incapable of responding to help requests and occasionally these family networks can produce a feeling of abandonment or collective hopelessness which should be avoided. It is important to show serious psycho-social with ethnic-cultural sensitiveness support programs as a comprehensive manner of the institutional offer deployed.

The call is then for government institutions and other instances of the national and provincial government in charge of tending to the devastation, including the National Level Rebuilding Management and for the Ubuntu islander spirit, with its yearnings, knowledge, and feelings to direct their rebuilding and rebirth.

Read more:

Brief monograph of the Archipelago of San Andrés, Providencia, and Santa Catalina, written by Tatiana Herrera Rodríguez, Claudia Mosquera Rosero-Labbé, and Ana María Murcia Sotelo. 2019. https://issuu.com/cayamrl/docs/wen_san_andres_05_13_2_c68e124c325ae9 

About the Authors

Claudia Mosquera Rosero-Labbé. Ph.D. in Social Work, Associate Professor of the Racial Equality, Cultural Difference, Environmental Conflicts, and Racism in Black Americas Research Group, Universidad Nacional de Colombia (UNal) La Paz campus 

Yilson Javier Beltrán-Barrera, Ph.D. in Social Sciences and Humanities, Assistant Professor of the Caribbean State and Societies Research Group, Universidad Nacional de Colombia (UNal) Caribbean campus

This was evidenced on November 16 past, when Hurricane Iota produced serious impacts on the Island of San Andrés and a disaster situation for Providencia and Santa Catalina. Therefore, working on disaster risk management is not only necessary but urgent.

In 2005, category 1, hurricane Beta passed by the Island of Providencia and Santa Catalina revealing that disasters are the result of a process and not of static events and that it was necessary to locate at the help center the activities and behaviors of human beings as decisive factors in the magnitude of the disaster. The Universidad Nacional de Colombia (UNal) Caribbean Campus undertook several research activities and established multiple opportunities for reflection for the island community. Among the lessons learned is the call to include risk management in the development model to reduce present and avoid future threats ^[1].

Between 2006 and 2008, multiple “Risk and crisis management in the face of hurricanes” seminar-workshops were held, showing that although the institutions have a determining role in the solution, they are also involved in conflict generation in disaster management, therefore it was determined it was a priority to work on inter-institutional coordination. They came to the consensus that the pre-established conditions and the social inequalities on the islands were a determining factor in the susceptibility and recovery capability to the impact of a hurricane. One of the most significant results of this exercise was the publication of a simple, bilingual, and practical, guide on the impacts of hurricanes, which included suggestions on what to do before, during, and after a hurricane ^[2].

Aware of the threat to the islands, they carried out several research projects related to the impact of hurricane Beta with the support of the UNal Disaster Prevention  Study Center (Ceprevé, for its Spanish acronym) ^[3], which showed there was a low threat awareness that made implementing measures in the face of a hurricane unlikely ^[4]. They discovered that to offset this low awareness it was necessary to carry out workshops and training sessions, besides providing technical assistance to the productive sector ^[5]. They also evidenced that the lack of prevention and mitigation educational programs, and scarce economic support from local and national institutions concerning the effects produced from hurricane Beta, diminished the recovery capability of raizals. Hence, since 2008, 70% of the farmers had not been able to recover from hurricane Beta.

In face of this situation, it is apparent that the recovery processes not only require comprehensive and participative measures but continued actions with long-term vision. The slow recovery of Providencia farmers deepened their poverty making the next possible hurricane to be even more impacting for them ^[6].

The UNal-Caribbean Great Caribbean Think Tank produced a critical reflection space over the complementarity of risk management, climate change, environmental management, and tourist and territorial planning, and created a think line called “Risk management and climate change”.

One of the main results was identifying 81 actions to decrease the vulnerability of the ecosystems and increase the adaptive capability of the Archipelago^[7]; they also indicated that with climate change, fishermen are faced with greater uncertainness when availability, access, stability, and food use, and marine source supplies are reduced, as well as work opportunities ^[8].

Additionally, they produced a series of public policy suggestions for territorial governance ^[9], including:

1. Produce international agreements that will allow working in a regional preparation and response in the face of climate change.
2. Work on the preparation of instruments, response strategies, and participative planning for their recovery stage in face of possible disasters.
3. Change the emergency-led vision and reaction for a preventive and proactive vision.
4. Reduce threats with knowledge and traditional and ancestral practices.

Lastly, they determined that the response and individual or collective and institutional decision is essential in the magnitude of the disaster, as management and recovery actions do not necessarily agree with guided actions toward the protection of lives ^[10]. Generally, people are not aware of the threats they are exposed to, underestimate the ones they acknowledge, and overestimate the capability they have to face them ^[11]; however, they cannot continue to ignore the growing problem and require a cultural change to answer to the “new” challenges.

Currently, disasters are more complex, they come in cascades, simultaneously and cumulative. They are related to social and historic structures and global dynamics that reveal historically built threats and socio-environmental inequalities ^[12].

To live safely means having the capability to manage the territory, acknowledging history, being aware of the existing threats, and taking measures to reduce them. Therefore it is necessary to integrate risk management with the development model and hence, move toward sustainable development.

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Read more:

Velásquez, C. (2009). Riesgo en el sector agrícola: efectos del huracán Beta en las islas de Providencia y Santa Catalina, en un contexto Caribe. Tesis de la Maestría en Estudios del Caribe. San Andrés Isla: Universidad Nacional de Colombia Sede Caribe.

Velásquez, C. (2015). Acciones estratégicas para la gestión del riesgo frente al cambio climático en el Archipiélago de San Andrés, Providencia y Santa Catalina. Manuscrito sin publicar.

Velásquez, C. (2016). Social participation in adaptation to climate change in San Andres island, Colombian Caribbean. Conference paper. Natural Hazard Center. Universidad de Colorado.

Velásquez, C. (2018). Making Sense of 2016 Water Crisis in San Andrés. A Colombian Caribbean island. Anais Bra. de Est. Turísticos /ABET, 8 (3), 59-73. dialnet.unirioja.es/ejemplar/512805

^[1] Santos-Martínez, A. y Velásquez, C. (Eds.). (2008). Gestión del riesgo y manejo de crisis frente a huracanes: Guía de preparación. San Andrés Isla: Universidad Nacional de Colombia Sede Caribe – Ceprevé.

^[2] Agudelo, O. y Suárez, C. (2008). Guía de preparación y protección contra huracanes. En Santos-Martínez, A. y Velásquez, C., op. cit.

^[3] Santos-Martínez, A. y Velásquez, C. (2008). Lecciones sobre la gestión del riesgo y manejo de crisis por huracanes: caso Beta en Providencia y Santa Catalina, Caribe colombiano. En Santos, A. y Velásquez, C., op. cit. (pp. 37-39).

^[4] James J., Hayes L., Velásquez, C., Carrasquilla D. y Fonseca L. (2008). Evaluación social, económica, y ambiental de los impactos del huracán Beta en las islas de Providencia y Santa Catalina. San Andrés Isla: Universidad Nacional de Colombia Sede Caribe.

^[5] Velásquez, C. (2011). La Percepción del riesgo de los agricultores de la isla de Providencia y Santa Catalina. En Román R. (Ed.). Cultura, sociedad, desarrollo e historia en el Caribe colombiano. (pp. 135-167). Universidad Nacional de Colombia.

^[6] Velásquez, C. y Santos-Martínez, A. (2010). Vulnerabilidad socioeconómica de los agricultores frente a huracanes en las islas de Providencia y Santa Catalina, Caribe colombiano. Gestión y Ambiente, 13(1), 07-20.https://revistas.unal.edu.co/index.php/gestion/article/view/25376

^[7] Mancera E., Gavio, B., Santos-Martínez, A. (2015). Ecosistemas de manglar y praderas de pastos marinos y macroalgas: servicios ecosistémicos frente al cambio climático. Manuscrito sin publicar. Mancera E., Santos-Martínez, A. y Velásquez, C. (2015). Taller de prospectiva: Gestión del riesgo frente al cambio climático con énfasis en servicios ecosistémicos. En: Santos-Martínez, A. y Velásquez C. (Eds). Gestión del riesgo y cambio climático en el Caribe. Manuscrito sin publicar.

^[8] Velásquez, C. y Santos-Martínez A. (2019). Análisis sobre afectaciones del cambio climático en los recursos pesqueros del departamento archipiélago de San Andrés, Providencia y Santa Catalina, reserva de Biosfera Seaflower, en un contexto Caribe. Proyecto “Fortalecimiento de los procesos de gestión, conocimiento y planificación sobre el manejo, aprovechamiento y sustentabilidad de los recursos pesqueros y agrícolas de la Reserva de la Biosfera Seaflower - Departamento Archipiélago de San Andrés, Providencia y Santa Catalina, Contrato No. 1396 de 2019. Departamento Archipiélago y UNAL Sede Caribe. Informe Final, San Andrés, 78 p.

^[9] Mancera, E., Santos-Martínez, A. y Velásquez, C. (2015). Taller de prospectiva: gestión del riesgo frente al cambio climático con énfasis en servicios ecosistémicos. En Santos, A. y Velásquez C. (Eds). Gestión del riesgo y cambio climático en el Caribe. Manuscrito sin publicar.

^[10] Velásquez, C. (2011). La Percepción del riesgo de los agricultores de la isla de Providencia y Santa Catalina. En Román R. (Ed.) Cultura, sociedad, desarrollo e historia en el Caribe colombiano (pp. 135-167). Universidad Nacional de Colombia.

^11] Cardona, O. (2001). Estimación holística del riesgo sísmico utilizando sistemas dinámicos complejos. Universitat Politécnica de Catalunya-Escola Técnica superior D’enginyers de Cammins, Canals I Ports. Barcelona.

^[12] Santos-Martínez, A. y Velásquez, C., op. cit . Velásquez, C. (2020). The 2016 Water Crisis in San Andres Island: An Opportunity for Change? Ciencia Política, 15(29), 73-109. https://doi.org/10.15446/cp.v15n29.86373

About the Authors

Carolina S. Velásquez Calderón. Ph.D. in Disaster Science and Management. M.Sc. in Caribbean Studies. Universidad Nacional de Colombia (UNal) Caribbean campus - csvelasquezc@gmail.com

Adriana Santos-Martínez. Associate Professor. San Luis Free Town, San Andrés Isla. Universidad Nacional de Colombia (UNal) Caribbean campus - asantosma@unal.edu.co

Furthermore, they are the only plants with flowers that have adapted to living their whole life-cycle completely underwater and thrive in shallow coastal waters except in the poles. Of approximately 60 known seagrass species known in the world, at least 10 are on the threatened species list, especially for the loss of habitat. 

In Colombia, there are records of six species of seagrasses: Thalassia testudinum, Syringodium filiforme, Halodule wrightii, Halophila decipiens, Halophila baillonis, and Ruppia maritima, of which the first is the most abundant and conspicuous. Despite the apparent homogeneity, seagrass prairies are very biodiverse and many individuals of several phyla are temporarily or permanently linked to them, such as echinoderms, crustaceans, fish, and mollusks, besides other invertebrate groups and associated macro and microalgae that contribute to the primary production of the ecosystem. 

Seagrass prairies are considered among the most valuable natural ecosystems in the world from an economic perspective. For instance, in Melanesia, the value of seagrass has been appraised in US $151.4B, US $42B above mangroves, and US $5.7B more than coral reefs in the same region.

Seagrass is responsible for storing between 10 and 15% of the global oceanic organic carbon, with values that range between 2.5 to 7.3 Mg C Ha-1. However, due to the anthropic pressure, seagrass ecosystems are disappearing at a rate of more than 7% annually, with close to 29% of lost seagrasses in the last 60 years.

Currently, we are at a critical point in the history of humankind because in the last 25 years we have failed to improve and solve environmental challenges, such as global warming. 

Protection and preservation of ecosystems is essential for offsetting global warming 

According to a Marine and Coastal Research Institute (INVEMAR, for its Spanish acronym) report, “The 2019 status of the environmental and marine and coastal resources in Colombia,” in the Archipelago de San Andrés, Providencia y Santa Catalina the extension of seagrass prairies has been estimated at close to 2,430 hectares (6,004 acres), dominated by Thalassia testudinum. Apart from the annual monitoring of the general health status of the ecosystem, in Colombia, there are very few specific studies on Thalassia. 

In 2010, a Universidad Nacional de Colombia (UNal) research project determined that in general the Thalassia prairies of the Island of San Andrés were in good shape, except for some particular populations that showed signals of stress, with high antioxidant catalase and peroxidase enzyme activity, possible due to untreated black water release. 

Similarly, a 2021 research project determined that the prairies associated with nourished environments, in close bays, do not achieve successful sexual reproduction. However, in environments with greater currents, sexual reproduction was successful and last for at least eight months. 

More recently, three researchers assessed the organic carbon stock of the seagrass biomass of San Andrés and discovered values of 2.4 Mg C_org /hectare. Additionally, they found a positive synergy between the presence of healthy coral reefs and the capability of seagrasses to store carbon in sediments, due to the protection the coral barrier provides prairies and its sediments. Therefore, it is necessary to consider these interactions between ecosystems in management and preservation plans.

In October of 2005, category 1 Hurricane Beta passed 15 km (9.3 miles)  north of the island of  Providencia, with winds up to 120 km/h and waves up to 1.5 m (4.9 ft.) above average. It later headed northeast bound, got stronger, and reached category 3 to later lose strength in Nicaragua on October 30. 15 days later INVEMAR carried out a quick assessment of the main marine and coastal ecosystems of the island and reported damage to seagrass prairies, such as loss of algae and offshoots as well as uncovering of rhizomes and roots, estimating an unquantifiable loss of extension and biomass. 

However, monitoring in 2006 and 2007 determined that the prairies did not have signs of significant alterations caused by Hurricane Beta. The only structural damage was a return to an earlier successional status in the areas directly impacted by the climatic event, without long-term consequences.

Similarly, other hurricanes such as Mitch in 1998, Ivan in 2004, and Katrina in 2005 have caused little damage to the prairies in the affected areas, showing that these ecosystems are resilient to climatic events of this type. We hope that the Archipelago of San Andrés, Providencia y Santa Catalina resisted the impact of Hurricane Iota.

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The collapse of the marine fishing resources is a world issue that is due to several causes, especially anthropic, such as the increase of the fishing effort; river and ocean pollution, and the breakdown and loss of essential habitats and ecosystems on which fishing depends, among others. 

Because the ocean is losing its capability to provide food, maintain the water quality and recover from the impacts, which translates into the loss of diversity and abundance of populations and therefore of the ecosystemic goods and services, we could face a disaster of major proportions. 

According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), 80% of the fishing resources are in full exploitation, overexploited, or depleted, and just 20% of the assessed fishing populations are moderately exploited or in recovery.

The Great Caribbean area is not a fishing power, as its contribution to world fishing is only close to 2%; however, high-value gastronomic and economic fishing resources such as snappers, groupers, tunas, horse mackerels, shrimps, lobsters, and snails are being exploited. However, during the last decades fishing has greatly decreased, as in the Archipelago of San Andrés, Providencia, and Santa Catalina – Seaflower Biosphere Reserve, in the Colombian Caribbean. (Santos et al., 2013; 2019). 

The Provincial Office of the Secretary of Agriculture and Fishing (SAPD, for its acronym in Spanish) along with fishermen and fishing associations, the Universidad Nacional de Colombia (UNal) -Caribbean campus, and entities such as the Sustainable Development Corporation (CORALINA, for its Spanish acronym) have implemented follow-up and management activities, including monitoring and analysis of fishing loads, development of projects on artisanal and industrial fishing and fish farming, and inclusively joint establishment of fishing policy proposals in search for sustainable management.

At the Seaflower Biosphere Reserve artisanal fishing is carried out especially by native raizal fishermen, who use minor vessels less than 5 to 9 meters floating length with outboard motors, and others up to 12m long and less than 5 tons of capacity and internal motor– and extract fishing resources using hand fishing lines of different modalities, freediving spearfishing and a few with fishnets. 

The annual average of these types for fishermen is close to 1,201 tons a year (72% in San Andrés, and 28% in Providencia, and Santa Catalina) and 217 tons for small vessels (66 % in San Andrés, and 34% in Providencia, and Santa Catalina). In most cases, fishing is for multi-species, for fish (more than 100 fish species captured), mollusks such as the queen conch (Lobatus gigas), and crustaceans like the spiny lobster (Panulirus argus) ¹. From the assessment of the fisheries, the annual capture has great variations that can range between 100 to 300 tons².

As of 2012, this artisanal activity has been more impacted due to the ruling of the International Court of Justice of The Hague over the territorial dispute and maritime delimitation between Nicaragua and Colombia on the Caribbean sea, which ruled the request from Nicaragua as “admissible” meaning they Colombian needs to give up at least a third of the Seaflower Biosphere Reserve.

The consequences of this ruling are several: raizals are limited to exercising artisanal fishing activities in the north and southern areas of the Province; illegal fishing activities from neighboring countries is increased; discourages fishermen to comply with the measures and resource management and the protected areas, and lastly, a great part of the emergent processes won by exercising governance of the socio-ecosystem and therefore the natural, social, economic, and political sustainability. Besides, the uncertainty level of its maritime territory has increased. 

Added to this situation, other tragedies impact fishing, since as self-supply and production, the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact of the hurricanes Eta and Iota impacted the community and the productive systems, affecting the infrastructure, public utilities, and houses. 

On the Islands of Providencia and Santa Catalina, the disaster left by Iota was so large, that the fishermen lost not only their houses but also their economic fishing units represented in boats, navigation equipment, and fishing methods. Added to this is the impact on the underwater ecosystems such as grasses and coral reefs, which our research shows as serious in diverse sectors, which could have a bearing on more environmental issues.

The challenge we as residents have, along with different provincial, national, and international entities, is to listen to the voices of fishermen and achieve in a joint and articulated manner –but speedy– actions that tend to the housing, fishing equipment, and vessels, and reactivate the fishing sector for its cultural legacy to continue in boat fabrication, in fishing, in training the art of fishing and how to sustainably preserve and manage artisanal fishing and the Seaflower Biosphere Reserve. 

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Read more:

Organización de las Naciones Unidas para la Alimentación y la Agricultura (FAO). 2018. El estado mundial de la pesca y la acuicultura 2018. Roma, 253 p.

Santos, A., Medina, J. y Gracia, M.I. (2019). Análisis sobre el estado de los recursos pesqueros, con énfasis en tallas de peces del Departamento Archipiélago de San Andrés, Providencia y Santa Catalina – Reserva de Biosfera Seaflower. Proyecto “Fortalecimiento de los procesos de gestión, conocimiento y planificación sobre el manejo, aprovechamiento y sustentabilidad de los recursos pesqueros y agrícolas de la Reserva de la Biosfera Seaflower - Departamento Archipiélago de San Andrés, Providencia y Santa Catalina, Contrato No. 1396 de 2019. Departamento Archipiélago y UNAL Sede Caribe - Componente IV. Informe Final, San Andrés, 78 p.

¹ Santos, A., Mancera, J.E., Castro, E., Sjogreen, M., Bent H. C. y Torres, J. (2013). Propuesta para el Plan de Manejo Pesquero de la Zona Sur del Área Marina Protegida en la Reserva de Biosfera Seaflower. Universidad Nacional de Colombia Sede Caribe - Jardín Botánico, Sede Bogotá, Facultad de Ciencias. Departamento de San Andrés, Providencia y Santa Catalina, Secretaría de Agricultura y Pesca, 80 p.

²  Santos, A., Rojas, A., García, M.I. y Llanos, C. (2020). Dinámica de la pesca artesanal y propuestas de manejo sustentable, Zona Providencia y Santa Catalina, Reserva de Biosfera Seaflower Caribe colombiano. Gulf and Caribbean Fisheries Institute– GCFI. Proceedings of the 72nd Gulf and Caribbean Fisheries Institute November 2 - 8, 2019 Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, 72: 215- 228.

About the authors

Adriana Santos Martínez.  Universidad Nacional de Colombia (UNal) Caribbean campus, Associate Professor. San Luis Free Town, San Andrés Island. - asantosma@unal.edu.co 

Jairo Humberto Medina. Universidad Nacional de Colombia (UNal) Caribbean campus, Assistant Professor. San Luis Botanical Garden. jhmedinac@unal.edu.co 

Anthony Rojas Archbold. Agriculture and Fishing Secretariat, San Andrés Island. Universidad Nacional de Colombia (UNal) Caribbean campusantroojasa@gmail.com 

This garden is even more special, as the islands are located at 480 km (298.5 miles) from the northeastern Colombian Caribbean coast. As a strategic point, its geographical location is essential for the development of its history and its settlement. San Andrés, Providencia, and Santa Catalina are different from the rest of the country, not only for its geological nature, but also for the lifestyle and customs of the community, and the way they relate with the environment in their daily lives.

The vegetation of the Archipelago is a secondary forest with elements of rain and dry transitional forests which are a rich blend of the plant life of Central America and the Antilles, therefore it is a very particular forest, a curious and almost unique mix and transition between wet and dry tropical forests.

There are three milestones that are part of the history of the garden: the first, the opposition of the community to build a social housing project on the land in the mid-80s; the second, the right decision of UNal to create the first insular botanical garden of the country, to preserve the special vegetation of the island; and third, establishing a collection of live plants, that are preserved in a genetic bank for the Archipelago, which preserves and reveals the knowledge of the tradition of its uses through an exhibition of all the beauty of the insular flora. The collection is classified in a manner that it is possible to make a journey through the plant history as well as becoming cognizant of the local plant formations and the local use of plants of the Archipelago.

The university carries out research on the Archipelago of San Andrés, Providencia, and Santa Catalina since the mid-60s. Perhaps the first reference of the research was in 1969 with the publication of the book La Isla de San Andrés: Contribuciones al conocimiento de su ecología, flora, fauna y pesca, (The Island of San Andrés: Contributions to the knowledge of the ecology, flora, fauna, and fishing), by Ernesto Barriga-Bonilla. Other contributions to the knowledge of the flora and fauna of the Archipelago was carried out by university professors and students through research, graduate and thesis research projects, highlighting the book La flora ilustrada de San Andrés y Providencia: Con énfasis en las plantas útiles (The illustrated flora of San Andrés and Providencia: with an emphasis on useful plants), by Favio González, John Díaz, and Petter Lowy, published in 1995 in a joint project with the National Apprenticeship Service (SENA, for its Spanish acronym) and UNal, highlighting 100 species of greater importance and their different uses. It also has samples of several herbariums of the country, the majority of which are at the Colombian National Herbarium of the Natural Sciences Institute (ICN, for its Spanish acronym) and the Herbarium of the San Andrés Botanical Garden.

Some of the contributions to the knowledge and study of the plant life of the Archipelago are:

1. Changes in topsoil plant life project: By comparing images of the Island of San Andrés form 1969, 1974, 1980, 1984, and 1990, they established changes in the plant life through time, as a response to the urban, industrial and socio-cultural development of the island, passing through uses such as a leisure island, freeport and finally a biosphere reserve. The greatest changes are the appearance of buildings, avenues, areas devoted to the tourist industry, accelerated development, and in some case disorganized, specifically towards the peripheries; we should also mention the establishment of new urban services such as public transportation, the sewage system, electric power and gas stations, which are a constant challenge for urban planners.
2. Promising San Andrés island fruit tree project: A research project focused on determining the wealth of some fruit trees in home and wild areas of the island. The goal was to identify the agro-industrial potential and contribute a strategy for the development according to the region. They concluded that there was a potential for non-exploited species, that through agro-industrial transformation could enter the local market and make an important contribution to the sustainable development and food safety of the Archipelago.

In a research project headed by the Botanical garden, Caribbean Studies Masters studies Olga Díaz discovered several species with medicinal importance for treating diabetes mellitus, including Artocarpus altilis (Parkinson) Fosberg (breadfruit), Origanum vulgare L. (oregano) Caesalpinia bonduc (L.) Roxb (grey nicker), Bixa orellana L. (achiote), Bauhinia monandra Kurz (cow foot).

1. “Determination and establishment of promising fruit tree transformations methods for utilization” project: The main goal was to provide knowledge for management of the promising Artocarpus altilis (breadfruit) fruit tree and establishing development options for the benefit of the community and identifying the main features of the fruit, besides establishing basic parameters for postharvest management and fruit preservation. During the second stage of the project they carried out a fruit processing stage to obtain meals and make fritters. 
2. Threatened coastal flora project: The UNal Botanical Garden in a joint project with the Sustainable Development Corporation for the Archipelago of San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina (CORALINA, for its Spanish acronym), carried out a plan for the preservation of key coastal flora species that have difficulty reproducing and are threatened by human activities. The project determined the species that required urgent preservation and recovery measures and established preservation strategies and rational use of the coastal resource.

One of the most important tasks of the terrestrial environment of the Archipelago is to complete the animal and plant biodiversity inventory, its preservation, and sustainable use.

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Furthermore, they are part of the tourist industry in many places of the world, by providing recreation and tourism ². The tangible and intangible benefits coming from beaches, and part of the natural capital, surpass any economic appraisal or assessment.

An important part of the economy of the insular Caribbean revolves around tourism based on this natural capital, in other words, a public and common use resource ³. Without a doubt, although touristic development is essential for the economic growth of the islands, it can also turn into a threat for the natural capital ⁴, therefore it is necessary to assess said relationship specifically, as load capacity ⁵.

Besides an inadequate use of the ES, the alteration of the ecosystems that generate them as a consequence of extreme climatic events, such as hurricanes, can lead to disturbances, environmental quality deterioration, and loss of the social, economic, and cultural benefits (figure 1). For 20 years the Universidad Nacional de Colombia (UNal) has researched different ecosystems of the Archipelago of San Andrés, Providencia, and Santa Catalina, quantifying the relationship between nature and culture, to try to understand the threats this relationship faces and actions for sustainability.

The anthropogenic threats to the ES arising from the use of the beaches of San Andrés ⁶ and Providencia ⁷ have been analyzed using social cartography with a focus on threat perception. The resulting maps indicate that with the current economy, based on massive sun and sand tourism; ⁸ pollution, urban development, and infrastructure are intensified, as well as land claiming and overexploitation of coastal resources. This intensive and uncontrolled use may lead to an environmental decline, impacting tourism, the main beneficiary of these ES and the first line of the economy of the Archipelago.

The analysis between the perception of uses and threats showed that urbanization and overpopulation generate serious threats not only to the quality of life of the Island community and several San Andrés beaches but inclusively could lead to the fading of the goods and services provided by the sandy beaches ⁹.

To assess the status of the beaches of the island across time, they used aero-photography and satellite imagery to assess the changes in beach size throughout 66 years (1944 to 2010). 

The analysis allowed identifying the most affected areas and the most vulnerable systems to erosion and loss of coverage phenomena. 

They discovered that during the analyzed period the beaches lost 23% of their area; however, while the northern beaches increased their area, the southern beaches endured important erosion losses. San Luis lost 96% and the extreme south of the island lost 51%. Some of the changes observed could be explained by anthropic factors, such as the building of roads, houses, and buildings, levee’s and sand dredging  ¹⁰, confirming the discoveries of the threat assessment study.

Not only beach area reduction is an indication that should call the attention of local and national authorities with the aim of taking precautions, but also, pollution due to plastic waste should be an object of action; this is a great threat to marine biodiversity, therefore they assessed the three most visited beaches. Two of these sites were “extremely dirty”, while the other was deemed as “dirty.” 60% of the garbage was plastic, followed by 20% glass ¹¹.

Plastic is a light organic, strong, long-lasting, and cheap polymer, making its waste a serious threat to the marine environment than can last for centuries ¹². Animals such as birds, mammals, turtles, and fish oftentimes confuse plastic materials for food, reducing the effective volume of their stomachs, and introducing toxic substances which in extreme cases can lead to death due to suffocation or blockage of the digestive tract ¹³. Due to the persistence and negative effects of solid residue on the coast fauna, it is necessary to improve garbage disposal management and strengthen educational programs for residents and tourists, for better social awareness.

Due to their location and size, the Caribbean islands have been characterized for their great vulnerability to extreme environmental phenomena such as tropical cyclones, which are increased by the undue use of human capital and the development model. This compels the authorities to design and adopt strict mid and long-term policies, directed toward planning and management of the insular territory based on adaptation to climate change and the preservation of the natural capital, to guarantee the social welfare and sustainable development of the Archipelago de San Andrés, Providencia, and Santa Catalina.

An island comprehensive management plan should also consider the financial and regulatory aspects. The Colombian legislation favors the hotel establishment on beachfront properties, making them tax-free (Law 788 of 2002). This has resulted in a monopoly, as only two companies with all-included packages have 60% of the hotel rooms of the island.

It is reasonable to think that the law should include the entirety of beach ecosystems use forms and therefore it is necessary to reorganize the developed space; relocate and control vessels and also establish a comprehensive long-term ES monitoring program that allows identifying changes in quantity and quality. This plan should consider both the knowledge generated on the island including local personnel and inter-institutional coordination of the territory, to warrant the dialogue of all actors involved, especially the community, which without a doubt should be part of formulating and development of insular management.

Read more:
*Santos-Martínez, A., S. Hinojosa, O. Sierra. 2009. Proceso y avance hacia la sostenibilidad ambiental: la reserva de la biosfera Seaflower, en el Caribe colombiano. Cuad. Car., 13: 7-23.

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¹Millenium Ecosystem Assessment. 2005. Ecosystems and human well-being: Synthesis. Island Press, Washington D.C. 137 p.

² Beaumont, N.J., M.C. Austen, J.P. Atkins, D. Burdon, S. Degraer, T.P. Dentinho. 2007. Identification, definition and quantification of goods and services provided by marine biodiversity: implications for the ecosystem approach. Mar. Poll. Bull., 54(3): 253-265.

³Pantojas, G.E. 2006. De la plantación al resort: El Caribe en la era de la globalización. Rev. Cienc. Soc., 15: 82-99.

⁴Constanza, R., R. Arge, R. De Groot, S. Farberk, M. Grasso, H. Hannon, K. Limburg. 1997. The value of the world’s ecosystem services and natural capital. Nature, 387: 253-260.

⁵Defeo, O., A. McLachlan, D.S. Schoeman, T.A. Schlacher, J. Dugan, A. Jones, M. Lastra, F. Scapini. 2009. Threats to sandy beach ecosystems: A review. Est., Coast. Shelf Sci. 81:1-12.

⁶Guerra Vargas, L.A. 2014. Valoración de servicios ecosistémicos de playa en San Andrés Isla, Caribe suroccidental. Revista Cuadernos del Caribe 17(1): 37-49.

About the authors

José Ernesto Mancera-Pineda. Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences, Universidad Nacional de Colombia (UNal) Bogotá campus - jemancerap@unal.edu.co

Luis Guerra-Vargas. Environmental Curricular Area, Faculty of Mines Minas, UNal-Medellín

Brigitte Gavio. Department of Biology

Adriana Santos-Martínez. Director UNal-Caribbean

They first reported the infestation on only 13 species of host plants, then it rapidly grew to 90 host species according to research carried out in the Archipelago of San Andrés, Providencia, and Santa Catalina. Nevertheless, the increase in host plants in the Islands was considered normal behavior as this is a polyphagous species, i.e. it feeds on several hosts.

Due to the quick invasion of the scale in San Andrés, the Universidad Nacional de Colombia (UNal) Caribbean campus, along with the Office of the Governor of San Andrés, began monitoring the insect in 2012 in specific points and soils in the three main islands, i.e. San Andrés, Providencia, and Santa Catalina– as well as the cays known as Johnny Cay, Haynes Cay, and Crab Cay, to assess the incidence percentage and search for possible pest biocontrolling organisms. With this, they discovered that the fungus Isariasp. and the beetle CoccinelidoAnoviasp. had biocontrolling capabilities.

For this reason and for producing a lesser environmental impact on the Seaflower Biosphere Reserve, between 2013 and 2014, they started propagating said fungus at the laboratory of the San Andrés Botanical Garden, work headed by UNAL-Medellín professor Liliana Hoyos Carvajal, who at the time was the UNal Director of Plants in Bogotá, and UNal-Caribbean Professor Adriana Santos Martínez, current director of the Caribbean campus.

Once the fungus had been propagated in the lab, they produced a solution for Botanical Garden and Agriculture and Fisheries Department staff to carry out aspersion in plants (trees, shrubs, and palms) in different areas of the island previously identified as critical during the monitoring stage. 

Along with biocontrol measures, since then, they have carried out management and pest control workshops for the farmers and the community, in general, to become cognizant of the issue and learn to use different options than the traditional agrochemical use, such as biological insecticides and biopreparations, among others.

Later monitoring of the applied biocontrol measures, they observed a drop in the levels of incidence to finally reach almost zero at the end of 2017. UNal-Caribbean professors and students as well as interns from the Agronomic and Biology program from UNal-Bogotá and Medellín participated in the control measures.

Although in 2019, they saw a slight surge in the incidence, it was considered normal as the monitoring in 2019, different to the one in 2017, was carried out during the dry season, when the pest incidence normally reaches maximum levels. In conclusion, they consider that the measure taken was opportune and have controlled the pest in the Archipelago of San Andrés, Providencia, and Santa Catalina - Seaflower Biosphere Reserve.

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About the Authors

Rafael Mora Betancur. Biologist and Curator of the Universidad Nacional de Colombia (UNal) Herbarium (HJBSAI-UNal). ramorab@unal.edu.co

Jairo H. Medina Calderón. Universidad Nacional de Colombia- Caribbean (UNal) Professor. Director of the San Andrés Island Botanical Garden- jhmedinac@unal.edu.co 

At the institute, I replaced Professor Carlos Martínez, who had done the important task of helping the University get closer to the community, with the support of the Caribbean Studies Group in Bogotá.
I already knew the Islands, especially Providencia, where back in the 80s I was in charge of Hotel Aury for the Offices of the Araracuara Corporation. My first task after getting installed in San Andrés was to convince the University to open a Campus, as just having an institute did not necessarily constitute a campus. We had two plots of land and a blueprint for the Institute –made by Architect Pedro Juan Jaramillo–which we turned in a project, adapting it to the local conditions in all regards. Later, with the support of Biologist Petter Lowy, we began the task of establishing and launching the San Andrés Botanical Garden.

The University building, the Botanical Garden, and the PEAMA Classroom Building were built maintaining harmony and respect for the Island traditions and answering to the environmental conditions and the local resources. 

Publications

Immediately we began another assignment with the group of professors: begin the publications of the Campus of the Caribbean. The first two were the book entitled, The Interest of America in Sea Power, Present and Future by U.S. Marine Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan, (in the year 2000) and the collection of Caribbean Booklet Collection. But the biggest impact was publishing the book No Give Up, Maan!(in 2002) by Hazel Robinson Abraham.

This book, considered a foundational novel of the islands, turned into a reference book for the literature of the Islands and was included in the Afro-Colombian Literature Library of the Colombian Ministry of Culture. Then came other books like Sail Ahoy!!! (2004) and The Prince of St. Catherine (2009), and then others that rescued the valuable contributions of Hazel Robinson Abrahams.

Expositions

Later we began the task of disclosing the results of the research projects over the culture of the islands carried out by the University. This was done thanks to the discovery of the walls that sheltered what had been the offices of the Bank of the Republic, demolished to build the current university campus, a task which waited for years for its materialization.

The large-format expositions and on material inalterable to the effects of an outdoor exposition allowed for three years to have scenarios in San Andrés as those of Calle 1 with Colón Avenue,  turned meeting and discussion areas of the Caribbean legacy. In this public space, the Caribbean campus has presented the expositions: “La casa isleña/Island houses”, “Ysla de Sta Catalina, and Providence Island” and “The Spirit of Persistence”.

The expositions, presented both in Spanish and in English, were seen day and night by island residents, schoolchildren, and countless tourists that visited San Andrés with great respect, without enduring any act of vandalism.

The islands of Providencia and Santa Catalina have a long and unknown history both to the country as the inhabitants of the Archipelago. We were interested in having quality graphic material for the exposition, so we at first, drew on the “Archivo General de Indias” (General Archives of the Indies), where we obtained, through an agreement, all the blueprints available of the islands in high-resolution formatting.

Several of the blueprints showed were presented for the first time, highlighting the map sent by Diego de Mercado to King Philip the Third en 1617, alerting over the threat of an English invasion. Also, it was the first map of Providencia and Santa Catalina that was discovered in said archives.

This exposition was shown since October 4 of 2010 and for three more years at the mural of Colón Street in San Andrés; later at the Claustro San Agustín in Bogotá between October 26, 2010, and March 31, 2011, and seen by hundreds of people, fulfilling its purpose. The presentation at the Cloister had the support of Historian Malcolm Deas, who provided the English Empire perspective of the time.

The Spirit of Persistence

The exposition “The Spirit of Persistence” is the continuation of a chronicle of Hazel Robinson Abrahams published in August of 1959 in her column “Meridiano 81” (El Espectador Newspaper) on the Persistence schooner, built-in 1928 by Mr. Palmerston Coulson, who also built around 50 vessels and close to 100 houses on the Islands, with five helpers.

The final purpose was to rebuild the schooner so it would be anchored on the San Andrés bay as a live testament of the era of sail navigation. We did get a scale-model of the Sail Ahoy!!! novel vessel and the interviews to seafarers in the Caribbean Booklets. These and the exposition allowed recording one of the best eras of the islands.

In San Andrés, the exposition was part of the Padilla Expedition in homage to Admiral Padilla and was installed with the presence of military commanders of the island.

Island houses

The exposition Casa isleña/Island houses, exhibited between 2011 and 2013, is part of the research project over the architectural legacy of San Andrés, of Architect Clara Eugenia Sánchez, included her books  Casa isleña/Island houses and The Last China Closet. The author allowed discussions amongst youngsters of the island and inhabitants of the Archipelago, besides tourist viewings that routinely visit San Andrés, and also shared her results and proposal with the community.
 

For consulting:

- Island Houses

- The Spirit of Persistence

- Ysla de St. Catalina and Providence Island
 

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The Universidad Nacional de Colombia – Caribbean (UNal) Arthropod Collection of the San Andrés Island Botanical Garden (ACSAIBG) was established in 2003 as an initiative for collecting and confining insects of the different insular ecosystems. Also as a preservation strategy of the ecological and scientific heritage of Archipelago for UNal-Caribbean and San Andrés Island Botanical Garden ascribed professors and researchers.

This collection began with the gathering of specimens of the arthropod-fauna which later were confined in boxes with basic storage techniques and little information, making it hard to corroborate the date. Many of these specimens were lost due to the lack of a curatorship. 

As time went by, the head of the Botanical Garden and the University progressively included individuals to the Arthropod Collection from the different research projects carried out on the island, making the collection visible and projecting it as an input for other studies on the biological composition of the islands through time. This turned into a change of the paradigm concerning the management, curatorship, and storage of these specimens, resulting in the beginning of a collection with scientific rigor that in the future would turn into a unique reference point of the Archipelago. 

Currently, the Collection has more than 2,500 individuals, of which close to 7% are identified to the species, 25% to the genera, and 60% to the family; close to 70% of the specimens are registered in Darwin Core format. Furthermore, they are deposited in boxes and placed in drawers inside Cornell type entomological storage cabinets, for public and private collections.

It is necessary to note that the insects are pinned with entomological pins as the specimens allow (per preservation strategy), separated by orders and families, according to modern and in force taxonomic proposals. The techniques and the material used for preservation and confinement of specimens are specialized and certified, guaranteeing the integrity of the material and contained information. The cabinets are under controlled temperature conditions as the climate conditions of the Archipelago are a high threat to the deterioration of collections of this type.

In 2010, the UNal- ACSAIBG was registered with the Alexander von Humboldt Biological Resources Research Institute under code 174.

The UNal- ACSAIBG has the protocols in place that regulate the rules for handling specimens from part of specialists, researchers, and undergraduate and graduate students; pinning and labeling; preservation of immature states, particularly larvae and aquatic specimens; labeling and tagging; permanent plaques in micro-preparation technique for storage. These protocols are compulsory for all staff that handles specimens of the collection. 

Curating individuals is performed by a Collection Management expert. The specimens of the collection are susceptible to being donated or loaned between institutions with prior authorization of the director and curator of the Botanical Garden, this with the idea of collaborating with taxonomic and morphological research.

The UNal- ACSAIBG has bibliographic physical material and virtual books, gazettes, and specialized articles in diversity of groups for all taxonomic orders, which have been enlarging with time, turning into an essential input for when a specimen officially enters the collection and for teaching the entomology discipline in general.

Since 2015, they have worked constantly on recovering old specimens as well as capturing new individuals for later curating and inclusion into the collection; they also have the entomological material gathered from two Seaflower scientific expeditions, one of which included Serrana, one of the northernmost cays of the Archipelago.

Besides being a material, biological, and scientific heritage site, due to its Biosphere Reserve status- appointed in the year 2000 by UNESCO’s - Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Program, the UNal-ACSAIBG has a scientific potential kept and supervised by UNal-Caribbean and the San Andrés Botanical Garden, as they store specimens that serve as proof for history, the constant evolution, and transformation of ecosystems, but also of arthropod scientific research as indicators linked to the insular ecosystem of the Caribbean area of the Republic of Colombia.

Although during the latest years the director of the San Andrés Botanical Garden has supported the updating of the ACSAIBG, with the mobilization to San Andrés of undergraduate and graduate students from different UNal campuses, it is clear they need to continue with this endeavor, as the collection should never stop growing and specializing. Although there is still much to do for the collection to turn into a regional referral and a compulsory place to visit for experts as there is the necessary will which is what characterizes the UNal academic and scientific community.
 

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In San Andrés Island each one of the identity groups has a peculiar form of inhabiting the space. This text is the result of a historical analysis to try to understand the forms in which these subjects inhabit the space and the reasons that configured them. In this case, the analysis begins from my family house, a historic source, whose transformation between 1955 and 2000 –characterized by subdividing lands– shows settlement forms, being these phenomena consistent to the growing immigration toward the Archipelago and the conformation of the space.

My family home is the starting point to try to understand the transformation of the houses and how the historic movement is engraved in space usage.

According to narratives gathered during the study, in the 60s “we all didn’t know each other” and relationships forged that went beyond people, up to their families. This was a period of constant exchange, of symbiosis and cultural learning among those who arrived to the island and those who ancestrally were linked to it.

The relationships established between families of different origins allowed, for instance, that children of continental and insular roots grew together listening to traditional songs of San Andrés. In La casa isleña: Patrimonio cultural de San Andrés (The Island House: Cultural Legacy of San Andrés) Mark Bent May writes that “yards had fruit trees, mamoncillo, oranges, avocado, almond trees, and plantain”, and this “provided value to the house”, inclusively, many times, it gave it a name, as the case of my family’s house.

The forms in which spaces are appropriated and modified are the result of the particularity of each time. The elements used to identify the transformations that occurred during these decades were: first, the materials, where there is a reduction of wood use, giving way to continental house structures and elements. Then the land, where there was a notable increase in subdivisions, evidencing the growing need for housing, manifested in building very close multi-family homes and the emergence of sectors without basic utilities. Lastly, the existence or absence of yards, which ultimately represented a pragmatic, cultural, social, and spiritual loss for intercultural and intergenerational dialogue.

Yards –with their diversity– were important meeting spaces for islanders and also –learned from the prior– for those who arrived. There they placed plants that provided food and water wells for water extraction or storage; they also cooked in these areas: around the fire, they cooked the traditional rondón. In many homes –like for my family– the kitchen, up to this century, was not inside the home, but in the yard; there they grated coconut, started the fire for the grill, and cooked.

Many traditional homes in San Andrés have yards that face the beach; although many people that arrived during this decade did not place their homes next to the ocean, the ones built had areas for cooking, talking, and washing, actions that naturally include an exchange in knowledge, socialization processes and the establishment of emotional ties with events that summoned and made people come together.

However, those who arrived also brought other ways to use space, different from the islanders, which did not revolve around the yard. Therefore, from the 70s, certain sectors prioritized home construction, declining the importance of using these areas that brought interaction dynamics. With the loss of yards, the transition from self-consumption to depending on the market and imports became evident, where tourism had a great responsibility.

Yards not only play a pragmatic role, but they also played a vital role in the dynamics of economic exchange, above all social and cultural; yards keep histories and secrets, they were and still are important meeting spaces.

Their presence of absences allowed the relationship between identity groups to be different from one decade to the next. Yard meetings for different purposes like, hair combing, cooking, or talking, are spaces for dialogue, learning, cooperation, and empathy for acknowledging multiple origins and knowledge that converge in the people that live on the island.

In this sense, its disappearance implies a loss of important dialogue and sustenance space. Thinking on the spatiality of the islands, particularly in the subsequent context after hurricane Iota, demands thinking and integrating with the processes of rebuilding the traditional areas, bringing back yards, whose production answers to the knowledge and way of life of those who live in this territory.
 

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Read more:
González, G. (2004). Los nuevos Pañamanes en la isla de San Andrés. Maguaré, 18, 197-219.
 

¹ Bartens, A. (2008). Variación en el criollo inglés del Caribe occidental: ¿Una cuestión de geografía o una dimensión del continuo criollo? Lingüística y Literatura (58), 103-131.

² Gama Sánchez, C. (2004). Island Houses. San Andres's cultural heritage. San Andrés, Colombia: Universidad Nacional de Colombia Sede Caribe.

From the mentioned perspective, the observer strives to enter the cultural universe of people through immersion and a distancing exercise from their reference structures. Now, years later and in the face of the uncertainness produced by the disaster caused by hurricane Iota, I ponder on how those learning experiences could contribute to the rebuilding process. Like 15 years ago, the crisis shows us that rebuilding will be possible only if the islander voices and historic claims are heard.

One of the regular complaints I heard among the raizal community was the failure to listen from part of the Colombian government. The Colombianization efforts that began on the islands at the start of the twentieth century caused censorship of the local cultural practices, such as Creole and English languages and the Protestant religion.

Towards mid-century, the integration measures included establishing San Andrés as a free port. Tourism started to turn into the economic will of the island and land ownership was no longer an exclusivity of the local inhabitants. With time, the shopping tourism turned into “all included” plans that left little to nothing to the local economy, made hotel owners wealthy, and contributed to the environmental deterioration of the Archipelago.

Although Providencia was not included in the free port deal, the consequences of this development model were also felt on the island. The 2012 ruling of The Hague Court of Justice brought us back to the systematic lack of consideration from the local point of view that, according to members of the raizal community, were excluded from the arguments of the Colombian government during the dispute ¹. Beyond the nationalist and patriotic wailing that such a decision could provoke, its seriousness lied on, with the loss of an important part of the territorial sea; the crisis stressed economic activities such as fishing.

The formal acknowledgment of the cultural diversity of the inhabitants of the Archipelago in the era of multiculturalism came in hand with what Professor Jaime Arocha dubbed as ethnoboom: an “intense cultural and mediatic promotion of the immaterial legacy of afro-descendants and Indian Communities in Colombia” which also trivialized, cannibalized and made them exotic, creating “smoke screens in the face of territorial violations” that these communities endured ².

Not long ago, the tourist publicity of the País Colombia brand of the Archipelago invited people to live a unique beach experience, Caribbean culture, and water activities in a place inhabited by happy-go-lucky natives that danced to the rhythms of reggae. The tourist promotion speeches show the Archipelago as a place where time stands-still, where life lacks conflict, and whose inhabitants form part of the landscape that provides tourists a unique experience³.

The Archipelago exists for the rest of the country in terms of tourism and investment in the island is directed toward that goal. The history of one of the local attractions, the boardwalk (a two-kilometer brick path parallel to the beach), in the north of San Andrés, reveals this situation. This project was a public space recovery model imported from continental Colombia, but it wasn’t necessarily adjusted for the island context. Days after its inauguration in 2004, strikes claimed the lack of investment in road infrastructure, healthcare, and education for the Archipelago. After 16 years, the crisis continues and deepens with the disaster.

It is time to listen to the claims of the inhabitants of the Archipelago. The role of the government institutions, the University, and the rest of the national society should be to accompany the civil island initiatives in its rebuilding, avoiding imposing solutions and external experts, alien to local realities. After the disaster, it’s not only about recovering the lost material legacy with solutions coming from abroad but to rethink the centrality of a predatory touristic model, that leaves communities in a fragile position in face of grave events such as those that recently occurred, as COVID-19 and hurricane Iota.
 

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 ¹See, for instance, Christian Chacón Herrera (2019) Participación de la etnia raizal en la política exterior colombiana después del fallo de La Haya de noviembre de 2012. Bogotá, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, tesis de Maestría en Estudios Políticos.

² Jaime Arocha Rodriguez, “Afro-Colombia en los años post-Durban”, Palimpsestvs (5). Recuperado a partir de revistas.unal.edu.co/index.php/palimpsestvs/article/view/8056. 

³ Nathalia Guevara (2018) “San Andrés Isla, Colombia. ¿Un “pequeño paraíso” en el Mar Caribe? Una aproximación crítica al discurso de promoción turística de la Marca País Colombia”, en Oehmichen, Cristina (Ed), Movilidad e inmovilidad en un mundo desigual: turistas, migrantes y trabajadores en la relación global-local. Ciudad de México: UNAM, 175-198.

Twenty years later, and with the drive of contributing to making better decisions in the face of the emergency of the archipelago, especially of Providencia and Santa Catalina, the results and experience of the research project were presented.

Without a doubt, the traditional architecture of San Andrés is a unique collective heritage and unusual in the Colombian context for its cultural and constructive features. Traveling the path to understanding this knowledge also meant comprehending that society requires time to recognize the importance of its patrimony and value it for what it is: a social construction.

Architecture as a cultural set

The inventory includes qualitative aspects that allowed understanding that the island habitat is expressed both in the intimacy of a home as the relationship with the exterior. They included concepts that allow gathering in a representative context, groups, and sets that share historical, social, landscaping, and technological values.

From the cultural perspective, the research project was sustained by three key points: the context, local condition, and valuation. To study San Andrés they took into account three elements: the identification and documentation of the location and the environmental and cultural significance; they also engineered a matrix and performed a survey to each of the families of those houses.

During the first stage, they took pictures, carried out field studies, performed a bibliographical review, and surveys; besides creating databases and doing statistical analysis. The research project received feedback from the discussions and interviews with members of the community, knowledgeable of the history and the islands. They also had a video called Sweet Home, carried out by the UNTV, a TV channel, part of the series TheIslanders, which speaks about homes, fishing, water, language, its people, and its roots, Vireo caribaeus and Lord´s gifts of the Archipelago.

Expositions and publications

In 2004, they published Island houses - San Andrés’s cultural Heritage, chosen in the category “Theory, history and criticism”in the XX Colombian Architecture Biennal of 2006. 

In 2005, the workshops were directed to create awareness to a greater population group including the exposition Island houses, which had 35 large format panels. 

During the following years, they carried out workshops on the importance of maintenance and preservation of the cultural heritage of San Andrés Island.

The workshops took place in San Luis, at the UNal Caribbean building; at La Loma in Tamarind Tree Cultural Center, the Cultural site of the Bank of The Republic, and the Holy Family Church in Northend.

The summons to these workshops was carried out door-to-door inviting house dwellers and community of the area of influence; they also ran radio, newspaper, and TV ads.

At the Provincial Assembly and with members of the Provincial Cabinet they discussed the actions to take for the purpose of preserving the heritage and recalled that the Archipelago was protected by Law 47 of 1993, which says that in the Province, real estate should preserve the native architecture. They also indicated that the Urban Development Plan now included properties, preservation sectors, and zones.

During this period, the exposition Island houses was itinerant and remains for a time in each of the mentioned sites.

In 2008, they carried out the project entitled, “Intervention and Recovery Pilot Project” that included blueprints and budgets with local manpower that would allow assessing critical points in an intervention of this nature, however, it couldn’t be taken to fruition.

During the 2010 - XXII Colombian Architecture Biennal, the organizers granted a mention of honor in the category, “Theory, history and research” for the book The Last China Closet: Architecture, memory, and legacy of the Island of San Andrés, which also received an honorable mention during the VII Caribbean Architecture Biennal carried out in Havana in 2009.

The research project was presented at international and national congresses in Bogotá (2012), San Andrés (2011), Tegucigalpa, and Copán in Honduras (2008), San José de Costa Rica (2012), and during the Habitamos (2010) exposition.

The exposition Island houses, exhibited at Calle 1 on Avenida Colón between 2011 and 2013, facilitated the exchange and discussions on the Caribbean legacy among young people and inhabitants of the Archipelago, besides the tourists which usually visit the island.

The cultural heritage of Providencia and Santa Catalina

In visits in 2007 and 2008 to Providencia and Santa Catalina, they saw they had natural, built, and cultural heritage sites. They discovered goods of singular value in the homes of Connolly, Howard, Corpus, Archbold, Taylor, Britton, Robinson, Huffington, Fernandez, Newball, and Livingston.

They also noticed the importance of catholic churches such as Town, Bottom House, Southwest, and Rocky Cay; and Rocky Cay Baptist Church.

At that time, Providencia carried out an important step including in their Urban Development Plan an important amount of goods in their Cultural Historic Legacy.
 

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