This chapter analyzes indigenous and black movements that have been fighting for the preservation of the cultural and biological diversity of their territories in Colombia.

During the past two decades, indigenous and black populations of the Colombian Pacific rainforest have been establishing ethnic organizations to defend their autonomy, culture, and territories. They demand the right and authority to manage these ecosystems in a non-destructive manner and to ensure their inhabitants' welfare. The State and capital have other views of the region, seeing it as a site of rich resources or advantages for the market and for accumulation. In the current period of globalized capitalism, "the biological" has emerged as a crucial factor to the interests of both capital and science. Tropical rainforests are now seen as places with great strategic value due to their vast resources in terms of diversity of species and genetic and biochemical composition, as well as potential areas for economic expansion and the extension of infrastructures. Major agents of capitalist ventures are pressuring to obtain patents on biological species, failing to acknowledge the authority of the native peoples that have used these species for centuries. By preserving an integral vision of their societies, territories, and resources, black and indigenous social movements assert their emancipatory resistance to the colonization of their vital spaces by the State and capitalist enterprises. Ethnic organizations undertake political actions in order to voice their demands and points of view in national and international scenarios, to strengthen the autonomy of their organizations, to exercise control over their lands and natural resources, and to oppose intellectual property regimes that privatize all life forms and traditional knowledges. However, these ethnic movements are seriously threatened by the expansion towards the Pacific of the Colombian internal war, with the resulting attacks of armed groups on civilian populations and the invasion of their territories.