Colombia: Ethnic Land Rights Fail to Provide Afro-Colombians with Economic Security

Mar 17, 2026 | Joe Stafford
University of Manchester
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The legal rights designed to protect Afro-Colombian communities are not lifting them out of economic precarity - and are leaving them vulnerable to the illegal drug trade and illicit mining as a result - according to new research from The University of Manchester.

For decades, Colombia’s Pacific coast has been a battleground for ‘extractive capitalism’ - a world of illegal gold mining, industrial palm oil and drug smuggling. In 1993, a landmark law granted these communities collective property rights, celebrating them as ‘guardians of the forest’ and defenders of a traditional, sustainable way of life.