Alongside the development of coca cultivation, which has now declined but is still present, it is not uncommon for speculators to buy up vast areas of forest and then sell the timber in order to open up new grazing areas, the financial value per hectare of which will be higher than that of a hectare of forest. Due to the regular passage of livestock, as well as the use of insecticides, pesticides and fertilisers, the soil becomes compacted, eroded and depleted. Gradually, soil laterisation (hard, unproductive soil) sets in.

Thanks to their ancestral knowledge, the Kogi communities manage to ‘repair’ these lands and allow nature to reclaim its rights. In their culture, it is necessary to leave 60% to 70% of the land to regenerate, with the remaining 30% allocated to mixed-crop farming and traditional buildings. The Mamas and Sagas (male and female shamans), through their extremely rigorous training (18 years in the dark), possess in-depth knowledge of ecosystems, their major balances, and the signs that allow one to assess their more or less ‘good’ condition. They speak of ‘ordenamiento territorial’, an approach that restores balance to the fundamental principles that keep a territory in ‘good health’. It is generally the women who are responsible for caring for ‘Mother Earth’ and the men who assist them. Their knowledge – of insects, birds, minerals, nature and soil exposure, the stars, flora and fauna, the spatial and temporal patterns of humidity, the nature of water, and the interrelationships between things and phenomena – is combined and applied in an attempt to cultivate the land, respect its energies, whilst keeping at bay the cycles of predators and insects that might threaten their crops.