Omar Prias is an electrical engineer, professor at the National University of Colombia, and former president of the Colombian Energy and Gas Regulatory Commission (CREG). He has decades of experience in the energy sector working at the intersection between the academy, planning, and politics. This InterDialogue addresses the importance of decentralized energy technologies for sustainable development, the role of intercultural dialogue, national and global energy transition, and the possibilities of introducing advanced nuclear technologies, both new and projected, in non-nuclear countries such as Colombia. We begin by talking about the fundamental role of energy in all sectors of society. Timestamps 00:00 – Introduction 1:50 – Prias’s Background in Energy 7:57 – Industry and Energy Systems in Colombia 15:13 – Historical Development of the Energy Sector in Colombia; Energy and Conflict 22:06 – Geopolitics of Colombian Energy 26:32 – Hydroelectric Power in Colombia 44:40 – Intercultural Considerations and Energy Communities 53:15 – Intercultural Dialogue and Decision-Making 1:03:43 – Energy Transition in Colombia 1:13:41 – Nuclear Energy in Colombia 1:20:11 – Opening Spaces for Adopting New Technologies

As an official in Colombia’s Ombudsman’s Office, I was a member of an interdisciplinary team that documented the issues faced by artisanal fishermen. I soon became aware of a serious widespread problem which receives minimal public attention. Those who engage in fishing activities in lentic inland waters, such as lakes, ponds and “ciénagas”, often share a common concern: the waters on which they depend have not been properly demarcated. In other words, the delineation process, known locally as “deslinde,” has not been completed to define the boundaries between ecosystems belonging to The Colombian State and those areas where private property rights apply. This is not a recent issue, on the contrary, this represents a long-standing information gap. The State does not have clear data in regards to delimited wetlands and academia has not extensively explored the problems associated with this process. The consequences of this lack of information are severe. Some of the most well-known include the appropriation of amphibious shores (floodplain lakes referred to in Colombia as “playones”), the loss of fauna and flora due to changes in land use, an increase in property concentration, and the abandonment of collective practices in flood-prone areas. This situation particularly affects the ciénagas, which are wetlands that play a crucial role in mitigating rising water levels during periods of heavy precipitation. They also help to regulate river flows and support the reproductive cycles of fish. Furthermore, there has not been a participatory process to delimit the ciénagas, where the limits of the wetlands are decided with the support of the local population. It is essential to recognize that rural communities are an integral part of these ecosystems, but the Colombian State fails to acknowledge the interdependence that exists between wetland ecosystems and artisanal fishermen. These fishermen, in many cases, have lived in...

In this interdialogue I spoke to Juan Manuel Quinche, an anthropologist from Bogota, Colombia, who at the time was completing an Erasmus Mundus Master’s Programme in Human Rights Policy and Practice in Europe.  Quinche has researched and worked on interrelated human and environmental rights issues within Colombia’s complex and often frustrating socio-political landscape, both as an official in the Colombian Ombudsman office, and as a graduate student at the National University of Colombia.  Much of his attention has been focused on the Northern Colombian wetlands and floodplain lakes known as “cienagas,” and the fishing and peasant communities that live amongst them. This is a fascinating and neglected region in the Lower Magdalena River basin, and much of our conversation focused on the cienagas as complex socio-ecological systems in which traditional fishermen and the wetlands coevolved, the long history and present realities of violent land appropriation in Colombia, and the importance of demarcating these vital and threatened wetlands.