{"id":16048,"date":"2016-07-12T12:50:50","date_gmt":"2016-07-12T16:50:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/?p=16048"},"modified":"2016-12-26T15:05:59","modified_gmt":"2016-12-26T20:05:59","slug":"the-forgotten-rurality-the-case-for-participatory-management-in-bogota-and-its-surrounding-countryside","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/2016\/07\/12\/the-forgotten-rurality-the-case-for-participatory-management-in-bogota-and-its-surrounding-countryside\/","title":{"rendered":"The Forgotten Rurality: The Case for Participatory Management in Bogot\u00e1 and its Surrounding Countryside"},"content":{"rendered":"

En espa\u00f1ol\u00a0aqu\u00ed.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

We often think of the city and the country as separate, and that development planning and urban sustainability ends at the city boundary. But this isn\u2019t true\u2014in a planning and sustainability sense, the city and the surrounding rural areas are deeply linked. With this in mind, I would like to discuss a plan for the sustainable coexistence of a section of forgotten rurality near the megacity of Bogota, Colombia, and how a civic response is being molded to draw attention to the issues involved.<\/p>\n

Safeguarding a section of the Bogota countryside should be a transversal management concern for all local public administrators.<\/blockquote><\/figure>\n

Bogota’s metropolitan land area is 75 percent \u201crural\u201d with 1 percent of the population and 99 percent is found in the 25th percent that correspond to the urban area. This scarcely-populated region of the countryside is home to the Sumapaz high mountain meadow (one of the largest in the world), which is the source of much of the water consumed by the city below; its soil yields abundant agricultural output, and it is a major ecological corridor in the region. At the moment, much of Bogota’s countryside is filled with agro\/eco systems and nature reserves.<\/p>\n

\"IGAC
Bogota: Countryside and City. Image: Aerofotografia , 1960 – IGAC<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Thomas Van Der Hammen Nature Reserve is set within the Bogota countryside: this 1,400 hectare reserve, put into the Public Trust more than 15 years ago, serves as a green corridor that links the city’s eastern mountain border to its northern-perimeter marshlands and then makes its way to the banks of the Bogota River, which lies at the city’s western edge. This nature reserve environmental plan has been divided into 6 percent percent conservation area, 44 percent percent sustainable use, 40 percent restoration, and 10 percent for landscape protection. Its development will have an enormous impact on the region’s ecological future.<\/p>\n

At the moment, the future of this Nature Reserve is uncertain, due to the fact that the current Mayor of Bogota (as of 2016) has suggested he would like to modify the Reserve’s bylaws\u2014which consecrate its exclusive conservation use\u2014and open it to housing construction. The mayor’s proposal has been controversial: proponents and opponents are widely separated on the issue, with both claiming that judicial and institutional regulations support their respective viewpoints.<\/p>\n

In this article, we will offer the Fundaci\u00f3n Cerros de Bogota’<\/em>s1<\/sup> [Bogota Mountain Reserve Foundation] position on these issues. We believe that the Thomas van der Hammen Nature Reserve holds enormous potential for Bogota’s metropolitan population of 9 million people that can be turned into a public scenario for ecological and educational activities. Our goal is to protect the Reserve’s landscape and to work with all concerned so that this key urban and regional ecological resource does not become a hostile zone that pushes people apart. On the contrary, we, at the Mountain Reserve Foundation, hope to bring people together, in a peaceful setting, to actively, consciously, and constructively discuss the Nature Reserve’s future.<\/p>\n

Starting points<\/strong><\/p>\n

Within our proposal, several transversal areas of thoughts that offer starting points for a long-term, structured vision:<\/p>\n