Guardianas del Agua del Putumayo: Climate change, the energy transition and social mobilisation led by women in high-risk territories

Overview

Drawing on the experience of the social movement Guardianas del Agua del Putumayo (Water Guardians of Putumayo) in southern Colombia, this article is co-authored by three feminist-activist-scholars, including a member of the movement, and combines situated evidence and engagement with literature to examine the intersections between energy-transition extractivism, ecological degradation, and gender-based violence. The research and experiential findings highlight the dynamic response of the Guardianas to copper mining promoted under the discourse of the energy transition for climate change mitigation in Mocoa, Putumayo – a territory with a history of armed conflict, high climate vulnerability, and severe biodiversity loss. Grounded in feminist political ecology (FPE) and green colonialism scholarship, the article foregrounds women’s leadership, collective action, and creative expression as powerful forms of resistance to the risks generated by the Global North’s demand for natural resources from the Global South countries such as Colombia. We argue that mining related to the energy-transition is a form of green colonialism, and that gender-based violence, ecological degradation, and extractivism are mutually constituted processes. The lived experiences and organising practices of the Guardianas provide analytical insights that extend feminist political ecology and green colonialism scholarship while demonstrating how women’s grassroots organising generates alternative and relational visions of climate, territory, and society. Beyond this documented situated case of resistance, this article reveals the historical and everyday entanglement of gender, human rights struggles, and ecological degradation. In doing so, the analysis challenges normative climate-transition narratives and highlights the gendered impacts and colonial dimension of mineral extraction on women and their communities which are often obscured from current debates.