Among the most important (and least known) is Ley (Law) 70 of 1993, under which 60% of the land on the Pacific coast—6m hectares—is communally owned (see map). Colombia enacted it to benefit the region’s mainly Afro-Colombian people. The area was settled by fugitives from slavery, then by freed slaves after abolition in 1851. Ley 70 gave their descendants rights similar to those of indigenous peoples, including the right to form councils that can claim title to government lands they have long occupied. Unlike indigenous reserves, this land cannot be transferred to third parties even if a community agrees. Borrowers cannot offer it as collateral.
The law’s defenders say it preserves the environment and Afro-Caribbean culture. Families dwell in huts made from wood gathered nearby, cultivate plantains and coconuts and hunt iguanas and turtles. Some bury a baby’s umbilical cord to affirm their ties to the land. Juan Camilo Cárdenas, an economist at the University of the Andes in Bogotá, contends that families on communally owned land have lower levels of extreme poverty than others in the region. Collective titling discourages deforestation, which has soared elsewhere. Graciano Caicedo, a leader of the Yurumanguí river community, claims that a return to a way of life that pre-dates white settlement would make hospitals unnecessary.
But in some ways Ley 70 and the related right of communities to be consulted on projects that affect them, derived from the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO’s) convention on indigenous peoples, hold back the region’s people. The effect is made worse by the government’s failure to issue rules that define the application of both rights. That makes unclaimed land subject to an eventual claim by a community. Uncertainty about property rights turns much of the coast into “no-man’s land”, says Juan Esteban Carranza, head of the Cali branch of Colombia’s central bank. In the absence of rules, 10,000 prior consultations are taking place across Colombia, a large share of them in the Pacific. Peru, also a signatory to the ILO convention, has two.
No one knows how many people live on collectively owned land (communities are supposed to conduct their own census, but many fail to). Perhaps 1.5m people in the wider region are affected by Ley 70. Indirect costs are felt across the country. Colombia’s president, Iván Duque, wants to create a port and duty-free zone in Chocó plus roads to coffee-growing areas as part of his national development plan. But the government has no way to acquire the land.