Speaker
Description
According to Shatkin (2017), large-scale infrastructure projects act as catalysts for metropolitan expansion, promoting new urbanization dynamics and land-use changes. The structuring of the El Dorado II project, located near the Colombian capital, specifically between the municipalities of Madrid and Facatativá, exemplifies the promotion of urbanization dynamics in a region that has historically grown outside the projections of land-use planning policies. This process has driven land-use transformations and significantly impacted the socio-environmental dynamics of the Bogotá Plateau. These municipalities are known for their agricultural vocation, particularly as producers and exporters of flowers, with a current population of approximately 276,000 inhabitants (DANE, 2018).
The decision to construct El Dorado II Airport emerged from the update study of the Master Plan for El Dorado International Airport in Bogotá, which recommended the construction of a complementary airport rather than expanding the existing one to increase commercial passenger and cargo transport capacity. The Colombian National Government classified its construction as a Project of National Interest (PIN) and structured it as a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) for its development and commercial operation. Since its inception, unclear processes regarding site selection, the potential multidimensional impacts, and the lack of access to information and real conditions for citizen participation triggered a socio-environmental conflict. This conflict revealed tensions between different actors (both public and private) regarding their contrasting visions of development and its relationship with nature.
This study examines how various social and environmental organizations in the Bogotá Plateau, along with community leaders and landowners affected by the project, represented by the Territorial Defense Committee, developed a broad participation process to raise awareness of the social, environmental, and economic impacts of El Dorado II. This process involved multiple legal and social mobilization strategies, including workshops and interviews with the local population and direct and indirect stakeholders. Additionally, various actors, such as environmental NGOs, academia, and media outlets, were involved. As a result, the discussion on the relevance of the project escalated from a local to a national scale, ultimately leading to its cancellation. One of the primary arguments against the construction of El Dorado II was the recognition and assessment of its environmental impacts within the context of climate change. These included the destruction of a vital wetland complex that prevents urban flooding, the diversion of a significant section of the Subachoque River, the loss of high-quality agricultural land, and increased water consumption in a region already facing water scarcity. Finally, this case highlights that organized community efforts and the application of the precautionary principle in environmental damage prevention serve as evidence that projects causing irreversible environmental harm can be halted. The cancellation of El Dorado II sets a precedent, demonstrating that institutions responsible for infrastructure planning must reassess the scale, location, and potential impacts of projects before prioritizing profitability. This reaffirms the principle that technical, environmental, social, and ecological considerations must precede any political and economic decision-making. Furthermore, the structuring and planning of such large-scale infrastructure projects must be reconsidered, as their top-down planning logic has historically undermined the right to information and participation in various contexts. In this regard, we argue that social resistance against the El Dorado II megaproject reflects a response to the socio-ecological inequalities experienced by the inhabitants of the Bogotá Plateau.
References
Departamento Administrativo Nacional de Estadística (DANE) (2024) Population projections in Colombia. Instituto Colombiano de Bienestar Familiar. Available at: https://portalsuin.icbf.gov.co/sites/suin/Pages/poblacion_ni%C3%B1os_ni%C3%B1as_Colombia.aspx (Accessed: January 2025).
Shatkin, G. (2017) Cities for profit: The real estate turn in Asia’s urban politics. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
| Keywords | infrastructure megaprojects, airport, citizen participation, socio-environmental conflicts, territorial planning |
|---|---|
| Best Congress Paper Award | No |
