When we think about the Amazon, we tend to imagine rainforest. A green, dense, remote, almost untouched frontier. But that image is, to a large extent, a myth. More than 70% of the Colombian Amazon’s population lives in urbanized areas, in cities such as Leticia, Florencia, Mocoa, San José del Guaviare, and Mitú. These cities are the region’s center of gravity, shaping many of the key social, economic, and institutional dynamics related to environmental sustainability and climate change. For this reason, the future of the Amazon is also being decided in its cities.
In this context, and as part of Earth Day, Despacio brought together four experts to discuss the challenges and opportunities facing Amazonian cities in the context of climate change during the webinar “Amazonian Cities: Challenges and Opportunities in the Face of Climate Change”. The panel featured Juana Hofman, environmental lawyer and Director of Strategic Affairs at Amazonas Conservation Team; Amalia Avendaño, Dean of Environmental Engineering at Escuela Colombiana de Ingeniería Julio Garavito; Juan Felipe Guhl, Coordinator of the Socio-Environmental Dynamics Program at Instituto SINCHI; and Erik Vergel, professor at the School of Architecture and Design and the CIDER at Universidad de los Andes.
These were some of the main reflections and key points discussed during the conversation.
Why Talk About Amazonian Cities?
Talking about “the urban” in the Amazon requires redefining the concept itself: it is not enough to count inhabitants; it is necessary to understand how the territory is inhabited, what local knowledge exists, and how different identities (Indigenous, settler, and riverside communities) are connected to planning processes. In this sense, Juana Hofman introduced one of the discussion’s central concepts: Amazonian cities are hinge cities that connect the urban, the rural, and the rainforest. However, their development has been shaped by exogenous models, such as land-use planning based on private property and a notion of progress that equates development with forest transformation, increasing pressure on the agricultural frontier and contributing to deforestation.
The result is unplanned urban expansion that, paradoxically, denies the rainforest from within. In addition, connectivity in these urban centers is correlated with higher levels of deforestation, while illegal economies such as drug trafficking, mercury mining, and wildlife trafficking operate through these cities as hubs that place additional pressure on the availability, or lack, of public services and infrastructure.
In this sense, the panelists agreed that talking about “the urban” in the Amazon requires redefining the concept itself: it is not enough to count inhabitants; it is necessary to understand how people inhabit and shape the territory, as well as the local knowledge systems that exist and are woven into the diverse identities of its residents, including Indigenous peoples, settlers, and migrants, in relation to planning processes.
The Challenges Facing Amazonian Cities
Amalia Avendaño described the structural deficit in basic services as one of the region’s central challenges. Across the entire Colombian Amazon, there is not a single city with efficient water treatment systems. Wastewater is discharged back into the rivers of the country’s most biodiverse region in a contaminated state, and there is still no real access to safe drinking water or sewer systems, with direct consequences for public health. This reality is not an isolated technical problem: it is one of the clearest expressions of the State’s structural neglect of the Amazonian periphery.
Erik Vergel highlighted the overlap of territorial jurisdictions in the Amazon, where Indigenous reserves, national parks, unincorporated areas, and municipalities coexist and intersect with different planning instruments, administrative structures, and institutional hierarchies. This creates governance gaps that are exploited by extractive and illegal economies.
Juana Hofman emphasized urban identity and how exogenous models imposed from outside the region dismiss local knowledge and reproduce inadequate practices, which connects to broader forms of environmental racism. In response, Juan Felipe Guhl highlighted the importance of strengthening urban Indigenous citizenship and intercultural strategies as an antidote to marginalization.
The Opportunities
Faced with this diagnosis, the panelists agreed on something that may seem counterintuitive: well-managed Amazonian cities represent an opportunity for economic innovation, sustainability, and knowledge production. Guhl explained it clearly: concentrating growth in planned cities reduces dispersed pressure on the ecosystem, as long as that growth is directed toward a scalable bioeconomy built on diverse economic activities that make use of biodiversity without replicating extractive logics. Avendaño added the potential of nature-based solutions and payment schemes for environmental services. Vergel emphasized that cities can become spaces for multi-stakeholder negotiation about the region’s future, as well as hubs for exchanging knowledge and developing solutions. Hofman proposed recognizing Indigenous and local knowledge systems as legitimate frameworks for territorial regulation, since they make it possible to design urban and environmental planning models that respect local land management practices and strengthen the effectiveness of conservation policies while generating or reinforcing local governance mechanisms.
Lessons That Cannot Wait
In closing, the panelists argued that solutions must be as complex as the problems themselves. The panel’s lessons point in a single direction: recognizing Indigenous and local knowledge systems as legitimate governance frameworks; strengthening municipal capacities; guaranteeing basic services before pursuing large-scale projects; building an Amazonian identity through schools and public spaces; and understanding that territorial planning can no longer remain an exercise carried out in isolation by lawyers, engineers, and architects from the country’s urban centers. Therefore, discussing Amazonian cities on Earth Day is not a rhetorical exercise: it is an acknowledgment that global sustainability will be decisively shaped in these territories that sustain the planet’s most important rainforest, often without the resources or recognition they deserve.
Publicado por: Despacio
