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Paper short abstract:

From an ethnoecological approach, we analyze the practices of seed custodians in a scenario agroextractivist. Through their territorial defense strategies, the custodians seek to transform their practices, thereby generating processes of alternative territoriality.

Paper long abstract:

The formation of networks of seed custodians is part of a conjunctural moment in the debate on OGM in Colombia. In this agro-extractivist context, different local struggles are activated where the custodians interact with various actors on different geographical scales to generate resistance strategies against OGM. On a local scale, the "Red de Custodios in Riosucio-Colombia", through its agroecological practices, generate multi-territorial processes that position their actions as alternatives to development.

From the "Red de Custodios in Riosucio-Colombia" we ask ourselves how the agroecological practices of seed custodians are currently manifested and what happens with these practices in times of crisis. The temporality in these transition processes is worked from an ethnographic approach in the indigenous reservations of Riosucio-Caldas, using semi-structured interviews, participant observation and workshops. The temporal and spatial particularities in the practices used by the seed custodians are part of a process of reactivation of knowledge, which in turn is complemented by the knowledge and information acquired in the scenarios of transgenic struggles. This struggle is added to an agroecological movement that positions a discourse of resistance that adheres to multiple extractivist struggles for the defense of territories of life.