Presentation short abstract

The Western Caribbean region, known for its rich socio-environmental diversity, faces today big climate injustices related to disaster capitalism which affects cultural, historical, and agroecological systems, in relation to ancestral traditions that have defined these communities for centuries

Presentation long abstract

Disaster capitalism refers to an economic model of intervention that benefits from crises. In the context of the climate crisis, this model translates into exploiting natural disasters for commercial purposes, such as tourism or property sales. In the cases of Barbuda, Vieques, Jamaica, Old Providence (Toro, Perez, 2020) rebuilding, reflects the trend of investing resources without taking into account ancestral knowledge. (SCT, 2024) Devastated regions as Western Jamaica, Haiti and Cuba, after the passage of hurricane Melissa, show how local peoples are disproportionately affected by centuries of nature´s colonization.

Indigenous and local communities as Maya, Raizal, Miskito, Garifuna and Raizal peoples and many others, in this considered, resource-rich areas are simultaneously exposed to the local impacts of extraction and the broader effects of climate change, creating a feedback loop of environmental and social damage.

In particular, the Archipelago of San Andres and Old Providence, located in the South-Western Caribbean, serves as a clear example of the challenges faced by coastal and island communities protecting their heritage in the contect of a climate crisis. This paper aims to distinguish how disaster capitalism impacted Old Providence Island, after the passage of Hurricane Iota in 2020. Social and symbolic values of architecture and landscape involves a historical and emotional dimension of relationships in this terri/maritories that were not being considered in the rebuilding process. We will present the conflicts associated with the recovery of the wooden architectural heritage of cultural, emotional, physical, and intangible value and the defense of its ancestral Caribbean territories.