**4. Findings**

In this section, the thoughts and opinions of the leaders who represent the nine socio-environmental organizations and movements that participated in the research will be presented. These results can be considered as a contribution to the involvement that social work should make in the development of perspectives on leadership and organization. From the accounts of these leaders, it is possible to identify key categories that reveal their experiences. The categories are the (i) purposes of the socio-environmental organizations and movements, and (ii) the beliefs that support their action.

#### **4.1 Category 1: the purposes of the environmental organizations and movements**

#### *4.1.1 Resistance in defense of water and territory: an opportunity to regain hope*

Through the accounts made by the nine leaders, it is possible to identify some coincidences in the purposes of the Colombian and Chilean socio-environmental movements and organizations. Mention is made of the values assumed by such organizations, their network structure, and the complex epistemic communities that make them up [42]; in which very diverse fields of knowledge and action intervene. These organizations have assumed an effective mode of operation through different strategies public policy advocacy, "grassroots" work in communities (rural, urban, semi-urban, and indigenous), education programs, and activism. They show

diversification of mechanisms to achieve change, despite the uncertain present and future outlook.

Socio-environmental movements and organizations arise in spite of the evident risk and the impacts generated by human action in their territory. The defense of water and territory is articulated despite corporate extractivist projects that do not consider environmental effects. Organizations emerge spontaneously around common purposes; their demonstrations seek to raise awareness and generate urgent and necessary changes. In terms of the environmental problem in Chile, there is evidence of a growing depletion of natural reserves and resources, which has necessitated the adoption of certain measures. In addition, in Chile, some organizations consider that education and the promotion of knowledge help awareness-raising and provide a basis for action.

The testimony of the Chilean leaders is presented first followed by the views of the leaders in Colombia. For the socio-environmental organizations and movements in Chile, the purposes of each organization can be observed through the following statements.

The representative of the Movimiento por el Agua y el Territorio stated:

"The Movimiento por el Agua y el Territorio is a movement aimed to at defending water in the territory. Its origin in a movement called Aguante la Vida (Hold on to Life), which emerged in the period after the 2010 earthquake period…the purpose of the movement was born out of a desire to provide a voice for all the movements and people, getting them together to defend the territory and the water".

In the same consciousness, the interviewee for the Consejo Ecológico Comunal de Molina gave the following account:

"The Consejo Ecológico de Molina began informally in 1988 and was recognized as formal organization in 1991. Its main concern with the issues of global warming, landfills, and the protection of the Parque Inglés…so that it became a protected area and then a national park thanks to our work and the work of other people, and some authorities. The Consejo Ecológico is an ecological community organization made up of private individuals…it has no political party affiliation and its objectives include environmental protection, education, and the reporting of environmental misconduct."

The participant for the Escuela Agrícola Palquibudi explained that "The purpose of the Escuela Agrícola Palquibudi is to offer a diploma in rural development. First of all, the school is free, it is a quality institution and it is a non-profit institution: those are our three characteristics. And we also consider ourselves to be autonomous and independent…we do not receive money from the state or from companies."

The leader of the Organización No Gubernamental Sur Maule recounted that: "We are focusing on the areas of territory and sustainable communities; over the years, we have also been developing other initiatives that have to do with urban sustainability and waste management. Additionally, we have been working in the area of ecological agriculture in the city, so urban agriculture and the urban garden as an experience, which is something we have developed in the Independencia neighborhood of Talca. In general, we are trying to develop an approach that allows us to definitively propose an alternative vision of sustainability, based on the idea that sustainability is generated from the surrounding area rather than simply adopting an idea of sustainable development, which is something else from our point of view."

Through the opinions of the Colombian leaders, it is possible to identify the characteristics of the organizations, their struggles, and challenges. The Colombian organizations interviewed emerged to the defense of the local natural environment and a "resistance to water pollution and non-metallic mining with intensive exploitation," (Vigías del Río Dormilón) as a result of the construction of small hydroelectric

#### *Experiences of Socio-Environmental Organizations and Movements in the Framework… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.106282*

plants in eastern Antioquia and the Ituango Dam hydroelectric mega-project. The geological instability, soil erosion, and floods produced by the project necessitated the evacuation of the population to temporary shelters, which in turn caused the loss of domestic animals that could not be accommodated in the new location. All of the above generated social tension and conflict between the community and the departmental government. "This encouraged 15 grassroots organizations, made up of women, [members of the environmental education initiative] young defenders of water, *barequeros* and *barequeras*, muleteers, fishermen, and farmers located in the western Antioquia, Northern Antioquia, and Lower Cauca, who were adversely affected [by the Ituango Dam project] to unite and form the Movimientos Ríos Vivos." (Movimiento Ríos Vivos).

Additionally, contrary to being a hope for the commercialization of agricultural products at fair prices and making a contribution to a more dignified life for the local inhabitants, "the companies that develop these types of projects constitute a threat to the peasant farming communities." (Asociación Campesina del Valle del Río Cimitarra).

In those circumstances, organizations began to form through demonstrations and marches. The Movimiento Ríos Vivos held their first demonstrations in Valle Toledo, then walked from Ituango to Medellin and remained congregated at the University of Antioquia for 6 months to demand that the departmental government listen to them and stop the construction of the Ituango Dam. Similarly, the Vigías del Río Dormilón (which translates as Watchmen of the Dormilón River) was formed through "spontaneous reflections and meetings about the impacts of the construction of hydroelectric projects on the population." (Vigías del Río Dormilón).

There is also the Asociación Campesina Antioqueña (ACA) that, following the peasant coffee strike, saw "the need for the community to organize and work collectively for the fight for rights. [the people] Work under the principles of a peasant economy, they realized that if they do not unite as a community they do not get anywhere." (Asociación Campesina Antioqueña).

Knowing the aims of the organizations allow us to clarify and propose an intervention that is relevant to their reality and that contributes to overcoming the challenges they face. Furthermore, against a patterning of action that tended to verticalization and centralization in bureaucratic institutions, emphasis is given on decentralization, self-organization in non-hierarchical groupings, and the creation of horizontal alliances of potentially global reach among local groups who further similar interests: they have a "local" dimensión. Instead of asking for change, they produce the change itself in the form of alternative ways of socio-ecological organization, establishing novel material and cultural-symbolic patterns. The experiences presented in cases discussed in this chapter are alternative organizations that while contesting around capitalism, experiment with alternative ways of organizing [43].

In relation to leadership, environmental leadership is the only way to defend their territory. Because, in most cases, the proposals aim to be structured processes based on local characteristics, in order to improve the conditions or quality of life, and to transform the environment through the transformation of the customs of social groups. In addition, to strengthen the popular organizations that have been concerned with the relationship between ways of life and social-environmental situations.

#### **4.2 Category 2: beliefs in action**

The selected socio-environmental organizations and movements have the purpose of promoting citizen participation in issues of real importance, in this case, environmental

justice. They also aim to educate and at the same time nurture the knowledge of the social actors belonging to the organizations or movements, generating support in the community, with the objective of improving the quality of life of the participants and the community in general. They respect nature and advocate for the noninvasion of nature, they propose a harmonious approach to environmental changes, and at the same time, a harmonious relationship between the environment and the lives of the people who inhabit an area. One key characteristic of these environmental organizations and movements is that they have strong value orientations and opposition to the environmentally invasive capitalist production model [44, 45].

From the interviews with representatives of the Chilean movements and organizations, the following beliefs emerge, starting with the representative from the Movimiento por el Agua y el Territorio, who said that their discourse is informed by "people who have written about political ecology…who has written a lot about social movements and social environmental movements."

The participant from the Consejo Ecológico Comunal de Molina recounted that.

"we think that we have a political ecology because we are working to make this way of life a form of collective creation, of deep ecology as well, from valuing from the smallest being, always being concerned about all lives. In general, we think a lot about forms of life and organization of the indigenous people."

The account from the Escuela Agrícola Palquibudi regarding beliefs was as follows:

"First popular education [education of the people] from Paulo Freire [the educator and philosopher], and the other theme comes from the fact that we are Buddhists… this is, we use an educational proposal from Makiguchi, the Japanese educator who created [and was first president of Sōka Kyōiku Gakkai, the predecessor of] Soka Gakkai International, and that is where the concept of 'Soka education' [value-creative education] comes from… So, we put these things together to be able to do things, and another informing principle is that all the founders are the daughters of farmers, so they are people who have a deep understanding of the problems of farmers."

The leader of Organización No Gubernamental Sur Maule related that "The first big thing is that we start from the problematization the notion of development itself… To a certain extent, we conclude that the notion of development, historically speaking, ultimately constitutes the great colonizing project imposed upon Latin America and our people and our societies…From that problematization and to return to the idea of sustainable development, in terms of training, my education focused on the areas of political and sustainable ecology."

Through the opinions of the Colombian leaders, it is possible to identify their beliefs, struggles, and challenges. One of the fundamental pillars of the Asociación Campesina Antioqueña is to retake the farmland and begin clean production using nonchemicals, natural fertilizers, and manures in the tradition of their ancestors because they recognize the environmental damage that chemicals cause to the land, water, and air. In addition, they seek to generate proposals for food sovereignty using insights from agroecology.

The Asociación Campesina Antioqueña also considers that the clean cultivation of crops is a key contribution to mitigate climate change and that to stop using chemicals and plastics contribute to the decontamination of the land. For this reason, they are working with the community to raise awareness through concrete actions focused on caring for water sources and cleaning up streams. Moreover, they are coordinating with other movements and organizations to defend water, which they value not as a resource but as a common good of humanity.

#### *Experiences of Socio-Environmental Organizations and Movements in the Framework… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.106282*

There is no doubt that this resistance is undertaken in order to live a dignified life in the territory they inhabit. In other words, the territory transcends the physical and is shaped by the social fabric that constitutes ways of living, fighting, connecting with others, working for daily sustenance, recreation, building history, and of relating to nature.

They defend their dignity as peasant farmers. They fight and demand from the State the protection and right to life of the community who defend their territory "and who lives are being killed simply for making demands, telling the truth, and defending their land." (Asociación Campesina del Valle del Río Cimitarra).

Thus, when the inhabitants around the Cauca river cannot fish because the water levels are so low that the fish die, the community also withers because it has built significant links around the water insofar as the water and the artisanal forms of fishing give them life and are their livelihood.

The participant representing Movimiento Ríos Vivos related that the Ituango Dam Hydroelectric project "has left us without work, without means of subsistence, it has destroyed more than 4700 hectares of tropical dry forest, which is what we had in this canyon, so we continue to resist."

In general terms, the organizations from Colombia expressed their discourse and beliefs related to autonomy, social and community participation, and environmental justice. They seek to harmonize the territory, humans, and nature, in order to survive on the planet as a species "because we are going through a civilizational and climate crisis, so this [harmonization] may happen, but human civilization is at high risk." (Sembradoras de Territorios, Aguas y Autonomías).

From these accounts, it is possible to identify that, in the case of Colombia, the values that underpin the actions of the organizations and movements in this study are related to hope, dignity, and collaboration. Their leaders do not necessarily refer to defined theoretical currents and authors. In the case of Chile, the organizational leaders reveal that the beliefs that underpin their actions are related to some authors and philosophical, educational, and organizational currents, such as popular education, environmental movements, political ecology, and elements of sustainable development.
