“Nature-based Solutions: Glossary for Territorial Integration” is the result of a process of knowledge exchange and collaboration between communities from different areas of the Sierra–Ciénaga corridor and WWF Colombia, carried out in 2024 and 2025 within the framework of the Water Stewardship Platform. The glossary gathers learnings, reflections and collectively built concepts around Nature-based Solutions (NbS), bringing local knowledge into conversation with technical approaches and with national and international agendas on the subject.
The glossary compiles the concepts developed together with people from San Pedro de la Sierra, San Javier, Aracataca, Sacramento and Riofrío, in the municipalities of Ciénaga, Zona Bananera, Fundación and Aracataca (Magdalena). These concepts are aligned with four IUCN (2016) criteria, which guided a modular capacity-building program on NbS.
More than a reference tool, this glossary is a meeting space between different ways of understanding, relating to and caring for nature, where technical knowledge engages in dialogue with territorial knowledge, practices and visions. Its participatory approach made it possible to reinterpret NbS from the specific context of each community, recognizing the diversity of realities, landscapes and ways of knowing that coexist in the territory.
As expressed by Hernán Gutiérrez, community leader from Aracataca, Magdalena, and member of the Water Stewardship Platform:
“This has been a process that has allowed me to learn about the interconnection between social, cultural and environmental well-being, reaffirming the importance of working from the ground up with concrete and sustainable actions that benefit both people and nature.”
This testimony captures the essence of the glossary: more than an exercise in one-way transmission, it is a space where different knowledge systems connect and converse, as also highlighted by María Paula Casas, Inclusive Operations Specialist at WWF Colombia.
The glossary is not a closed document; it is a living resource that will continue to grow with new contributions, experiences and learnings emerging from other processes underway within WWF Colombia and its partners. It represents another step in the commitment to inclusive conservation — one that recognizes local leadership, supports the development of initiatives grounded in the specific contexts of each territory, and values holistic visions of landscapes.
In this same spirit, the pilot collective dialogue on NbS in the Sierra–Ciénaga corridor now enters a new phase, in which the modular program will be consolidated, internal reflection spaces on NbS will be opened within WWF Colombia, and a guide will be developed to support its adaptation to other contexts in the country.
This process has been possible thanks to the commitment of participating communities and the accompaniment of the Network Innovation Team, within the framework of Futures Innovation Collab, an initiative developed with the support of WWF Netherlands and linked to the Strategic Partnership Agreement between the Colombia and Netherlands offices.
The results achieved reflect the strength of collaboration, the knowledge built from the territory and the collective capacity to imagine and act for a future rooted in nature and human well-being.
