La Guajira is key to the growth of wind energy in Colombia: 31 wind farms are projected to be built in the next three years, along with new overhead high-voltage power lines and other necessary infrastructure. Combined with other initiatives in an early planning stage, more than 40 wind farms are expected to operate by 2034, representing an installed capacity of more than 8000 megawatts (MW), more than 40% of Colombia’s current installed capacity.

Most of these projects are located in the collective lands of the Wayuu Indigenous people, whose territories are “inalienable, imprescriptible and unseizable,” according to the Political Constitution of Colombia, and cannot be leased or purchased. Therefore, project developers must reach agreements with communities that include financial and other benefits agreed in the framework of consultation processes, as well compensation for potential socio-environmental impacts.

The agreements are reached within the legal framework of the Prior, Free and Informed Consent (FPIC), which is integrated in Colombian legislation. The process for FPIC is established by the Constitutional Court in multiple rulings as well as presidential directives. It involves a bilateral negotiation between the company and the community, which usually experiences high poverty, limited access to basic services, corruption, and socio-environmental damages from extractive industries, particularly coal mining.

As in many parts of the world, the implementation of wind projects in La Guajira faces problems of social acceptance out of concerns of justice, equity, cultural norms and distribution of benefits. These have led to blockades and protests, generating delays and even causing the indefinite suspension of the construction of some wind parks. Understanding what fosters social acceptance of projects is key to enabling their implementation and, at the same time, ensuring a just energy transition that benefits everyone. Below, we suggest how to address some of the main challenges identified during our fieldwork and research.

1. Facilitate access to reliable, complete and timely information

Generally, consultation processes occur in a context of limited access to information among all parties about projects and communities, in addition to low presence and capacity of the State to participate and guarantee balanced processes. All actors, including communities, developers, academia, the rest of the private sector and the regional public sector agree that limited knowledge on aspects such as the number of projects, the areas to be developed, information from developers and contractors, environmental impact studies, ethnographic studies of the surrounding communities, and specific characteristics of each project create a barrier to participation and learning projects’ positive and negative impacts. They also see the need to increase transparency on the agreements that companies reach with communities.

Although this information is supposed to be public, its access is complicated, not always kept up-to-date and fragmented in various sources, including the Mining-Energy Planning Unit (UPME), the regional environmental authority (CORPOGUAJIRA), the National Environmental Licensing Authority (ANLA), the National Prior Consultation Authority (DANCP) and wind project developers.

Increasing access to information can result in:

• Better consultation processes
• Better-informed public discussions
• Generating standards for benefit distribution
• Better attention to impacts and concerns of those involved
• Identification and development of value chains
• Informed territorial planning by municipal entities and the regional government, especially relevant for the forthcoming formulation of the 2024–2027 Municipal and Department Development Plans.

2. Identify, define and strengthen the participants in consultation processes

Social acceptance must be understood from a perspective of co-responsibility or, in other words, of shared responsibilities between the different actors of the territory. This can be achieved by identifying and strengthening the role of intermediaries in the consultation process, such as community advisors, delegates from ministries, and staff from the environmental authority, municipalities and the governor’s office. Strengthening capacities in communities, particularly in dealing with or acting as community advisors, can potentially balance power dynamics and achieve adequate representation of diverse interests.

The national and regional government should act as impartial mediators, building trust through binding dialogues. They should also understand how these new businesses function, their potential to generate productive value chains, and the required environmental and social safeguards. Public officials from municipalities, the regional government and the environmental authority responsible for wind projects usually have limited resources and capacity, and cannot attend to the large number of projects in an extensive territory with dispersed communities. In La Guajira, the private sector has knowledge, experience and presence, while the public sector is often weak. Therefore, collaboration schemes within them should be strengthened and expanded.

It is crucial to review the role of community advisors. Although there is no specific regulation, the Constitutional Court of Colombia has established that communities can request advice to identify the environmental, health, social and cultural effects related to a certain project or activity. These advisors must possess knowledge and experience that communities often do not have to analyse the implications of a project. However, though normally chosen by the community, their salaries are the responsibility of the project developer, which can compromise the advisors’ impartiality and technical knowledge. In many cases, advisors are people external to the community, with little knowledge of the local culture and motivated by economic interests that may not align with those of the community they are supposed to represent. In addition, their work usually ends with the consultation process, with no long-term follow-up.

It is necessary to develop specific regulations on the role and scope of advisors, as well as guidelines for good advisory practices. In that sense, the Constitutional Court has indicated that research institutions or universities are better-positioned to achieve a balance between technical knowledge, experience, availability of technical means and economic independence. However, aspects such as fees and eligibility criteria are not clear. It is also necessary to create and implement a training program for community advisors from communities affected by wind projects or associated infrastructure (e.g. transmission lines, access roads) that provides theoretical, methodological and practical tools to balance power asymmetry and achieve adequate representation of interests.

3. Regulate the distribution of benefit-sharing

Overcoming the difficulties of wind projects in La Guajira depends to a large extent on a fair, transparent and equitable distribution of benefits. However, gaps exist in the regulation of benefits to communities and resource governance.

In consultation processes, companies and communities have reached different types of agreements that vary according to each project and may even vary between communities affected by the same project. These benefit schemes may include allocating a percentage of annual sales, specific amounts per MW installed, or specific amounts per wind turbine installed, among others. In addition, there are problems with the internal distribution of these resources, such as jobs and other compensation, which often end up being appropriated exclusively by the authorities or leaders of the territories, distributing them among themselves and their relatives. This stokes internal conflicts within the communities. Although these conflicts are sometimes caused by “bad” business practices, they are usually also related to the internal distribution of resources within communities.

On that note, communities need institutional and policy frameworks to ensure they benefit from wind projects. Minimum standards for profit distribution can be established to manage expectations. These standards should be built collectively by different actors, including territorial entities, representatives of local communities, academia and the private sector, with the public sector galvanizing the discussion. It is important to be open to innovative proposals from communities and to explore different ways to distribute benefits. In addition, effective mechanisms should be established to follow up and monitor the agreements and commitments made during consultation processes.

4. Consider the duality of Wayuu leadership

We identified a duality between Wayuu leaders that is not usually reflected in consultation processes. There is no single Wayuu leader who represents large segments or the entire Wayuu territory. On the contrary, each local community has its own independent leadership, itself comprising the ancestral and traditional authority roles. Therefore, prior consultation processes occur with the leadership of each of the communities in the area of influence of a certain project, numbering from less than a dozen to over 200 in the largest projects.

During this process, companies’ understanding of the socioeconomic context, socio-political structures and land management of Wayuu communities is often limited without engagement from the public sector. For example, companies fail to recognize the territories’ ancestral rights and lineages. Recognizing ancestry implies going beyond the current system in which the government-appointed traditional authority has the responsibility of managing consultation processes as a figure established by the Colombian State to be the legal representative of Indigenous communities, but with a mainly administrative role. In fact, it is common for the traditional authority to be perceived as an imposition of the government and, therefore, can be perceived as illegitimate in some communities. It is the ancestral authority, or the alaüla, that defines territorial and family matters for their historical significance and, therefore, there is an expectation that it will be recognized, respected and heard during the consultation processes.

In this sense, it is necessary to contextualize the consultation processes to build trust. This includes recognizing the territory, its inhabitants and cultural practices. Indeed, the Constitutional Court has recognized that the methodological approach of the consultation can vary depending on the local context. Again, this effort must be understood from a perspective of shared responsibilities where the public sector, civil society and academia hold relevant roles, including contractors. For example, the Constitutional Court in 2019 ordered the Ministry of the Interior to conduct an ethnological study to determine social, cultural and political characteristics of the Wayuu people. The progress of such study is unknown. In addition, some communities have been building their own independent protocols to establish roadmaps for relationship processes within their territories. These protocols are within the framework of communities’ autonomous collective rights, including self-determination, self-governance, and to decide on their development pathways.

Wind power represents a great opportunity for sustainable development in La Guajira that can help Colombia achieve a just energy transition. Yet, wind power development needs to be intentionally redirected towards a process based on binding social dialogue aimed at driving local development. Consultation is a fundamental right that serves as an instrument of dialogue between communities, governments and private agents that, if done well, is a guarantee of lasting and successful relationship.