Analysing (In)Justice in the Interplay of Urbanisation and Transport: The Case of Agrarian Extractivism in the Region of Urabá in Colombia

Spanish colony

Rubber companies (Goodyear)

Vegetable ivory companies (German companies)

Marine transport companies (Pacific Steam Navigation Co. and Pacific Railroad Co.)

Banana companies (Banacol, Uniban, Augura, etc)

Port concession of Colombia

Port areas in Urabá

Local political institutions of Urabá

Colombian government

U.S. Government

ANI (Asociación Nacional de Insfraestructura)

PIO SAS (Puertos, Inversions y Obras S.A.)

Landlord's militias

Colombia's Ministry of Transport

Freight transport companies

Paramilitary groups

Indigenous groups

Rural peasant communities (local banana producers)

Low-income groups

Rural day labourers (colonos)

UFCO employees

Self-defence communities

Political parties (Socialist Revolutionary Party, Communist Party and UNIR)

Guerilla groups

Developmental model oriented to maximising productivity, profits and efficiency of banana production

Harvests of banana companies tend to have little or no processing.

Governmental regulations related to mineral and oil extraction rather than to agricultural extraction

UFCO territorial control systems of getting lands

Agricultural landscapes revealed a huge potentiality, mainly for foreign companies

Transport infrastructures planned and built focusing on the performance of the transport systems related to agro-extractivism without thinking of needs of inhabitants

Ineffective land reforms due to corruption within government institutions

Government of Colombia de-emphasised land reform and shifted focus to rural development through agribusiness.

Law 200 (eviction of tenant farmers indiscriminately)

Transport infrastructures as crucial instruments in the context of rapid economic globalisation

Military violence (pre-existing power structure approved by the state)

Developmental model is not being driven by principles of social and environmental well-being

Little job creation for local comunities by banana companies as the harvests produced do not require much processing

Societal fragmentation

Rural peasants migration to agro-extractivist areas in search of better opportunities, since they were suffering huge challenges related to unemployment and lack of basic services in their rural areas

Local population without an income and more likely to rely on informal, survivalist strategies

Exclusion of low class population from the qualities and benefits of urban life.

Urban inequity and rise to high concentrations of poverty

Almost all transport infrastructures and heavy machinery are related to banana production

Traditional planning refrained from coordinating existing urban, transport and traffic dynamics

In harvesting period families arrived and settled in private properties in temporary shelters

Urban and transport planning was based on providing a better connection of the agro-extractivist region with Medellín and the main production and consumption centres of the country

Transport infrastructures that support export-oriented industries

La vía al mar provided a higher monocrop productivity of banana production.

Road insfrastructure (4-lane design, targeted mode and type of transport, trajectory, materiality, required size of investment, etc)

Urban fragmentation related to the social division of labour

Inadequate provision of public services

Fundamental changes related to excessive population growth rates

Excessive use of available resources, in particular water resources

Mobilisation of entire groups of families along the rivers and mountains of the region, establishing new urban and rural settlements

Migrant influx led to an embryonic market for informal settlements in urban areas

Planning and design of transport infrastructural projects propagate an unfair distribution of accessibility

Changes to the rural landscape (areas accommodated different human behaviours and activities for land-use practices)

Rural peasants lacking sufficient basic services provoked a constant migration of its population to the agricultural lands

Small farms were replaced by large-scale agro-extractivist infrastructures (illegally appropriation)

Urban clusters became concentrations of unplanned settlements

Urban settlements located in protected areas and areas risking flooding

Transport infrastructures contributing to the increase of traffic congestion in urban areas and excessive demand for the capacity of the road

Overcrowded concentration of informal commercial activities along the highway

Urban areas became a transit zone