UNDP Colombia supports the program Alert for My Environment, led by the Colombian Ministry of Environment, to improve environmental governance, social oversight, and implement the Escazú Agreement. The program, implemented since 2023, ensures local governments and community groups across Colombia have meaningful access to environmental information and a real voice in decisions that impact their territories and natural heritage.
What is “Alert for My Environment”
Alert for My Environment is more than an environmental effort—it is a national strategy, jointly implemented with UNDP Colombia, to empower communities and strengthen local governments in transparency, accountability, and the preservation of Colombia’s natural heritage.
- For community groups across Amazonas, Chocó, La Mojana, and La Guajira, the program offers UNDP-supported tools, resources, and guidance to conduct environmental monitoring, gather evidence, and advocate for sustainable territorial development.
- For local public institutions, UNDP Colombia provides training, technical assistance, and capacity-building to ensure access to environmental information, enhance active transparency, and promote multi-stakeholder dialogues that prevent socio-environmental conflicts and foster trust.
Project components
The initiative focuses on two core components:
1. Community-led environmental monitoring and social oversight
UNDP Colombia supports local organizations, youth groups, Indigenous authorities, Afro-Colombian councils, and rural associations to design and implement monitoring initiatives on:
- Sustainable water resource management
- Integrated solid waste management
- Biodiversity conservation
- Air, soil, and water pollution
- Deforestation and land degradation
- Illegal mining and environmental risks
These processes strengthen community autonomy, generate actionable information, and reinforce citizen oversight of environmental policies.
2. Strengthening institutional capacities for open and transparent environmental governance
The initiative provides technical training, methodologies, and tools for municipal public officials—especially those within the National Environmental System (SINA)—to:
- Guarantee citizens’ right to access public environmental information
- Implement active transparency measures and publish environmental data
- Design innovative accountability practices rooted in open government standards
- Facilitate multi-stakeholder dialogue spaces for resolving socio-environmental conflicts
- Improve inter-institutional coordination among environmental departments, local governments, and oversight bodies
This component helps build more responsive, trustworthy, and transparent public institutions at the local level.
Where is the programme implemented?
Alert for My Environment works in some of Colombia’s most biodiverse and culturally rich regions:
- Amazonas: a territory with vast rainforest ecosystems, Indigenous governance systems, and high environmental vulnerability due to deforestation, climate change, and illegal activities.
- Chocó: one of the world’s most biodiverse rainforests, home to Afro-Colombian and Indigenous communities, facing mining pressures, water pollution, and infrastructure challenges.
- La Mojana: a complex hydrological region affected by floods, climate variability, and rural poverty, where water management is essential for resilience and food security.
- La Guajira: a region with a strong Indigenous Wayuu presence, facing desertification, water scarcity, and socio-environmental conflicts linked to extractive activities.
In each territory, UNDP Colombia adapts the program’s methodology to cultural, social, environmental, and institutional realities—ensuring locally relevant and culturally appropriate implementation.
Recent milestones
As of 2025, the program has entered a new phase characterized by collaborative actions, institutional strengthening, and citizen-led environmental oversight.
- Community-led environmental monitoring: local organizations and citizen groups have launched monitoring initiatives focused on water protection, solid waste management, biodiversity conservation, and pollution control. These efforts generate reliable information, promote community leadership, and encourage active participation in environmental decision-making.
- Training for local public officials: specialized workshops for municipal institutions within the National Environmental System (SINA). Public officials strengthened their capacity to guarantee access to environmental information, apply open government practices, and design innovative accountability strategies.
- Multi-stakeholder dialogues: communities, local governments, environmental agencies, and civil society engaged in structured dialogues to address socio-environmental conflicts. These conversations supported consensus-building around water management, land use, and environmental protection.
- Culturally adapted implementation: the program tailored its methodology to Indigenous, Afro-Colombian, and rural contexts in territories such as Amazonas, La Guajira, Chocó, and La Mojana. This ensured culturally appropriate implementation and alignment with local governance practices.
- Strengthening trust and democratic governance: contribute to building trust between communities and institutions through open dialogues, participatory mechanisms, and transparent public management. This has promoted collaborative solutions and increased citizen engagement in environmental issues.
Expected impact
Alert for My Environment aims to:
- Increase citizen oversight of environmental management
- Improve access to reliable environmental information
- Strengthen trust between institutions and communities
- Reduce socio-environmental conflicts through dialogue
- Enhance local capacity to respond to climate and environmental risks
- Promote transparency and reduce corruption in environmental governance
- Contribute to sustainable territorial development
Conclusions
Alert for My Environment, implemented with the support of UNDP Colombia and the Colombian Ministry of Environment, is evolving beyond monitoring. It is strengthening democratic participation, institutional transparency, and community empowerment across some of Colombia’s most diverse territories.
By combining environmental protection with open government principles and culturally grounded implementation, Colombia—together with UNDP Colombia—is advancing key priorities of the 2030 Agenda, particularly SDG 10 (Reduced inequalities), SDG 16 (Peace, justice, and strong institutions), and SDG 17 (Partnerships for the goals).
This effort shows how empowering communities and strengthening local public institutions can lead to long-lasting environmental stewardship and more inclusive, people-centered development.