Managing the river and the territory: the participatory experience of the Fisheries Management Plan of the lower Sogamoso River, Colombia from the approach of communication for social change

Abstract

Communication for social change has been presented as a strategy, a process and/or a purpose with which action and mobilization networks are strengthened. In this case, we present the way in which the fishing communities of the lower Sogamoso River, in the department of Santander, developed a strategy for participation in the activities and decision-making of a Fisheries Management Plan. The article is based on the experience of the design of a communication strategy formulated by nine fishing communities of the lower Sogamoso river, whose particular forms and processes of communication are characterized, highlighting, among others, the role of art and culture as expressions that contain the deepest codes and representations that can be promoted through communication. It is concluded that, in comparison with other perspectives of communication, that of social change enhances the processes of participation and decision-making in the territories.