Territorial metabolism and land use reconfiguration in northern Tolima: an ecomarxist perspective

Abstract

Changes in land use across vast rural regions of Latin America are part of contemporary processes of reorganization within agrarian capitalism that are altering the material relationships between production, territory, and nature. This article aims to analyze, from an eco-Marxist perspective integrated with critical geography, the reconfiguration of territorial metabolism in the municipalities of Líbano, Murillo, and Villahermosa, by contrasting the biophysical characteristics of the land, the predominant productive uses, and the resulting territorial configurations. The research adopts an analytical-interpretive strategy based on cartographic, statistical, and technical data produced primarily by IDEAM, IGAC, and DANE, supplemented by environmental and territorial planning documents from the 2014–2020 period. The analysis included characterizing land suitability, examining land cover and productive uses, and constructing interpretive gradients of socio-ecological tension. The results show a significant divergence between the predominantly forestry-based character of large areas in northern Tolima and the territorial prominence of agricultural and livestock uses. They also made it possible to identify differences among the three municipalities and the persistence of productive mosaics and smallholder agroforestry systems with higher levels of ecological compatibility. From an eco-Marxist perspective, these configurations reflect distinct forms of pressure on the ecological conditions of territorial reproduction and allow us to examine the metabolic rift as a historically situated relationship, rather than as a uniform result of agrarian change.