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For over 15 years, Luis Fernando Sánchez Caicedo devoted himself to civil rights in Colombia, supporting young people and championing Afro-descendant and campesino – rural farmer – communities in the Pacific region. A well-known local leader and consultant to the area’s administration in Nariño, he was also a longtime collaborator with the Institute for Development and Peace Studies, working to encourage dialogue in a country torn apart by decades of war.

That all ended in September when the boat carrying him and the mayor of Mosquera, Karen Lizeth Pineda, was fired on, reportedly by the Colombian navy. Sánchez was fatally shot and the mayor’s bodyguard was severely wounded in the attack.

The incident, which is under investigation by the Colombian authorities, has added to the unease within the local community about a project to turn nearby Gorgona island into a naval station.

Creatures such as the marbled poison frog comprise the island’s richly biodiverse fauna.

Gorgona’s marine protected area (MPA) is at a turning point, with the construction of a coastal guard post, supported by the Colombian navy and backed by the US government, that critics say could jeopardise 40 years of hard-won environmental progress.

The multi-million dollar project, which is being funded by the United States, includes a dock, radar and facilities for navy personnel. It is expected to produce 587kg of waste during construction, a significant portion of which is considered hazardous.

Activists say Gorgona has one of the most pristine MPAs in the region. It is a refuge for biodiversity, as its natural reserve covers more than 60,000 hectares (150,000 acres), a third of the area of Greater London.

Before being designated a national park in 1984, it was an Alcatraz-like prison. Now, it is habitat to several marine species and provides food security for coastal communities.

The high-security prison that was on Gorgona Island until 1984

Prof Alan Giraldo, a biologist at Valle University in Cali, who first visited the island in 1989, says: “The goal of this area is preservation – and having soldiers beside experts and tourists undermines this idea.”

Marine parks such as Gorgona contribute to the “30x30” global agreement to conserve 30% of land, water and ocean by 2030, as outlined in the Convention on Biological Diversity.

According to the Protected Planet database, a collaborative effort of the UN Environment Programme and the International Union for Conservation of Nature, Colombia is officially conserving 41% of its marine territory, achieving the 30% target years ahead of schedule.

However, according to the more comprehensive Marine Protection Atlas assembled by the Marine Conservation Institute (MCI), only 6.7% of those waters are “completely” or “highly” protected.

Gorgona’s MPA belongs to this much limited category due to the environmental recovery it has undergone in recent years. Nature has recovered: large trees tower over an unused prison compound, whales are regularly seen gliding along the coast, and the surrounding coral reef is the most widespread and diverse in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean.

Humpback whales off Gorgona. They travel from the Antarctic to the tropical waters around the island to breed between June and October

Its achievement is not accidental. Rigorous conservation measures, such as a fishing ban, a ban on tourist boats following whales, and the complete restriction of terrestrial and marine areas to human activity, have led organisations such as the MCI to award Gorgona a Blue Park award in June.

Local people say the decision to base a coastguard station on the island was made without informing them, which has increased a sense of exclusion from the decision-making process and intensified opposition.

Mercedes Colorado, government secretary of El Charco, a municipality on the mainland near Gorgona, says: “This project to establish a military base was not discussed with any of the municipal authorities, Indigenous territories or the [Afro-descendant] community councils.”

The radar mast, part of the coastguard project, seen at the top of Trinidad Hill on Gorgona. The Colombian army is also constructing a pier and barracks on the island

The Colombian government says the coastguard station and its radar are crucial for fighting drug trafficking and illegal fishing. However, scientists and activists fear the base could make Gorgona a strategic objective in an area already associated with armed conflict.

Attacks on Colombian military infrastructure have become more common in recent years. In August, 18 people were killed in two separate attacks, including a vehicle explosion at a military aviation school in Cali and a unmanned aerial strike on a police helicopter in Medellín.

US naval forces have built up in the southern Caribbean Sea off Colombia and Venezuela, and President Trump has authorised the extrajudicial use of military force against drug cartels in the region. Since early September, US attacks on boats allegedly carrying drugs have killed more than 80 people, according to Pentagon figures.

Strains between the two countries are escalating, as the US has imposed sanctions on Colombia, accusing President Gustavo Petro of allowing drug cartels to flourish. Petro sees the US move as an attempt to affect Colombia’s forthcoming elections.

Back in El Charco, Colorado says: “We know that Trump’s policy entails deploying military forces to other countries to assume command of territories that aren’t theirs.”

A memorial service held after the Cali attack, which killed six people and injured more than 60

Whether the US will ultimately place military personnel on the island is unclear. Yet its involvement is clear as the Bureau of International Narcotics & Law Enforcement, a branch of the US state department, was in charge of the pier’s planning and the vessels assigned for the Colombian coastguard.

Experts concern the new construction could also affect the island’s recently restored ecosystem, as the pier could increase sedimentation and change water flows, potentially damaging the coral reef and compromising the health of the seabed.

The Colombian navy’s environmental impact assessment has acknowledged possible effects, including the degradation of soil structure, fertility and stability, as well as potential damage to fish, turtles and marine mammals. The project also includes a 20,000-litre fuel tank that must be shipped by boat from the mainland and could spill fuel into the ocean.

For a biologist such as Giraldo, the project “endangers ecosystems that have developed over hundreds of years and could be lost in a second”.

Blue-and-gold snappers and a sergeant major in the reef off Gorgona. Thanks to conservation efforts in recent decades, the coral is the eastern tropical Pacific’s most extensive and ecologically rich

Although the navy has insisted that the pier construction will consider the whale season to avoid disturbances, it is unclear how this will be implemented, as the environmental assessment suggests that the pier construction would take more than nine months. That allows only 76 days of the year unaffected, while the whale reproductive season takes place between June and October, amounting to more than 100 days.

Fishers, as well as scientists, also are concerned about the navy’s new limitations on their movements and apprehend being confused for the military by armed groups when fishing at night. They worry that the navy will restrict when they can fish or even whether they can enter the island at all.

A fishing boat from Bazán village. Some fear that as Gorgona becomes militarised, the waters around the island will be prohibited. ‘This base could mean the death of fishers,’ says one man

Although local communities are not permitted to fish within the MPA, they are allowed to use an authorised shelter to rest on the island periodically.

“That all creates a risk now,” says Espaciano Aguirre, a veteran fisherman. “This base could mean the death of fishers.”

Besides the safety threat highlighted by the killing of Sánchez, the coastguard project could threaten the island’s Blue Park recognition. According to Dr Sarah Hameed, director of Blue Parks at the MCI, the organisation was completely unaware of the coastguard project.

“Any project that poses a threat to biodiversity conservation … can trigger the early re-examination of the five-year review,” Hameed says.

If the MCI were to decide that the coastguard station conflicts with the conservation criteria of the Blue Parks initiative, this could mean that the Gorgona marine protected area loses its international recognition, undermining Colombia’s 30x30 ambitions.