137. Meanwhile, some weeks previously, on April 26, 1999, by resolution 0841 of the Colombian Agrarian Reform Institute (hereinafter “INCORA”), 23 black communities members of the Community Council of the Cacarica River basin 280 had been granted title to collective ownership of vacant land on its territory, located in the jurisdiction of Riosucio, Chocó department. Regarding the administration of the collective territory, the resolution established that, in keeping with article 32 of Decree 1745 of 1995, it would be administered and managed by the Board of the Community Council of the Cacarica River basin, based on the internal regulations approved by the Council’s general assembly. 138. On September 2, 1999, the National Environmental Directorate presented a report to the Community Council of the Cacarica River basin in which it affirmed that logging was being carried out on the territories of those displaced, and logging camps had been set up. On May 10, 2000, Maderas del Darién S.A. informed CODECHOCÓ of its decision to commence activities with the participation of the communities settled in the area.281 139. In June 2000, in the context of monitoring and following up on the agreements signed by the national Government with the communities returning to the region, the Ombudsperson of the Justice Department of the Cacarica River Basin, the Director of the Los Katios National Park, and the Human Rights Advisers of the Public Prosecution Service denounced that logging was taking place in the territory of the communities that were in the process of returning.282 140. In June 2000, CODECHOCÓ asked that all logging activities in Balsita be suspended until this was authorized again, because the authorized volume had already been extracted.283 During 2000 and 2001, reports of illegal logging activities by the communities of the Cacarica River basic continued and, in response to these complaints, officials of the Public Prosecution Service, the Ombudsman’s Office and other State agencies visited the area. In May 2001, officials of the Ministry of the Environment, the Public Prosecution Service (hereinafter also “PGN”), the Social Solidarity Network, UNHCR and delegates of the returned communities (CAVIDA) and of the Justice and Peace Commission again visited the area, following which they confirmed inappropriate mechanized logging and the absence of the CAR which was not verifying the application of appropriate forestry management measures. 284 280 The collective title was awarded on December 15, 1999, in an official act held in the Turbo sports arena, and benefitted 710 families, with a total of 3,840 people. The 23 communitis mentioned in INCORA Resolution 0841 were: Balsagira, Balsita, Bocachica, Bendito Bocachica, Bogota, Bocas del Limón Peranchito, Quebrada Bonita, Quebrada del Medio, La Honda, Las Mercedes Barranquilla, La Virginia Perancho, Las Pajas, Montañita Cirilo, Puente America, Puerto Berlín, Puerto Nuevo, San Higinio, San José de Balsa, Santa Lucía, Teguerre Medio, Varsovia, Vijao Cacarica and Villa Hermosa La Raya. The resolution was based on the verification that the area had been occupied and exploited historically and ancestrally by the applicant black communities, with traditional production methods in keeping with their culture, uses and customs. Cf. INCORA Resolution No. 841 of April 26, 1999 (evidence file, folio 47053). Note of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of August 27, 2009, para. 113 (evidence file, folio 7598). 281 Cf. Constitutional Court. Judgment T-955 of October 17, 2003 (evidence file, folio 164). 282 In particular, they denounced the highly technical logging of cativo which directly affected the subsistence resources of the communities that were returning and their natural resources; the blocking of the navigable waterways; the injection of the logs with substances that poisoned the water and contaminated the fish, and the transformation of the cativa plantations into cattle pastures and their extinction. Cf. Constitutional Court. Judgment T-955 of October 17, 2003, p. 46 (evidence file, folio 178). See also: Public Prosecution Service. Disciplinary Chamber. Case file No. 16101435 (155-33124/99). Bogota, August 22, 2003 (evidence file, folios 9198 and 9210). 283 In mid-2000, it was recorded that only Maderas del Darién remained in the region, because the other companies had abandoned the area owing to the situation of “general impoverishment.” In addition, it was noted that the logging was carried out in a highly technical way with adverse effects on the environment and, also, that it “directly affected the resources of the communities that were in the process of returning, and their cultural resources.” Cf. Ombudsman’s Office, undated Amicus curiae presented by the Ombudsman’s Office to the Constitutional Court in 2002 (evidence file, folio 46531). 284 They also revealed some of the impacts of the logging – “deforestation, trails opened by tractors,” “environmental damage owing to the amount of tractor oil on the ground,” and the blocking of the river – and, among other measures, they recommended conducting a technical assessment in order to determine the damage and its 56