Back when everyone still did what he or she did for centuries, only “Pacha Mama” the Mother Earth complained about the destruction of the nature. She did so, as the saga tells us, by eating the ashes of the charcoal fires and the newborn children of the charcoal burners so that there would be no more charcoal burners.

Today only scanty remainders are left of the once lush cloud forest, which used to stretch from the shoreline of the lake La Cocha up to the summit of the Colombian Andes, some 11,500 feet high. Bitter hardship has forced the residents near the lake to earn their living through deforestation and charcoal production since the population of the shoreline: In as few as five days, the process of making charcoal is complete, from felling a tree to the filling of a few bags of charcoal.

Fueled by a streak of self-confidence or maybe by cautious diplomacy, the charcoal burner women break free of their old roles in society. With the dissemination of new knowledge, reverence for nature like their Indian ancestors had, and simple but effective economic solutions, these women have brought profound change to Laguna la Cocha.

Conchita, the 50 year-old wife of a former charcoal burner and mother of five children is hereby the center of attention. Her strong motivation to improve the lives of the lake families made her a convincing lawyer of the nature’s preservation. The most complicated and yet so easy connection between ecology and economy determines her thinking and acting. She advertises for alternative possibilities of earning ones living while doing it herself: From raising of guinea pigs and trout to the growing of potatoes instead of further destroying what remains of the forest. Through reimbursable credits, Conchita is able to get the money for a guinea pig stall, rather than having to beg for an advance from a charcoal middleman.

With financial support from abroad preferential loan treatment was given to women, who have never been paid for their travail. “We had never money of our own” says Marina, “because the Machismo was so strong“. Today her husband Eusebio confirms it: “Sometimes we men fail a little bit”.

The camera shows the last bare place left deforested by Conchita’s son in law Omar, before he too decided to save the forest and to start a new life. By now Eusebio explains the visitors from other parts of Colombia: “Here, everything is so bare because I have deforested it. Now I regret it deeply and I feel ashamed.”

But not everything at the lake is settled yet. The mayor of Pasto, a city near Cocha with a population of 270,000, is campaigning for the construction of a dam. The dam is supposed to deliver profitable electrical energy and to ensure the water supply for the rapidly growing city. – A project, which wood flood huge areas of the shoreline and which would cause enormous damage on the newly recovering ecosystem.

The conflict between modernization and ecology as well as between profit from tourism and eco-friendly farming on immemorial natural land doesn’t make an exception at the Laguna la Cocha in the remote south of Colombia. It remains to be seen whether or not the hopes of the former charcoal burners and today’s environmentally friendly farmers, who’ve taken tremendous emancipated steps in accordance with the charm of the Andes, can be fulfilled.

Recommended by the jury of the XV. Television workshop for development politics 1999.