The Altillanura region is a low tableland located between the departments of Meta and Vichada, in Colombia. This area has an extension of 92.500 km2; nearly a quarter of Germany’s size. The predominant ecosystem in the region is dry and seasonal savanna, characterized by soils with poor nutrient content, strong acidity, low cation exchange capacity, extreme poverty in phosphorus and aluminum levels approaching toxicity for the vegetation. These conditions have imposed several constraints on the use and occupation of this territory.
The region covers seven municipalities: Mapiripan; Puerto Lopez y Puerto Gaitan in Meta county; and Santa Rosalia, Cumaribo, Primavera y Puerto Carreno in Vichada county. This region concentrates a high incidence of poverty: 90.5%, on average. Overall, it has one of the lowest population densities of the country: 0.47 inhabitants/km2, in contrast to the national average of 39.5 inhabitants/km2. The total population is estimated in 143,000 inhabitants; one third of them belongs to indigenous ethnic groups. Moreover, 44.1% of total inhabitants are concentrated in urban areas while 55.9% remains in rural areas. Additionally, the distances between the urban centres and the country’s capital city, Bogota, range from 194 to 860 km, which highlights the wide extension of this territory and the implications of geographical dispersion.
In the recent decade, the Altillanura region has been referred to as the last agriculture and livestock frontier. The national government has decided to promote its productive transformation through inserting it into the national and international markets based on an export-oriented large-scale agricultural production, with several implications in environmental, economic and social terms.
This document is an attempt to provide an analysis small towns' role in the Altillanura region towards an integral urban-rural development framework and, is supported by a review of relevant literature, official statistics and other previous studies done about the region. This study highlights the need for spatial planning approaches in sparsely populated territories with high environmental significance and prevalence of poverty because of high-density city model or classical urbanization path (concentration/agglomeration) is not feasible in this region. These new approaches should bring suitable options for the resources management and good and services delivery, ecologically friendly and economically viable in order to achieve a balance territorial development.
