1. WHO WE ARE The Colectivo Ambiental de Comunicación 7 Islas is a Colombian environmental communication and education collective born in Cartagena de Indias, rooted in the communities of the San Bernardo Archipelago — one of the most biodiverse and threatened marine territories in the Caribbean. For over two years, the collective has been working where the urgency is most visible: on the islands themselves, with the communities that live from and within the sea. Our name is a declaration: seven islands, seven communities, one shared cause. The number seven evokes the plurality of the archipelago's islands, each with its own ecology, culture, and history of resistance — and our commitment to making each of them visible. We operate at the intersection of environmental popular education, marine and coastal ecosystem restoration, and audiovisual communication as a tool for community advocacy and ethno-development. We document what institutions ignore, restore what extraction has damaged
Project story
Seven Islands, One Sea
The Caribbean doesn't forgive silence. In Colombia's San Bernardo Archipelago—seven islands rising from one of the region's most biodiverse coral platforms—the sea has been speaking for decades: bleached reefs, retreating mangroves, children who've never learned the name of the coral beneath their feet.
The Colectivo Ambiental de Comunicación 7 Islas was born to listen and answer.
For over two years, we've worked within these communities, not above them. We plant coral fragments by hand in underwater nurseries tended by local diving guides. We reforest mangrove shorelines with island families who know—better than any institution—that the forest is the only wall between their homes and the next storm. We sit in circles with children on Santa Cruz del Islote, the world's most densely populated island, asking what they see, what they fear, what they want to protect.
This is environmental education rooted in Paulo Freire's conviction: the people closest to the wound know how to heal it.
We document everything. These stories—of recovering reefs, children naming species, a grandmother's tidal knowledge reaching classrooms—aren't footnotes. They're proof that change is possible.
The Colectivo 7 Islas works with the islands, through the voices, hands, and memory of Afro-Colombian communities who've called this sea home for generations.
One sea worth fighting for.
Project updates
Team
Seven Islands reef and mangrove restoration project
1. WHO WE ARE The Colectivo Ambiental de Comunicación 7 Islas is a Colombian environmental communication and education collective born in Cartagena de Indias, rooted in the communities of the San Bernardo Archipelago — one of the most biodiverse and threatened marine territories in the Caribbean. For over two years, the collective has been working where the urgency is most visible: on the islands themselves, with the communities that live from and within the sea. Our name is a declaration: seven islands, seven communities, one shared cause. The number seven evokes the plurality of the archipelago's islands, each with its own ecology, culture, and history of resistance — and our commitment to making each of them visible. We operate at the intersection of environmental popular education, marine and coastal ecosystem restoration, and audiovisual communication as a tool for community advocacy and ethno-development. We document what institutions ignore, restore what extraction has damaged
Project story
Seven Islands, One Sea
The Caribbean doesn't forgive silence. In Colombia's San Bernardo Archipelago—seven islands rising from one of the region's most biodiverse coral platforms—the sea has been speaking for decades: bleached reefs, retreating mangroves, children who've never learned the name of the coral beneath their feet.
The Colectivo Ambiental de Comunicación 7 Islas was born to listen and answer.
For over two years, we've worked within these communities, not above them. We plant coral fragments by hand in underwater nurseries tended by local diving guides. We reforest mangrove shorelines with island families who know—better than any institution—that the forest is the only wall between their homes and the next storm. We sit in circles with children on Santa Cruz del Islote, the world's most densely populated island, asking what they see, what they fear, what they want to protect.
This is environmental education rooted in Paulo Freire's conviction: the people closest to the wound know how to heal it.
We document everything. These stories—of recovering reefs, children naming species, a grandmother's tidal knowledge reaching classrooms—aren't footnotes. They're proof that change is possible.
The Colectivo 7 Islas works with the islands, through the voices, hands, and memory of Afro-Colombian communities who've called this sea home for generations.
One sea worth fighting for.
Project updates
Team
Location
Colombia