this article seeks to offer a critical and constructive review of the conceptualization or theory behind collective reparations programs as transitional justice tools. to this end, the article proposes that an assessment of environmental harms is a fundamental criterion for the design and assignment of collection reparations measure for afrodescendant and indigenous communitites. particular attention must be paid as to how these subjects perceive the effects of the armed conflict and related forms of violence. the specific type of assessment of the environmental harms will depend on the institutional design for collective reparations that are adopted in certain concrete cases. including this criterion would have to potention of empowering ethnic communities toward the sustainable use of national resources. in turn, the empowerment would have the effect if intervening to reverse the legacy of systematic abuse against indigenous and afrodescendant communities.