Naturalia Winter 2009

Contents

Municipalities validate themanagement planPaulo Barreiro

Comarapa’s compensation forhydrological environmentalservices scheme M. Teresa Vargas & Maurizio Forno

The international internshipprogram 2009 Jose Luis Izursa

The Bellagio conversations: Howimportant are PWS initiatives forpoverty reduction?Nigel Asquith & Sven Wunder (eds)

Samaipata has decided toconserve its water sourcesMaurizio Forno

Bolivians look to ancient farmingBBC Mundo James Painter

RACSA: Generating SinergiAStephanie Secomb

Getting to know the Natura family

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In August, the municipalities ofCabezas, Vallegrande, Samaipata andGutierrez played host to a series ofworkshops in which Fundación NaturaBolivia presented the results of thediagnostic study and the managementplan for the Río Grande-CruceñoValleys Natural IntegratedManagement Area (ANMI).

After intense days of analysis anddebate, the mayors and councilmembers took the decision to validatethe management plan for the reserveand create a “municipalities union” inorder to execute activities and providesupport to the programs establishedin the management plan, aimed atconserving and sustainably managingthe ANMI’s natural resources.

The validated management planproposes a decentralized scheme ofgovernability, in which the Santa CruzDepartmental Government woulddefine policies and contribute

Union creates strength

Municipalities of the Río Grande-Cruceño ValleysNatural Integrated Management Area validate the

management plan

economic resources, and themunicipalities with jurisdiction overthe Río Grande-Cruceño Valleys ANMIwould be responsible for themanagement of the area and fordirectly executing activities.

To this end it is proposed that the sevenmunicipalities form a board of directorsand later the municipalities union forthe ANMI. In the long term, it isexpected that this scheme wouldfunction as an agile and efficient tool,capable of effectively managing thedifferent programs planned.

The governability scheme proposed forthe Río Grande-Cruceño Valleys ANMIwill depend on a strong articulationbetween the departmentalgovernment and the municipalitiesinvolved, given that these are thepolitical and territorial instances withthe democratic legitimacy necessaryto consolidate the area.

Winter 2009 Newsletter of theFundación Natura Bolivia

Fundación Natura Boliviaspecializes in the development offinancial mechanisms—such ascompensation for environmentalservices—to sustainably conservecritical ecosystems and improve

the wellbeing of the Bolivianpopulation.

However, in the past few years, extensivecattle ranching and deforestation havenotably increased the naturally high ratesof erosion and sedimentation in the region,contributing to the floods which annuallycause enormous economic losses for thedepartment. The forests of the reservewould play a key role in the mitigation ofthis type of disaster.

Importance and strategic potential

The Río Grande watershed covers around5.7 million hectares and originates in thedepartments of Potosí, Chuquisaca andCochabamba. It is considered one of themost important watersheds in Bolivia fromthe hydrological point of view, given thatit plays a key role in the production of waterfor consumption and irrigation. This sectorhas the highest biodiversity level of all theBolivian Tucuman Forest, as well as highcultural and historical value.

Vision: Healthy and adequatelymanaged ecosystems, home to peoplewith incomes above the nationalaverage.

The strategic objectives to achieve thismission and vision are:

· Ensure the conservation of the naturalwealth present in ecosystems of greatbiodiversity which are vulnerable tohuman activity, as well as of the culturalvalues associated with the traditionsand customs of local communities.

· Guarantee the health and integrity ofimportant water sources and theenvironmental services which theyprovide, related to hydrological stability,carbon fixation and climatic regulation.

- Contribute to alimentary security andpromote the economic and socialdevelopment of local communities,based on the sustainable managementof species which may be exploited togenerate income without diminishingor degrading the natural capital of thearea, and improve the livelihoods of thepopulation involved.

First steps

During the process of creating themanagement plan, conservation objectswere identified and 11 zones defined fordifferent uses according to theirimportance. The results of this process weresubmitted to consultation in a series ofplanning workshops, to which all of the keyactors of the area were invited, includingthe presidents of local organizations,community representatives, forest guardsand municipal government representatives,among others.

Once the characteristics, limitations andpotential of the Río Grande-Cruceño ValleysANMI were known, it was proposed thatthe management plan should include thefollowing:

Mission: Improve the quality of life forthe communities of the Río Grande-Cruceño Valleys ANMI through thesustainable management of its naturalresources in a way which generatesemployment and income.

2 Naturalia Winter 2009

Mission

Improve the quality oflife for the communities

of the Río Grande-Cruceño Valleys ANMI

through the sustainablemanagement of its

natural resources in away which generates

employment andincome.

Vision

Healthy and adequatelymanaged ecosystems,home to people withincomes above thenational average.

Winter 2009 Naturalia 3

María Teresa Vargas and Maurizio Forno

On the border between the municipalitiesof Comarapa and Saipina, at the beginningof 2003, the La Cañada dam was builtthrough a public investment of 26 milliondollars. The water from the dam is used,above all, in the lower part of thewatershed, specifically in the valleys ofSaipina, Chillón and San Rafael;permanently and adequately supplyingmore than 400 families which irrigatearound 2,400 hectares in the Municipalityof Saipina.

Of the two zones mentioned, the mostimportant is the watershed of theComarapa River, due to the fact that itsflow is permanent throughout the year andthat it is the one which feeds the dam.

Within the upper watershed of theComarapa River, eight subwatersheds havebeen identified, with a total area of 15,037hectares. The Churo Negro subwatershed,which has an area of 1,976 hectares, is thatwhich presents the highest indices ofprecipitation and the greatest area withforest cover. Consequently it is the riverwhich provides the greatest contributionto the Comarapa River.

The principal productive activity in theComarapa watershed is agriculture,generally with irrigation. There are markeddifference in relation to the types of cropsgrown, irrigation systems used and theextension of the lands cultivated betweenthe upper, middle and lower watersheds,but generally the area is known for itsagrohortifruticultural production.

At the local level, compensation for hydrological environmentalservices schemes in the Santa Cruz valleys:The case of the Municipality of Comarapa

BackgroundThe Comarapa River watershed is locatedbetween the municipalities of Comarapaand Saipina, both belonging to the CaballeroProvince of the Department of Santa Cruz.The upper, middle and lower Comarapawatersheds cover a total area of 54,300hectares. The Comarapa River is a tributaryof the Mizque River, which is a tributary ofthe Río Grande and it in its turn of theMamore River which flows into theAmazonas. The Comarapa watershed is fedby the Amboró National Park and covers agreat part of the buffer zone of thisprotected area.

The watershed is divided into two zones orprincipal waterways: the Comarapa River(above the La Cañada dam) in themunicipality of the same name and thesubwatersheds Oconi and Puercos, whichform the upper watershed and after meetingreach down to the Municipality of Saipina.

Subwatershed El Churo Negro, zone in which theFundación Natura Bolivia realizes CES interventionsSubwatershed El Churo Negro, zone in which theFundación Natura Bolivia realizes CES interventions


“The ComarapaRiver and itstributaries are keyfor water provisionas much fordomestic use as forthe productivesectors of thearea.”

The second productive activity in theComarapa River watershed is cattleranching, with approximately 15,000animals (bovine) in existence in theComarapa municipality.

Cattle ranching is done only at the smallto medium scale, with an extensive systemof production for both meat and milkproducts. The predominant race is “criolla”for the ease with which it adapts to thearea.

The Comarapa River and its tributaries arekey for water provision as much fordomestic use as for the productive sectorsof the area. Nevertheless, a large part ofthe watershed faces constant pressure fromthe agricultural sector, both through theexpansion of the areas in production andfrom soil misuse, producing serious impactssuch as soil erosion, an increase in thesediment load, loss of fertility, loweragricultural profits, loss of biodiversity and

greater contamination in the water courses;all of which contributes to greater povertyin the rural populations.

In the middle watershed ranchers realizeintensive cattle grazing, principally aroundthe La Cañada dam in areas which due tothe characteristics of the soil areinadequate for cattle, a situation worsenedby overgrazing, which causes greatersediment production.

Possible solution: direct incentives for poor farmers

Problems of environmental degradation in the watershed

Consequently, any intervention in theComarapa watershed requires aconsideration of how to protect theremaining forest mass in the upper part ofthe watershed, and of how to diminish thesediment load in the middle watershed, soas not to affect the productive sector andlivelihoods of this watershed.

After having put into practice variousconservation measures, in February 2008the highest local authorities approved thecreation of a “compensation for hydrologicalenvironmental services” scheme, as a toolto help mitigate the environmentalproblems faced by the most importantwater sources for the municipalities ofComarapa and Saipina. The first step wasto create a local, credible and transparentinstitutional framework, consisting of thewater cooperative, Comarapa MunicipalGovernment and a non-governmentorganization, Fundación Natura.

The objective of this tripartite alliance is toconserve the environmental services of thewatershed, restoring the ecosystem, wherenecessary and possible, in order to en sure

the long-term provision of water for thesupply not only of the general populationbut also for the productive sectors.

The means of reaching this goal is theestablishment of a just compensationsystem, which will slowly but surely buildsupport for the families which help providethese environmental services in the upperand middle Comarapa watershed. In orderto be sustainable the scheme needs toinvolve the farmers of the upper, middleand lower watershed in commitments formutual cooperation, considering that thereare complementary interests for theirproductive activities. The downstreamfarmers need water for irrigation andconsumption, but the watershed issusceptible to changes in the forest coverproduced in order to initiate agriculturalor cattle-related activities in the upperwatershed, especially when cloud forest isinvolved.

A downstream “water fund” has beencreated to finance upstream conservationactivities, which is administered by theCaballero Public Services Cooperative Ltd.,


diffusion which sought to introduce theconcept that the preservation of the sourcesof water supply is not a cost, but rather aninvestment with a high return in terms ofsocial benefit. Following this process ameeting of cooperative members was heldwhere the implementation of a newcontribution for “environmental services”was proposed and approved.This contribution consists in chargingmembers a percentage of their monthly feefor the provision of water, which in themajority of cases amounts to approximately2.50 Bs.

The objective of incorporating this amountin the water bill to conserve the water supplyis to promote a system of compensation forenvironmental services in the watershed,which will enable the municipality to ensurewater flow in quantity and quality.Specifically, the aim is a CES initiative forthe provision of hydrological environmentalservices, both present and future. Thisinitiative is motivated by the urgent needto protect the existing sources of potablewater, as well as the zone where the wateris collected.

The financial contribution by the end usersto compensate those who assume the costof protecting the watershed, responds tothe principal of social equity and to theprincipal of “user pays” in relation toresource use. In this way the finalbeneficiaries are delegated part of theresponsibility for protecting the existingsources of potable water.

an entity with local legitimacy andadministrative capacity to manage theseresources. The fund’s resources are derivedfrom the annual contribution of theComarapa Municipal Government, theFundación Natura Bolivia and from thecontributions of the members of theComarapa water cooperative.

The contribution from the watercooperative members was obtainedthrough an arduous process of social

Evolution of the Comarapa CSAH fund

In the first two years of the fund’smanagement, 157,037 Bs were collected,and with this project partners havecompensated 10 families which have putunder permanent conservation 628.34hectares of cloud forest in the upperComarapa watershed. The size and thecompensation package have beennegotiated with each farmer.

An indicator of the success of the scheme

is the quantity of farmers willing toparticipate, who comprise a group offeringenvironmental services (provision of waterand reduction of sediment) of more thanfive communities (La Jara, Los Pinos, Pampas,Pampa Chacra, San José and others),approximately 148 families, equivalent to800 inhabitants, that have not yet receivedcompensation due to a lack of funds, withthe idea being to advance slowly but surelyand reach at least 80% of the area with

Water bill which includesthe environmental servicescontribution


forest coverage in the upper watershedthrough the compensation scheme, so asto guarantee the protection of the cloudforest.

Both the success of the conservationactivities realized and the transparency inthe management of the resources of thefund have attracted fans, for which reasonsince the first semester of 2009, theComarapa Irrigators Association(downstream irrigators who benefit fromthe La Cañada dam) have joined the effortin an active and responsible way. Theirrigators contribute 10 Bs perhectare/year. In total there are 460irrigators and the area under irrigationoccupies 2,400 hectares, with which it ishoped to raise an annual amount of 24,000Bs.

With similar motives, other producers’associations of the area (such as the cattleranchers association of the Comarapamunicipality) have demonstrated theirinterest in supporting the conservationefforts in the middle and upper watershed;thus project partners are working ondefining the kind of contribution theymight be able to make.

Beyond the resources raised, thismechanism has been completelyappropriated by local organizations whichexercise full leadership of the scheme.Through their activities in favor of thisinitiative, both the Mayor of Comarapa,Mr. Noel Rojas, and the President of thewater cooperative, Prof. MarceloQuemaya, have enabled Comarapa tostand out as a “green” municipality andmodel for schemes related to conservationand environmental responsibility, willingto innovate and lead conservation actions,generating new alliances and maintainingproductive systems.

All this enables both authorities to channeladditional help for the integrated

management of the watershed, theexpansion of the sewer system, fasterestablishment of water connections andimprovements to the administration of thecooperative itself.

One proof of this is that the currentgovernment approved a project worth 2.6million bolivianos for the sustainablemanagement of the Comarapa watershed;part of these resources will be used tostrengthen the local CES scheme.

In the same way, the water cooperative hasgained the attention of international supportentities which have shown interest inhelping expand the system of waterconnections and improving the waterprovision services.

Considering the favorable development ofthe local watershed protection fund, thereis increasing interest on the part of thestakeholder communities and productivesectors to become involved, whether asbuyers or sellers of the hydrologicalenvironmental service. The responsibilityand commitment of those who composeand manage the fund is also evident; wecan only hope that the process continueswith the progressive development ofactivities and that it may be consolidatedas an example of environmentalmanagement and responsibility at thedepartmental and national level.

“…this mechanismhas been completelyappropriated bylocal organizationswhich exercise fullleadership of thescheme…”

Showing the new agreement withthe signature of the Saipina irrigators


The international internship program 2009A “Water Museum” for Santa Cruz and a baseline for

conservation in the Cruceño Valleys

During the months of June and August of2009, Natura welcomed with open armsthree Masters students from differentuniversities of the United States: AbbieTuriansky from Duke University’s NicholasSchool of the Environment, Stella Schonsfrom the Yale School of Forestry andEnvironment, and Bryn Fluharty from theglobal environmental policy program ofthe American University.

Abbie and Stella worked on the beginningsof a long-term research program whichFundación Natura is developing togetherwith Harvard University. The program seeksto compare compensation forenvironmental services activities with othertools for conservation which Natura willbe implementing in and around the ANMIRío Grande-Cruceño Valleys. Through thisinvestigation, project partners hope todetermine which mechanisms are mosteffective in terms of creating positivechanges in people’s behavior, values, socialnorms and the perceptions held withrespect to conservation and naturalresource use.

Abbie and Stella’s work has been orientedto the elaboration of a baseline to facilitatethe development, monitoring andevaluation of the project in the future. Tothis purpose they prepared a survey,developed by holding meetings with focalgroups in the communities of El Torno andMairana. With the help of participatingcommunity members, they designedquestions which would be easilycomprehensible in the final version of thesurvey. Another part of the process wasthe validation of the survey drafts, as wellas the training and supervision in the fieldof possible future survey collectors.

The work realized by Bryn consisted of thedesign of a plan for a possible “WaterMuseum” for the city of Santa Cruz. Thefinal product, a document of 40 pages,includes both written suggestions as wellas designs of the different exhibitions. Italso explains the information which eachsection of the exhibition should contain,which would run in sequence from culturalinformation about Bolivia through toscientific information about the changesbeing produced in the environment at theglobal level which affect us at the locallevel.

In general, the three interns consider thatthe time spent in Bolivia and with Naturahas been very valuable and that theopportunity they have had to work withNatura has enabled them to learn aboutCES-related projects, especially given thatNatura is an institution with muchexperience in this area.

Without a doubt, Abbie, Stella and Brynwon a place within the Natura family andwe hope they will soon be back to visit us.

Stella Schons

Abbie Turiansky

Bryn Fluharty

How important are PWS initiatives for poverty reduction?

Whether for practical implementation reasons or for social justice, PWS programs cannot ignore the poor.However, PWS cannot be viewed as an all-encompassing poverty alleviation tool, although ensuring andimproving the provision of watershed services will often by itself reduce poverty. In government-financedPWS programs especially, there will often be hard tradeoffs between maximizing watershed services andmaximizing poverty reduction. Experience to date shows good PWS progress in addressing both objectives,but that there is often considerable potential to better manage the trade-offs .

A large number of the world’s poorest people live in ruralupland catchments. Sometimes they are potentialsuppliers and sometimes they are beneficiaries ofwatershed services. However, often the structural reasonsfor poverty are deep-rooted, and PWS programs aloneare unlikely to solve them. Although PWS may haveimportant localized effects on poverty alleviation, it canonly serve as a targeted poverty alleviation tool ifimplementers are willing and able to make tradeoffsbetween maximizing watershed services and alleviatingpoverty.

PWS usually produces opportunities for the poor, butthese are sometimes accompanied by risk. Theopportunities include improved and more diversifiedincomes, improved governance and local organization,and enhanced capacity to prevent environmentaldegradation. Conversely, potential risks includeuncompensated exclusion of non-participants fromresources, and under-compensated opportunity costson behalf of service providers. Each individual PWSscheme must come to its own equilibrium on how tobalance maximizing the provision of watershed servicesand impacting the poor. However, PWS schemes to datehave had positive welfare effects on most participants,even when there was no explicit poverty targeting. Thereis only anecdotal evidence about PES schemes havingmade poor people worse off on a significant scale.*

See Grieg-Gran et al. (2005) and Pagiola et al. (2005) forcomparative assessments about the welfare impacts of PESschemes on the poor.

Q1 How are poor people affected by PWS schemes?

The poor are often sellers and sometimes buyers ofwatershed services. As water users, the poor often dependdisproportionately on watershed services and are morevulnerable to declines in service provision (the rich arebetter able to find substitutes). The poor are more affectedby deteriorating water quality and reduced supplies, andhave less capacity to cope with economic stresses. Theyoften live in risky environments that are prone to floodsor landslides. On the service seller side, heavily forestedupper watersheds and other environmentally fragileproduction areas capable of producing environmentalservices tend to be disproportionately inhabited by poorpeople. Since their land use practices have variable impactson the watershed, in principle they also qualify as serviceproviders.


Nigel Asquith and Sven Wunder (eds)

The publication Payments for Watershed Services: The Bellagio Conversations (Asquith and Wunder, 2008) seeks toshare lessons learned by implementers of payments for watershed services (PWS) initiatives worldwide. This is thesixth excerpt to be published in the tri-monthly newsletters of Natura.

The Bellagio ConversationsThe Bellagio Conversations


Q2 To what extent can poor people become sellersof watershed services?

A high overlap in PWS schemes between areas supplyingwatershed services and poor inhabitants will likely leadto poverty alleviation. For example, the Mexican nationalPWS initiative enrolls areas based on the risk ofdeforestation (as calculated from a statistical model), butalso prioritizes areas of extreme poverty. Over time, shiftsin the weight attached to these priorities have alsoaffected the environmental efficiency of the scheme.However, even without any poverty targeting, thecriterion of heavily forested areas naturally directs areaselection to some of the poorest regions in Mexico. InCosta Rica, places with high environmental value havepriority (such as land in biodiversity corridors, protectedareas, critical watersheds), but regional poverty reflectedvia a national social development index is also explicitlyweighted.

Q3 Are there tradeoffs between maximizingwatershed services and poverty alleviation?

Yes. Service buyers will want payments for watershedservices to be as close as possible to the land user’sopportunity cost of providing the service. Poor serviceproviders will want to be paid as close as possible to thevalue of the service. Since buyer financial resources arefinite and they usually are in a better position todetermine the rules of the game, in practice this tendsto translate into making a larger number of people alittle better off by paying a high number of providersslightly above the opportunity cost of service provision.Alternatively, paying significantly more than theopportunity cost of service provision and thereby makinga smaller number of people much better off will producea lower volume of watershed services.

The trade-off between the two scenarios is clear, butthe latter scenario is not necessarily superior on thegrounds of social justice.

Q4 What is the risk of PWS schemes having adverseimpacts on the poor?

PWS-triggered changes in land use and managementmay affect the poor adversely when they are notcompensated or under-compensated. Poor people oftenengage in land use practices—such as overgrazing,cropping on steep slopes, slash and burn, etc.—that dueto their negative hydrological impacts would make themthe first choice for change. As long as they arecompensated appropriately, trying to change poorpeople’s land use practices is not intrinsically a problem.However, the landless poor are often dependent oncommon pool resources. Other groups of poor may haveill-defined land access rights, making them ineligible forPWS. It is thus within the realm of possibility that PWSschemes may negatively affect some groups of poorpeople—typically, those not directly participating in thescheme. Nevertheless, many of these potential negativeeffects of PWS interventions are universal to all watershedconservation initiatives, and are not unique to PWS.Indeed, to the extent that service provision agreementsare usually voluntary, and often negotiated, PWS schemesare in fact less likely to adversely affect the poor thanmany other types of conservation initiative: providerswill only join the schemes if they calculate that they willbe made better off from participation.

Q5 To what extent can contract design favor poorpeople’s participation?

Transaction costs on both sides of the agreement canbecome barriers to access for the poor. Buyer transactioncosts are high if there is a need to contract numerousland users. One partial solution can be to useintermediaries who can lump poor providers, such as inthe case of Costa Rica’s PES system. High transactioncosts can discourage poor land users. Keeping contractdesign and associated monitoring requirements simplecan help to counteract this, as can efficient intermediaries.However, the poor are more risk-averse and morevulnerable, and may fail to fully understand the contractsthey are signing (i.e. there is not free and informedconsent).


Q6 Can the type of payments help enhance socialequity?

The form of payments will be determined by the context inwhich the PWS is being proposed and negotiated. Paymentsmay be in cash or kind, or involve the provision of technicalassistance, or, more controversially, even entitlements andproperty rights. Having a number of negotiable options forselection by the poor may improve welfare outcomes.

In Sukhomajri, India, water rights were de-linked fromland rights, and the landless were able to sell theirwater rights locally. This partially compensated themfor reduced access to biomass for grazing in the upperslopes. In Bungo, Sumberjaya, Indonesia, serviceproviders preferred secure land tenure as form ofcompensation. In Pimampiro, Ecuador, service providersreceived cash and spent the extra income on both basicneeds (e.g. cooking gas costs) and children’s education.

Another potential positive impact of PWS schemesis to empower both buyers and sellers. Some PWSmechanisms have been able to recast relations fromthe typical government patron-project beneficiaryto more equal contractual terms. Rural communitiesmay be viewed as service providers, rather than“beneficiaries”, while the urban poor may be seenas valued stakeholders who are paying for a watershedservice. Participating in PWS schemes may strengthenpoor people’s land-tenure security. The sense ofentitlement and ensuing empowerment can havefar-reaching impacts on wellbeing, and may be evenmore important than income gains See for example,Rosa et al. (2003).. In Bolivia’s Los Negros watershed,for example, upstream community members notewith pride that for the first time, outsiders are valuingthe forests in situ.

A meeting of the members of the Florida Public ServicesCooperative was held, in which the members votedunanimously to introduce a hydrological environmentalservices contribution of between 1 and 3 Bs to theirmonthly water bill, from August 2009 onwards. Thisprocess has served to demonstrate the high level ofcommitment on the part of Samaipata’s population toconserving their current and future sources of watersupply.

The money which is collected, together with thecounterpart funding supplied by Natura and theMunicipal Government, will enable the commencementof activities to conserve the watersheds, as has alreadyoccurred with other successful schemes beingimplemented in the area.

July 22 kickstarted a new compensation forenvironmental services (CES) initiative, this time in theMunicipality of Samaipata, which belongs to the FloridaProvince and is located 148 km to the east of the city ofSanta Cruz de la Sierra. The tripartite agreement betweenthe Honorable Mayor of the Samaipata Municipality, theFlorida Public Services Cooperative Ltd., and FundaciónNatura Bolivia, aims to conserve Samaipata’s watershedsso as to ensure the availability of water in the quantityrequired and with adequate quality for the town’spopulation.

Once the agreement had been signed, the process ofpromulgating the proposal began with the idea toapprove the creation of an environmental service users’financial contribution for watershed protection.

Poor farmers in the heart of Bolivia'sAmazon are being encouraged to embracethe annual floods - by using a centuries-old irrigation system for their crops. Theyare experimenting with a sustainable wayof growing food crops that their ancestorsused. It could provide them with betterprotection against the extremes of climatechange, reduce deforestation, improve foodsecurity and even promise a better diet.

These are the bold aims of a two-year-oldproject being carried out by a non-

governmental organisation near Trinidad,the capital of the department of Beni.

The system is based on building"camellones"- raised earth platforms ofanything up to 2m high, surrounded bycanals.

Constructed above the height of floodwaters, the camellones can protect seedsand crops from being washed away. Thewater in the canals provides irrigation andnutrients during the dry season.

"The floods were the basis for developmentand the flourishing of a great civilisation,"says Mr Saavedra. There were bad floodsin 2006 and 2007, but last year the regionsaw the worst flooding in at least 50 years.The floods affected some 120,000 people- a quarter of Beni's population - andcaused more than $200m (£119m) ofdamage. That experience prompted manylocal women to enlist in the camellonesproject.

"I had planted rice, maize, bananas andonions on my plot of land. But the waterleft nothing," explains Dunia RiveroMayaco, a 44-year-old mother of threefrom Puerto Almacen near Trinidad. "I lostmy house too. We had to live three monthsin temporary accommodation on the mainroad. The children got ill there. So that'swhy I am working here on the camellones.I didn't want to lose everything again."

Pre-Columbian cultures in Beni from about1000BC to AD1400 used a similar system.

"One of the many extraordinary aspectsof our camellones project is that poorcommunities living in the Beni today areusing a similar technology to thatdeveloped by indigen ous pre-Columbiancultures in the same region to solve asimilar range of problems," says OscarSaavedra, the director of the Kenneth Leefoundation.

He experimented for six years in his owngarden to develop the complex system ofhydrology.

Ancient and modern communities face thesame problems - regular flooding followedby drought.

See the idea behind camellones


*Article published by

BBC World August 2009

*Article published by

BBC World August 2009

“...communities living inthe Beni today are usinga similar technology to

that developed byindigenous pre-

Columbian cultures inthe same region to solve

a similar range ofproblems."

Oscar Saavedra, KennethLee Foundation


Villagers are encouraged to embrace thefloods and see them as a blessing, not acurse.During the rainy season, large expanses ofland in Beni are under water for severalmonths - except for the raised areas. Whenthe water recedes into the tributaries thatrun into the Amazon, it takes nutrientswith it leaving a sandy brown soil in whichit is difficult to grow crops. But in thecamellones project, the water left by thefloods is harnessed to bring fertility to thesoil and irrigation during times of drought.

In short, from being victims of the floods,poor people could become masters byturning the excess water to theiradvantage.

About 400 families are now enrolled in theproject in five locations, growing mainlymaize, cassava and rice. Many of the sitesare still in an experimental phase, but theearly signs are promising. Productivityappears to be on the increase.

"These camellones will help us when thefloods come," says Maira Salas from thevillage of Copacabana, a 20-minute boatride down the river Ibare. "Crops likebananas that die easily have a better chanceof survival. We are only just now learninghow our ancestors lived and survived. Theydid not have tractors to build thecamellones, and they survived for years.It's incredible."

- The camellones can act as a naturalseed bank which can survive flooding- The system can reduce the need to cutdown the forested areas around thecommunities. This is because the soil ontraditional plots of land is often exhaustedafter two to three years. This forces thefarmers to clear more land for plantingby cutting down the forest.

All this seems too good to be true. Someof the women say the real test will comewhen there is a bad year of flooding or asevere drought. So far, 2009 has not beenone of the worst.

There are other huge challenges ahead.One is to try to provide the families withan income from tomatoes or gardenproduce.

Another is to overcome the scepticismfrom some local people about the timeand physical effort invested in thecamellones compared to other sources oflocal employment.

International charity Oxfam is supportingthe project in part because it offers poorpeople the possibility of adapting to climatechange.

If, as predicted by many experts, the cyclesof El Nino/La Nina are going to increase inintensity and frequency, then the projecthas the capacity to help poor families copebetter with the extreme weather eventsand unpredictable rainfall that are to come.

"It should not matter when the rains comeas the water can still be managed atwhatever time of the year," says MrSaavedra.

Other potential advantages of the schemeinclude:

- The system uses natural fertilizers, andin particular an aquatic plant in the canalscalled tarope which both purifies thewater and acts as a fertilizer when spreadover the soil.

- The canals can also provide fish stock,animal fodder and nutrients for the soil

Extreme weather events

" We are only just nowlearning how our

ancestors lived andsurvived. They did not

have tractors to build thecamellones, and theysurvived for years. It'sincredible." says Maria

Salas


"This process could be repeated invarious parts of the world with

similar conditions to the Beni likeparts of Bangladesh, India and China.It could help to reduce world hunger

and combat climate change,"Oscar Saavedra,

Kenneth Lee Foundation.

Mr Saavedra is convinced the camellonesproject can be expanded, even to othercountries.

"This process could be repeated in variousparts of the world with similar conditionsto the Beni like parts of Bangladesh, Indiaand China. It could help to reduce worldhunger and combat climate change," hesays.

It is our pleasure to be able to advise that theCompensation for Environmental Services LearningNetwork (RACSA), which is currently coordinated byFundación Natura, is now member of a group ofenvironmental services networks which includesKatoomba Group, Iniciativa Amazonica, REDIPASAS andRISAS. Together we have produced the third edition ofSinergiA, the technical environmental services newsletterfor Ibero-American countries, which now has a new lookand can now be enjoyed in three languages (Spanish,English and Portuguese) by a larger number of readers.The current edition of SinergiA is dedicated to the issueof “co-benefits” in the debate about the Reduction ofEmissions due to Deforestation and Degradation (REDD),an issue increasingly relevant to the search for viable

model that enables the inclusion of forests from 2012within the agreements made as a result of currentinternational negotiations on climate change mitigation.Without doubt the REDD mechanisms should contributeto the reduction of emissions, but will it be possible toreduce them sustainably without taking into account theother environmental services of the forests or the localneeds of the populations that inhabit them? In searchof an answer, the third edition of SinergiA providesopinions and information about tools, projects,publications and events which we hope may be usefulin your daily work. In order to access the newsletterplease visit the following linkhttp://www.katoombagroup.org/documents/newsletters/sea/sa_edition3sp.htmor request a copy from Natura.


Edition and design Roxana Valdéz; translation Setephanie Secomb

ContactDir.: Calle Moldes No. 620Tel./fax: +591 3 3395133Email: [email protected]: www.naturabolivia.orgSanta Cruz, Bolivia

Natura thanks our donors for their support and confidence, which has made possible the implementation of our initiatives:

Getting to know the Natura family

Maurizio Forno Linale Amboró Project Coordinator

Mauricio obtained his degree in agricultural economics from the NUR University as wellas a Masters in Environmental Management from the Santa Cruz Private University(UPSA). He currently coordinates the CES projects which are being implemented aroundthe Amboró National Park; supervising the work of field staff and external consultants,and coordinating the activities of each project as well as relationships with national,departmental and municipal public and private institutions working in the area. Previouslyhe worked as a consultant in institutions such as FAN, working on the Indigenous REDDProgram in the Bolivian Amazon; he also worked for The Nature Conservancy, in theBOLFOR II Project as support for the Forest Superintendant and others.

Roxana Valdéz Zamorano Communicator

Roxana has a degree in Communication Science from the Gabriel René MorenoAutonomous University. She has worked as a communicator for the Fundación TrópicoHúmedo, supporting the development of various projects in the rural area, producingcommunications material for distribution, and coordinating the execution of variousworkshops in the macro ecoregion of the humid tropics of Bolivia. She has also workedas an audiovisual producer on various independent projects, and in the area of publicrelations has implemented client loyalty campaigns as well as campaigns to motivateinternal publics. She is currently responsible for the elaboration of institutionalcommunication materials and strategies and for the dissemination of information aboutNatura’s projects.

Naturalia Winter 2009

Documents

Transcript of Naturalia Winter 2009