<
https://news.mongabay.com/2023/01/reciprocal-water-agreements-protect-millions-of-hectares-of-bolivian-forest/>
"More than a decade ago, Bolivia pioneered an innovative conservation project.
For the very first time, inhabitants of the same watershed, both those living
in rural areas and in cities, could work together to protect the forest and its
water sources.
These Reciprocal Water Agreements, also known by the Spanish-language language
acronym ARA (Acuerdo Recíproco por Agua), sought to raise awareness of the fact
that water protection is the responsibility of everyone who benefits from the
resource, not just of those living along the headwaters of rivers high in the
mountains or along the streams in the middle watershed. Such agreements would
enable city dwellers in the lower part of the basin to create a fund to pool
economic resources and support upstream farmers as they protected water
sources.
The program was dreamed up by five locals, who wanted to take action to protect
part of their territory. By 2019, it had already attracted 8,000 farmers
protecting 350,000 hectares in 58 Bolivian municipalities. A scientific study
that set out to evaluate the model’s results found that “this conservation was
in exchange of $500,000 worth of development projects annually contributed by
250,000 water users.”
Today, “there are 24,000 farmers in Bolivia protecting almost 600,000 hectares
in around 80 municipalities,” says María Teresa Vargas, Executive Director of
the Natura Foundation (
Fundación Natura), the organization managing the ARAs.
The program has become a prime example of conservation success, leading to the
creation of 23 protected areas totaling 3.4 million hectares in Bolivia, and is
currently beginning to be emulated in Colombia, Peru, Ecuador and Mexico."
Via
Future Crunch:
<
https://futurecrunch.com/goodnews-water-vietnam-stunting-indonesia-conservation-ecuador/>
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
