The World Bank/WBI’s CBNRM Initiative
Case Received: January 21, 1998
Author: Felipe Cardenas
ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT PROJECT BASED ON A SUSTAINABLE REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN FOR THE NORTE AND GUTIERREZ PROVINCES IN THE DEPARTMENT OF BOYACA (COLOMBIA, SOUTH AMERICA)
In Colombia's eastern mountain region the main environmental and socioeconomic problems are connected with settlement or expansion of the agricultural frontier, especially in the "páramo" (upland moor) areas, together with the rapid dissolution of the indigenous rural societies. The páramo ecosystems are among the most important and fragile landscape units of the country and the hemisphere. The project first originated (1988) as a response to the identification made with community representatives of the acute environmental crisis afflicting the páramos surrounding the Sierra Nevada del Cocuy in the Norte and Gutiérrez provinces in the department of Boyacá. The territorial analysis and institutional framework of the project were subsequently expanded and the importance was recognized of understanding the functional dynamics of all the region's ecosystems and considering the environmental problems from a systemic standpoint that integrates the biophysical systems with the prevailing social, economic and cultural systems. The region comprising the middle watershed of the Chicamocha river is one of the most environmentally deteriorated in the country. It ranges in altitude from 1,200 m above sea level to the perpetual snows of the Sierra Nevada del Cocuy, making this region one of the most diverse in a country marked by extreme diversity like Colombia. The region is populated primarily by rural societies and also includes a minority U'WA indigenous population which is currently experiencing pressure from oil companies wanting to carry out drilling and production on its lands.
The settlement of the páramos, ecosystems located over 3,500 m above sea level, by poor rural dwellers, is due primarily to the problem of inequitable land distribution coupled with the slow increase in and the fragmentation or rural smallholdings, which has meant that over the past thirty years thousands of rural families have been obliged to either move into the cities or else settle on new lands in ecosystems such as the páramos, which are unsuited for cropgrowing or stockraising. The impacts of human intervention in the páramo ecosystem detected in the course of the project relate to: elimination of microhabitats and food sources, erosion by runoff, elimination of the páramo's water-retention capacity, loss of refuge and nesting locations and natural food sources for birds and other wildlife, extinction of endemic species as a result of the opening up of grassland for livestock, pollution by solid and liquid wastes due to indiscriminate use of fertilizers, lime and pesticides, soil deterioration, disruption of natural successions, and loss of biodiversity. To these problems of a biophysical nature must be added the rapid dissolution of rural cultural structures which have suffered from political and guerrilla violence throughout the entire twentieth century. Moreover, the municipalities of the region have very low budgets compared with the magnitude of the problems they have to grapple with while populist practices and local politicking render local-authority action very inefficient.
The project has been implemented by the Environmental Studies Institute of the Universidad Javeriana since 1989, working directly with the rural communities and the offices of the mayors of 17 municipalities in northern Boyacá, covering an area of 253,000 ha with a population of approximately 115,000 made up for the greater part of subsistence farmers and their families.
In 1982, some Universidad Javeriana professors belonging to the Rural Studies Unit were invited by the San Isidro Foundation, a rural NGO, to perform a participatory and educational diagnostic study with rural leaders from 40 municipalities of Boyacá department. The objective of the initial work with the farmers was, using participatory methodologies, to study the conditions under which the growers of potatoes, wheat, tobacco and corn work. The initiation was extended on account of the need felt by certain rural leaders to set in motion a process of reflection and education leading to community organization and transformation and improvement of the situation of these communities. In that stage of the project, the participatory work clearly identified as one of the central problems of the Andean rural communities of northern Boyacá the deterioration of the páramo areas and of natural resources in general. From the farmers' standpoint, this problem, experienced basically in the form of diminished water availability, a decline in the soil's productive capacity and soil erosion, was the one that was mainly affecting the quality of life. In view of this situation, implementation of a specific research project for ecodevelopment in a limited geographic area was determined to be a priority.
After a farmer training process lasting nearly five years, the general conclusion was that "the present development model applied in the region is unsustainable". The evidence confirming this view has been manifesting itself in the following: disruption of water cycles, changes in microclimates, loss of biodiversity, deterioration of the traditional farm crops, reduction of agroindustrial activity, flight from the land and migration, inefficiency and total absence of environmental investment on the part of the region's municipalities.
In light of this situation, the decision was made in 1989 to carry out focused field work in 17 municipalities of northern Boyacá. The object of this work was to obtain more in-depth information on the real condition of the environment, with a view to subsequently consolidating in the community those forms of organization that could best promote environmentally-oriented management and strengthen the existing societal structures in the northern Boyacá region. This goal has been paretically achieved, in that practically all the region's municipalities have been increasing their percentages of environmental investment, which up to a few years ago was nil, and the Corporación Ambiental Boyacense (Boyaca Environmental Corporation), a grassroots organization which is currently spearheading the implementation of environmental projects in the region, has been consolidated. The corporation links together other village and local organizations in the region and, in collaboration with the university, the municipalities, some parishes and the community in general are carrying out a number of cofinanced projects of other environmental organizations, formation of a group of 45 farmer trainers, fencing and reforestation of 400 headwaters and microwatersheds, germplasm banks, municipal waste management, soil conservation, farm planning, marketing and processing of organic and biological foodstuffs, reproduction of native species, exchange of experience with other regions, support for the region's 400 schools, preparation of primers, preparation and broadcasting of radio programs, support for grassroots initiatives and creation of opportunities for promoting local-authority investment in the environmental arena.
We understand the process of institutional change to be a process of cultural change. This process as undertaken in the region entails a new approach which by utilizing positive elements of the rural tradition and also others deriving from urban life now shared by rural dwellers, has succeeded in having "ecological" considerations taken into account in farmers' and rural people's decisions and in permeating the cultural institutions (school, parish, mayor's office, education system, family, women) of the northern Boyacá region and of other regions and the entire country. In terms of work with the family, the first natural institution of any society, the project took the position that the main parties involved in the process had to be the men, women, boys and girls living in the territory. The gender perspective has been fundamental and has been a topic researched and analyzed with various rural families. Efforts have been made to support the family as an institution by means of specific training which has enabled people to manage the home as a "small business" that can obtain monetary income from the making of pickles and jams, sale of seed, management of nurseries, and sale of training services to the schools or to the mayor of the municipality. The municipalities are in fact another of the region's basic institutions. In Colombia the municipality is one of the most important institutions for development. Seventeen of the region's municipalities have invested resources under the direct guidance of the Universidad Javeriana. The last two administrations (1991-97) of the municipality of San Mateo invested more than the law required in environmental provisions, this investment being effected directly in conjunction with the university. Virtually all of the municipalities of northern Boyacá are familiar with the project and its activities because a constant flow of communication and information concerning the region has been maintained, with this information being made available to the public at large and placed on hand in the municipal libraries and all the schools forming part of the education system. The university also manages and updates a database that it shares with the municipalities. However, the most important change is connected with the rural institutional base; the rural organizations are performing a multiplicity of task and through their activities and action the self-esteem of the communities themselves has been raised.
A fundamental result of any development process is connected with the generation of knowledge and information. In this respect the project has generated some 300 publications, including books (2), primers (230, articles in periodicals (48), scientific reports (6) and videos (7). All this information has been placed at the service of the region's institutions through permanent workshops set up for the purpose. Today it is not unusual to find teachers on street corners consulting and studying with some of the texts the project has been putting out in the last seven years. The regional development process is continuing and the parties in this process are in the first instance the social players of the region. The municipalities are nowadays much more aware of the environmental problems within their boundaries, since they now understand them and have identified them on the ground and on maps that have been prepared with them and provided by the university.
In addition, the farming community can derive strength from the existence of the Corporación Ambiental Boyacense, a rural organization managed by farmers and regional in coverage. The corporation intends to continue employing the same methodology as it has to date and which has produced a variety of technical and organizational results. In general terms it can be stated that a small network of rural organizations directly linked with the project has been formed and consolidated: Grupo Ecológico de los Laches, Grupo Ecológico de Quindeva, Asociación para la Promoción del Bachillerato Rural, Asociación de Productores y Comercializadores de Miel de San Mateo, Cooperativa del Naranjal, Cabildo Verde de Arcabuco, Asociación de Madres Comunitarias, Asociación de Artesanos, Asociación de Mujeres Campesinas, Cooperativa de Breveros, Asociación Ambiental Chocue, Asociación de Trabajadores Agrarios de Carrizalito, Grupo Ecológico El Hato, and sector inspectors' offices.