El SMEHP Chillca – Sistema de Monitoreo Ecohidrológico Participativo (Participative Ecohydrological Monitoring System), Peru

Project Overview

Upper part of the Chillca and Pitumarca river basin (one of the main basins of the better known Vilcanota-Urubamba watershed), in an area of more than 25,000 hectares and between altitudes of about 4,200 and 6,384 m a.s.l

Conserve Process YES

Enhance Process YES

Apply Complementary NO

Ecosystem Services

Provisioning

Provisioning Services are ecosystem services that describe the material or energy outputs from ecosystems. They include food, water and other resources.

Regulating

Regulating Services are the services that ecosystems provide by acting as regulators eg. regulating the quality of air and soil or by providing flood and disease control.

Habitat / Supporting

Ecosystem services "that are necessary for the production of all other ecosystem services". These include services such as nutrient recycling, primary production and soil formation.

Cultural

Cultural Services corresponds nonmaterial benefits people obtain from ecosystems through spiritual enrichment, cognitive development, reflection, recreation, and aesthetic experiences.

Major Issues

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No issues provided.

EH Engineering Solutions

We haven't focused on this technology so

We haven't focused on this technology so far, although we have already started to monitor alpaca herding behavior in bofedales, which should allow us in the future to identify potential positive interactions between fauna (alpaca, birds and above all, microorganisms which live in bofedales wetlands) and ecosystem services provision by bofedales.

Although there is still a lack of

Although there is still a lack of sufficient (scientifically) published evidence, bofedales wetlands can also be considered to be "phytoremediators", i.e. according to their plant composition they have the capacity to filter out high concentrations of nutrients and pollutants (some of them with origin at extractive activities, like, e.g. mining in headwaters; others released by retreating glaciers caused by climate change).

As already mentioned in a previous point,

As already mentioned in a previous point, the focus of the SMEHP Chillca lies on the bofedales and on their interaction with other ecosystems and their transition zones (ecotones). Bofedales can be considered (semi-natural) ecohydrological infrastructure and therefore understanding their functioning and how the ecosystem services they provide can be enhanced, is a crucial strategy and concept for the management of whole territories in high-Andean areas, considering an ecohydrological approach.

It is important to state that the

It is important to state that the water retention capacity by bofedales is highly important for the continuity and persistence of environmental and hydrological flow in the watersheds of southern Peru as we are in a biome and ecoregion where there is a strong seasonality with only about 3-4 months of (heavy) rainfall and an expanding (because of the regional tendencies of climate change) dry season of up to 8 months.

Project Activities

1) Participative ecohydrological monitoring: executed by staff of the NGO ACEMAA, in collaboration with local monitors (mostly female alpaca herders), see, e.g.: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7066575894026276866, https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7076762149846425600
2) Water sowing & harvesting interventions, in order to improve water use and water availability,based on concepts like Nature-based Solutions, Ecosystem-based Adaptation, Communitybased Adaptation
see, e.g.: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7096254053352910849
3) Environmental education in the context of the SMEHP Chillca and with the SMEHP Chillca (Research Station) as center for any environmental education activity with, so far, local and regional classes
see, e.g.: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7096254053352910849, https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7077127997438218242

Expected Outcomes

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Latest Results

No results provided yet.

Ecohydrology Principles and Solutions

Hydrological Quantification

Quantification of the hydrological processes at catchment scale and mapping the impacts | Ecological engineering (integration, dual regulation and biotechnologies in catchment scale for enhancement of ecological potential)

Ecological Identification

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Ecological Engineering & Nature-based Solutions

We haven't focused on this technology so far, although we have already started to monitor alpaca herding behavior in bofedales, which should allow us in the future to identify potential positive interactions between fauna (alpaca, birds and above all, microorganisms which live in bofedales wetlands) and ecosystem services provision by bofedales. | Although there is still a lack of sufficient (scientifically) published evidence, bofedales wetlands can also be considered to be "phytoremediators", i.e. according to their plant composition they have the capacity to filter out high concentrations of nutrients and pollutants (some of them with origin at extractive activities, like, e.g. mining in headwaters; others released by retreating glaciers caused by climate change). | As already mentioned in a previous point, the focus of the SMEHP Chillca lies on the bofedales and on their interaction with other ecosystems and their transition zones (ecotones). Bofedales can be considered (semi-natural) ecohydrological infrastructure and therefore understanding their functioning and how the ecosystem services they provide can be enhanced, is a crucial strategy and concept for the management of whole territories in high-Andean areas, considering an ecohydrological approach. | It is important to state that the water retention capacity by bofedales is highly important for the continuity and persistence of environmental and hydrological flow in the watersheds of southern Peru as we are in a biome and ecoregion where there is a strong seasonality with only about 3-4 months of (heavy) rainfall and an expanding (because of the regional tendencies of climate change) dry season of up to 8 months.

Objectives

EH Objectives

Water 5/5

Biodiversity 3/5

Services 2/5

Resilience 3/5

Cultural Heritage 0/5

Project Objectives

Culture, The pastoral communities in the area are among the last in the country that still practice transhumance and other traditional forms of grazing such as the maintenance and expansion of wetlands and pastures through the implementation of irrigation systems and rotational grazing. However, social, economic and environmental changes exert a lot of pressure on their ecosystem and organizational management systems, generating the erosion of the traditional pastoral use system. Education, Formal education is practiced in the area there is a primary and/or basic school and a nursery. For secondary and technical/university education, children and young people need to migrate.More than 50% of people between the ages of 30 and 50 have only been able to access basic education. Young people between the ages of 20 and 25 live moving/migrating between the community and nearby cities, for reasons of education and work. Law, The area of intervention of the SMEHP Chillca is located within community territories, which are recognized by the General Law of Peasant Communities (Peruvian Law Nº 24656). In the first article the communities and their territories are declared to be of national need and the State recognizes them as autonomous institutions, in their organization and land use. The law authorizes the community to develop and implement territorial management strategies of the natural resources present in their communities, through actions based on their uses and customs.

Key Stakeholders

Universidad Nacional de San Antonio Abad del Cusco - UNSAAC (Cusco, Peru) Pontificia Universidad Javeriana Bogota We are currently also in communication with Technische Universität Berlin Asociación para la Conservación y Estudio de Montañas Andinas Amazónicas (ACEMAA) Association for the Conservation and Study of Andean-Amazonian Mountains NGO Practical ACTION Peru

Methodology

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