Producers from Caquetá in Colombia commit to conserving and restoring their natural landscapes and to improving the sustainability of their livestock raising systems

Productores de Caquetá en Colombia se comprometen a conservar y restaurar sus paisajes naturales y a mejorar la sostenibilidad de sus sistemas ganaderos

The Sustainable Amazonian Landscapes (SAL) project closed the year with a voluntary agreement with the producers who stand to benefit from the project for the conservation, protection, and restoration of forests and sources of water on their farms.

This “pact,” which includes 126 hectares in natural regeneration and 24 farms in silvopastoral systems, was signed on 15 December in Florencia, Caquetá. It was the closing of a week of exchange of experiences in silvopastoral systems between producers of Yurimaguas (Peru), who will also benefit from the project, and who visited the farms of the producers in Caquetá with these systems.

 

“This agreement was reached by “ecological exchange,” where the project supports the implementation of agrosilvopastoral systems with technical assistance and through a participatory process.”

Antonio Solarte

Researcher, CIPAV Foundation

The event to disseminate the advances made by the project and acknowledge the agreements in conservation and sustainable land use assumed by the producers who will benefit from the project in Colombia saw the participation of various institutions of the region, such as municipal governments, research centers, producers associations, and regional committees, as well as the participation of the project partners in Caquetá, UNIAMAZ, CIPAV, and SINCHI, and all of the producers who will benefit from the project in Colombia, and some invited guests from Peru.

As indicated by Marcela Quintero, leader of CIAT’s Ecosystem Services team and project leader, the main objective of the event is:

 

“The exchange of experiences about how the process of adoption of more sustainable land use practices has gone, and thus show how the producers have made a commitment to do an ecological exchange where the project supports them in the incorporation of practices for more sustainable use in livestock raising, and they, in turn, commit to conserving the forested areas or to recovering zones that the producers have deforested.”

Marcela Quintero

Leader of the Ecosystem Services team and Project Leader, CIAT, CIAT

Among the main advances of the SAL Project made public at the event are:

Agreement signing photo

 

  • The establishment of the environment and socioeconomic baseline of the current deforested landscapes, with detailed information of 341 sites in Colombia and 416 in Peru. The surveys were accompanied by 91 focal groups of participatory research at the community level.
  • The environmental baseline was built on the characterization of soils on 73 farms in the two zones, evaluating 372 sites in various land uses.
  • Sampling of 80 parcels for the quantification of carbon reserves and biodiversity, which has made it possible to determine the potential for carbon sequestration or loss in soils and above-ground biomass.
  • The construction of a sustainability indicator, being an innovative result that contributes not only to the academia but also to public policy-making.
  • Spatial projections of future climate change for the years 2030, 2050, and 2080 in the regions of Caquetá and Loreto. On this basis, the current and potential climate suitability of crops of importance for the Peruvian and Colombian Amazon has been evaluated.
  • Co-design of sustainable alternatives of land use that fit better with the necessities for adaptation to climate change. These alternatives were co-designed by working hand in hand with 24 producers in Colombia and 19 producers in Peru, from the sites where they were implemented:

 

Silvopastoral systems

 

Enriching forests with pastures and crops

 

Cacao in an agroforestry system

 

Production and improvement of palm heart

“We are looking not only to implement better practices of sustainable land use, but also to evaluate jointly with the producers the impacts of these alternatives and whether they make it possible to improve their income and reduce the impact on the environment,” said Marcela Quintero.

The event was broadcast by two local communication media such as Lente Regional and Canal TV5.

The work was carried out as part of the “Sustainable Amazonian Landscapes” project, which is financed by the International Climate Initiative (IKI). The project is led by CIAT’s Ecosystem Services team, with the support of experts from the teams of Soils, Climate Change, and Forages, and implemented in conjunction with the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), the Center for Research on Sustainable Agriculture (CIPAV), the Amazonian Institute of Scientific Research (SINCHI), the University of the Amazon, the Peruvian Amazon Research Institute (IIAP), and La Molina National University of Agriculture (VLIR-UNALM).