promoting social adaptation[1]

8/9/2019 Promoting Social Adaptation[1]

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Promoting Social Adaptation to ClimateChange and Variability through Knowledge,

Experiential and Co-learning NetworksIn Bolivia

REPORT


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Prepared byJavier Gonzales Iwanciw

ISBN:

With support of:Programa Nacional de Cambios Climticos Bolivia

Universidad Nur, Grupo Nacional de Trabajo para la Participacin & TheCentre for Energy Policy and Technology, Imperial College London , 2004

La Paz BoliviaDecember 2004

Funded by


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1. Introduction

As states in the IPCC Third Assessment Reports (TAR) climate change will impact currentlivelihood systems, through changes in rain patterns, temperature increase and changes inthe atmosphere composition which will affect metabolisms and water balance of

vegetation.

Productive ecosystems are prompt to be severely impacted by climate change andvariability. Not only due to the direct impacts related with temperature increase andprecipitation pattern changes but also because current productive practices will have toadapt to new environmental conditions within a very small period of time.

Not only enhanced environmental changes, but also new market conditions anddemocratization of society in the context of global markets liberalization and globalizationset changing conditions for local livelihoods and socio-ecological interactions.

Human capacity to adapt is complex and dynamic, resulting from different forms of riskexposure and the system capacity to cope with risk and impacts. It is related with intrinsiccapacities of the human system around innovation and future prediction, technologicalrobustness, recovery buffers and institutional effectiveness. Adaptation occur at differentlevels of self-organization and prompted by a plurality of drivers, yet small changes intemperature and precipitation and in the ecosystem capacity to provide goods andservices can modify regional conditions in such a way that severe changes in locallivelihoods may occur, but also governance and rules systems may change to redistributethe access to resources, cover the cost of environmental changes and manage a changingcommon pool of resources.

Agriculture based rural societies, like the majority of Bolivian rural communities are highlydependent from climatic factors and therefore highly sensitive and vulnerable to climatechange and variability. Temperature increases can drastically modify regional hydrology,

particularly in mountain regions where severe changes are expected due to the withdrawalof permafrost in alpine ecosystems, but also prompted by changes in precipitationpatterns. This will modify vegetation mosaics and affect ecosystem and microclimaticdiversity in different ways.

Increased precipitation during the rain season and glacier withdrawal may increase floods,soil erosion and degradation and induce to water shortages during the winter affectingdifferent human activities in particular agriculture and food production.

The international community has started to talk about climate change adaptation policieslinked to development. The Bolivian case in interesting because the country started 12years ago a process of decentralization Participacin Popular, that might enhance thecapacity of the country to respond to climate change.

This paper report principally summarizes different aspects of the country development thatmight be critical in the context of a strategy for climate change adaptation.


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The second generation of reforms 2 was in line with the creation of institutional capacities inregions where formerly were insufficient presence of the State (government). The rationalof decentralization involves a formal devolution of decision making and resources throughlegislation from higher State organs to lower government institutions. Typically this processcomes with the downscaling of governmental services and the increase of civil societyfunctions to fill the gaps in service provisions (Gordillo de Andas and Farcas 2000, Amanorand Annan 1999).

The short term of decentralization implementation in several developing countries, and inparticular Bolivia, makes assessment difficult. But, first perceptions of governments, civilsociety, and research let see the need to win objectivity on this issue to assess andconduce the process to the fulfillment of the original decentralization rationale andaspirations of better governance as a basis for development.

Since the decentralization process began, the government was pressed to provide a newregulation system according with the new responsibilities of municipalities anddecentralized government bodies, in this context since the law of popular participation wasissued, the legal framework for natural resources management was completely renewed,

principally prompted by mayor conflicts around land tenure and water uses. Thoseconflicts have accelerated the process of implementation of new environmental regulationsaround forestry, land tenure (INRA) and water.

Summarizing Bolivia is facing two mayor challenges: To conduct the reforms for bettergovernance and to come out of the circle of a economy based on the use of naturalresources.

2.1 Human dynamics and environmental concerns Even thought two thirds of its territory is lowlands, Bolivia is a country strongly signed bythe Andes, almost two thirds of its population lives in the valleys and highlands of theAndean regions. Bolivia is still the country with the lowest levels of urban population(62.43%) in the region (INE, 2001), however it is the country with the highest levels ofurban grows. Since 1950 the population has been concentrating with mayor emphasis inthe eastern part of the country. Although this general situation begin to reverse since the1952 Agrarian Reform which opened new colonization areas in the lowlands andenhanced population migrations from the west to the eastern regions.

Even tough the main flux of migrations occurred to the eastern part of the country, still bigcities have been concentrating the main part of the population. In the cities of La Paz,Cochabamba and Santa Cruz is still concentrated 37% of the country population and morethan two thirds of its urban population, other 112 cities between 2.000 and 200.000inhabitants concentrate the other 21% of the population (UNDP 1998).

The urban net has been ordered around these three mayor cities which have beengrowing in order of 2 to 5% per year, which means they will double in the next 15 years.Since the 70s another north - south axe emerged conformed by 16 cities between 20.000to 200.000 inhabitants which have been growing in order from 5 to 9% per year.

2 Also called the second generation of institutional reforms,: The fist generation is linked to the establishment of a legalframework to ensure democracy in a context of market liberalization. Since the late 1990 s the country started a thirdgeneration or microeconomic reforms which are linked to the increase of competitiveness.


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On the other hand, rural areas have been losing population. Between 1976 and 1992population grow was 0.2%, with a stronger reduction of the Altiplano and Vallespopulations which decreased in around 1% per year (UNDP 1998).

This population dynamic prompted by land degradation in the western part of the countrydefined the current mosaic of environmental concerns, which are linked to deforestation

and new land habilitation in the lowlands and forest depletion, soil erosion and landdegradation in semiarid regions.

Table 1: Summary Current Land Use and Coverage

Land Use Area Km Area % ChangesPrairies 338 307 30,81Forest 564 684 51,40 0.2%

losses/yearCrop land 28 794 2,62 Between 100

and 200 %

increase/yearWetlands 24 201 2,20

Water bodies 14 197 1,29Other (abandoned land, landrelicts, slopes, etc.)

126 101 11,47

Ice Coverage 2 148 0,20 Nd.

Settlements and Infrastructure 149 0,01Total 1' 098.581 100,00

Sources: Situacin del Desarrollo Sostenible y Medio Ambiente, RECURSO TIERRA

Climate change will surely affect ecosystem productivity driven principally by changes intemperature patterns, changes in regional hydrology and CO 2 fertilization.

The fertilization effect of increased CO 2 concentrations in the atmosphere will impactpositively productive ecosystems if crops are able to resist temperature increases. Butfurthermore in regions where crops are below temperature optimum, temperature increasemay enhance crop productivity if sufficient water is available. Studies pursued for mountainregions in Bolivia, using sensitivity models, show the general trend to enhance cropproductivity of potato and maiz crops, due principally to the increase of temperature whenwater availability is secured (MDS 2001).

In areas where the crops are close to their thermal tolerance limits, there will be acombined effect of greater thermal stress and greater need for water to satisfy their hydricdemands. Agriculture will be impacted by drastic changes in the temperature, increases ofCO 2 in the atmosphere, and unpredictable changes in rain patterns.

As Trenberth (2001) noted, greenhouse gas emissions will principally impact upon theintensification and disruption of the global hydrological cycle. Principally globalhydrological cycle acceleration has been prompted by two principal drivers: global


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warming increases the level of water in the biosphere and atmosphere through thereduction of glacier and ice coverage, and second, ecosystem changes driven byenhanced deforestation, desertification and wetland reductions modify the levels of run offand evaporation.

Mountain regions are mayor providers of water in mayor parts of the world, environmental

damages in these ecosystems have notable impact upon water quality, sediments, andupon water and climate related disasters. Bolivian mountain regions, like other mountainregions of the World may begin to present symptoms of drastic hydrological changes in thenext 10 years with the withdrawal of the smallest glaciers (Francou et al, 1998).

Besides the fact that the water contained in these reservoirs is used for winter agriculturein the mayor part of northern altiplano and for urban uses in the city of La Paz, thesereservoirs contribute to regulate water among the ecosystems, wetlands and ensurecurrent microclimatic conditions. Some of the water related disasters taken place in theregion of La Paz, like the floods in Viacha 2001 and the hail storm in the city of La Paz inFebruary 2002 might be a signal that regional hydrology is changing.

In addition, rain patterns are changing and climate variability has been increasing. Drasticchanges in rain patterns have been observed during the last 20 years by farmers inmountain regions of the country, which noted a delay in the initiation of the rainy season,early rains arrive later, followed by heavy rains that extend for short periods (MDS 2002).General Circulation Models show a slightly increase in precipitation for the mayor part ofthe Bolivian territory (IPCC), nevertheless these models also show a slightly trend of rainyseason shortening (MDS 2001).

The (MDS 2001 b) report summarized Vegetation Index of the Sensor NOAA-AVHRRobservations, shows for the region of dry valleys that the months of September andOctober are becoming dryer, while the month of November presents an increase of theVegetation Index values, as an indication of mayor water availability.

In the last 20 years the country has also experienced an increase in the prevalence ofvector borne diseases. Diseases like malaria, denge and chagas are expanding spatiallyand increasing seasonal incidence (MDS 2002).

The increase of the occurrence of extreme events is also one of the symptoms of climatechange, which is consistent with what is occurring in other regions of the world.Nevertheless some regions are more vulnerable to extreme events than others (see table2). In the mayor parts of the country floods and drought are becoming more frequent.During October 2002 presented in the Chaco region a drought situation, which causedsevere shortages in water provision for cattle and human consumption (Figure 1). Themeteorological office use to receive reports of water shortages during this time of the yearprior to the first rains, but this year the extreme situation was atypical.

During the year 2004 a drought situation in the northeastern part of Bolivia, exacerbatedforest fires initiated for the habilitation of land, the smog expanded for almost 600.000 Km2affecting the mayor part of lowlands. Those extreme events in lowlands are consistent withsome of the trends showed by GCM and linked with the increase of temperature extremes.Climate change will exacerbate some of the risk situation the country has to deal with,floods, drought and forest fires will be more frequent and intense.


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Figure 2: Vegetation Index (NDVI) of NOAA-AVHRR Difference of the second week of October/2002 and the average 1982 2003 for the last 21 years: Source: FAO ARTEMIS

Table 2: Mayor Natural Disasters in Bolivia

Date Description2004: Forest Fires in theNortheastern part of Bolivia

Drought and wind exacerbated forest fires initiated by land habilitation f ires affected 60% ofthe Beni province in the amazonas region of Bolivia

2004: Sever snow storm inthe Potosi provinces

The snow storm of 12 hours affected the southern provinces of Potosi with severedamages upon livestock and tourism installations

2003: Heavy rains and floodin different places

Heavy rains affected almost the whole territory of Bolivia and generated severalemergency situations. In the locality of Chima in the northern provinces of La Paz alandslides almost sheltered the entire town. In the tropical region o Chapare heavy rainsdestroyed the Tunari bridge which connect the city of Cochabamba. The heavy rains alsoaffected the municipality of Achocalla close to La Paz.

2002 Lack of rain produced loses in the range of 70 to 90 % of rain-fed crops (principally maiz)in the middle basin of Rio Grande (Aiquile, Totora, Omereque and Pasorapa),

February 2001: Floods inViacha and La Paz

The heavy rains and floods affected the locality of Viacha in the highlands of Bolivia, thehumidity and the low temperatures increased respiratory diseases and the precariouswaste system produced rapidly a difficult infectious situation.

50 minutes hail left 70 people died and 100 injured


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Date Description

2001 Drought in Santa Cruz damaged 169.400 hectares of the summer campaign 1999-2000.

2000 The Effects of PacificDecadal Oscilation

26000 families affected by drought and floods in mayor parts of the country.

In the Desaguadero Region the flood damaged the pipeline and affected . Hectareswith fuel release

2000: Heavy rains andfloods in Tarija

The heavy rains and floods along the river Bermejo affected thousand of subsistencefarmers.

1998 and 2001: Heavy rainsand landslides in La Paz city

1998 Landslides in the region of Cotahuma affected 370 families and 7 causalities

2001 Landslides in the region of Kupini affected 110 families.

1996: River Mamore floods Floods in the localities of Trinidad and the localities along the river Mamore

198: Floods in thedownstream of river Grande

Floods in the Chaco region, the river Grande over flooded and affected railwaycommunications

1986: Floods in river Beni Foods in the localities of Santa Ana and Yacuma in the province of Beni

1982 1983

El Nio

- Droughts affected 1.5 million people and generated food emergencies principally inmountain regions.

- Floods downstream river Grande (river Pirai) generated human loses. After disasterpeople have been displaced and the National Early Warning Service Rio Pirai (SEARPI)has been consolidated.

Source: ReliefWEB, CGIAB, Bolivian Press, The OFDA/CRED International Disaster Database,GIEWS


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3. Is Popular Participation a virtual strength for climateadaptation and development in Bolivia?

In the last 10 years two mayor inflexion points have occurred in the political arena ofBolivia. The first one initiated with the second generation of State reforms arounddecentralization and Participacin Popular (see page 5) which recognized and providedlegal status to local institutions, indigenous groups and neighbor associations. The secondinflexion point emerged in October 2003 around the claim for mayor participation of thoseinstitutions in the political arena. Even Popular Participation produced a structural changein the political structure of the country; the second inflexion point has been described asthe more critical from a historical point of view (Diego Ayo 2004), because it changeddefinitely the power relation among key actors within the country.

Since decentralization provided legal status to local institutions, the initial perception wasdivided in two groups, the first one explained that in most of the cases, decentralizationwas pursued though the incapacity of the State to ensure the needed provisions for humandevelopment, education, sanitation, etc. which was partially taken by the civil societyandinternational cooperation active at local level (Gordillo de Andas & Farcas 2000). Thesecond perception was that decentralization is formally power devolution to the people andtherefore progress in the democratization process, while it empower people to decideabout their own destiny and perform a better control of the public expenses, andresources.

Initially this process was perceived as the pure definition of a legal framework whereby themajority of local governments, do not have the capacity to manage their responsibilitiesand develop its designed functions as a part of the whole. At the same time the processhad begun awaking internal contradictions behind land tenure, land and water use andmunicipal boundaries, and increased gaps in governmental functions between municipaland central government levels.

In fact, since those reforms, the Bolivian government issued several laws and frameworksfor the regulation of the common pool of resources ending in the need of the reformulationof the country constitution. Since the law of Participacin Popular was issued, the countrymodified its land tenure regime, issued a new forestry regime and intended to change thewater regime without success. Cooperation and conflict exacerbated (table 3), as a clearsignal of institutional weakness and the crisis of the Bolivian State.

Municipalities have been claiming for the enter into force of the subsidiary principle,which provide municipalities with the faculties to assume responsibilities formerly taken bycentral bodies, principally driven by the provision of resource use licenses. One example ofproblems between central and municipal attributions have emerged in the context of themining law, by which the central government provide operation licenses through itSuperintendencia de Minera without taking into account land use and environmentalconsiderations at municipal level.

Driven by municipalization, the increased participation of mayor groups of civilrepresentatives without political affiliation in comparison to representatives of politicalparties in the decision spheres of society 3 exacerbated social turbulence and

3 During the Municipal elections 2004 the second most important group was civil representatives without politicalaffiliation.


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contradictions between formal and informal constituencies and started to change thecurrent clustering of social stakeholders (see Table 5).

Table 3: Summary of mayor watershed damages and conflict in mountain regions

The Cause Environmental

Impact

The Case The Actors

Mining contamination of thehigh basin of Pilcomayo

The river receive ca. 1.300 t/dayof mining waste from the miningactivity in Potos.

1996 An accident of the minePorco in Potosi withdraw animmense quantity of toxic waste.

Ecosystem changes due to thesediments and infrastructuredownstream.

5.000 hectares of landaffected in Cuquisacaprovinces

Sabalo Fisheries highlyaffected

Children with highervalues of heavy metals inblood

2004 The government of Potosirequested 13 million US$ credit toKfW for regulat ion infrastructure

The government committed 5million US$ from internationalcooperation for infrastructureupstream

2003 a new formal request of localcommunities of Potosi, Chuquisaca

and Tarija, to the government toreduce contamination in the river.

Mining sector in the upstreambasin of Pilcomayo

AAPOS (Drink WaterAdministrator of Potosi)

Downstream communities inBolivia

Viceministry of Environment of Bolivia

Governments of Argentina andParaguay

2004 Water Contamination of 55silver mine activities in one of the tributaries of riverColquechaca (upstream basin of river Grande) affect the northernprovinces of Potosi

1500 Has of land affected

no data about heavymetals in the population

2004 Mining concessionairesdamages forest and vegetation in

the riverside of Rio Pirai (RioGrande Downstream) duringsand extraction activities.

2004 The Santa Cruz ParliamentEnvironment Commission

requested the revision of themining code to regulate miningactivities in rivers.

2004 The neighbors or river Pirai,declared emergency status toencourage the revision of themining code and sanctions for theconcessionaires

Affected urban neighbors

Santa Cruz ParliamentEnvironmental Commission

Mining concessionaire

Water War in Cochabamba. February 2000 a huge mobilizationan social protest to request for thefinalization of the Misicuni Project

which aim to provide drink water toCochabamba, the mobilizationrequested to stop tariff increase,review the terms of reference of thecontract with Aguas del Tunari andreview the new Water andSanitation Law.

Coordinadora del Agua

Comit Cvico

Federacin de Juntas Vecinales

Aguas del Tunari

Gobierno Municipal


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The Cause Environmental

ImpactThe Case The Actors

Contamination with cyanide bythe gold mine Inti Raimi affect

water system in the middlealtiplano

Impact upon fisheries in thePoopo and Uru Uru Lakes

Since 2003 request of the UruUru indigenous to the

government to make fulfill theEnvironmental Law, CSUTCBrequest environmental auditing

80 families, Uru Uruindigenous

Inti Raimi (Gold Mine)

CSUTCB

Viceministry of Environment of Bolivia.

Local communities andneighbors of Challapata opposesto gold exploitation in theAchachucani mount

The local communities opposedsince 1995 to gold explotation inthe Achachucani Mount

Water Association No. 2Tacagua 1200 affiliates

Government of Oruro

Fuente: Servicio de Informacin Ciudadana. SIC, CEDIB - Bolivia

Table 4: Land tenure conflicts with the implementation of Land Reform Law (INRA)

The Case The Actors

The Backdrop Case

Indigenous Territories and Colonization Areas

- 40 indigenous groups have demanded 29 million Has fromthe government

- After 7 years of reform The National Agrar Reform Institute(INRA) has just provided titles for 3.8 million Has.

January 2005, Local small farmers occupied 7653 Has.of Land in El Paila, San Julian (northern Santa Cruz)which is owned by an individual family. The Movementwithout Land (MST) announced that other 160 lezzyproperties will be occupied in the coming days. The casestarted a wave of conflicts and the further Declaration ofAutonomy in Santa Cruz.

- INRA provided 2300 land property titles, but is not able toprovide 100% of the necessary land title sanitation.

- Colonization Groups leaded by the MST are claiming forland, in some cases entire communities are within privategrounds.

- Land owners are willing to protect their rights (in some casesthey received land property and concessions trough politicalprivileges and are not able to demonstrate their rights.

Until 1993 The INRA provided 22 millions (87%) of fiscal landto 78.000 big and medium size owners and only 3.2 (12.4%) to76.000 small farmers.


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Stakeholder group Principal roles Principal trends and challenges in

the context of institutional reformsand climate change adaptation.

Networks (LIDEMA, AIPE,PROCOSI, REDESMA,CGIAB and others)

Have been providing civil society services aroundone topic (Water, land tenure, rural development,human health and environment). Networks wereable to systematize important amounts ofinformation in a specific issue; most of them havequite good accessible databases.

Those networks have been also providingservices to their affiliates for better fulfill theirtasks at local and community levels.

Civil society networks are changing fromnetworks principally driven by ideology(environmentalists, human rightsnetworks, catholic church NGOs) towardsmunicipal networks dealing with thedifferent aspects of local development.

Civil society is at municipal level claimingfor mayor participation and control inpublic affairs.

Public private partnerships

(Foundations)

In the last 12 years mayor private publicpartnerships emerged principally driven toensure transparency in the use of public financialresources. The partnerships increasedfundraising capacities and long term perspective.Foundations are assuming state functions butmaintaining private versatility.

Principal constraints are that thosepartnerships are only limited able tochange their mandate and directionaccording to the current policy. In themajority of cases those networks areadapting to the signals of developmentmarkets and reducing social andenvironmental sound investment

Governmental agencies Governmental agencies are currently only limitedto fulfill regulation tasks.

After October 2003 protest the countryhas started to explore mayor presence ofcentral government in strategic issues,like energy policy, food security andwater.

In the context of rural institutions; even agrarian syndicates have increased their powerenormously, and have been representing the voice of the majority during social conflictand negotiations around land tenure (see Table 4), rural institutions are shifting fromclaiming oriented syndicates towards more flexible forms of cooperatives, andentrepreneurship, these trends were prompted by other supplementary frameworks likethe Law INRA which recognized land tenure of indigenous communities and in somecases encouraged privatization.

The third generation of institutional reforms (competitiveness reform) is putting rural

institutions (indigenous groups, agrarian syndicates, cooperatives) in the context of marketliberalization and export driven economies. In this context the current National Strategy(ENDAR) has put mayor emphasis upon the production chain and practically neglected aninstitutional perspective. In the last 10 years the Bolivian Agrar Technology Institute waspartially privatized (more under public private partnerships) which has partially increasedthe quality of technology extension for export prioritized products but created some gaps inthe technological provision of subsistence and food security crops.


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From the perspective of territorial ordering the process of municipalization has shifted ruralmigration to big cities towards intermediate cities. The process of Participacin Popularhas also created new jobs for qualified people around municipal administration, and theimplementation of projects and programs at local level (see Table 6). In the context ofenvironmental management municipalities have integrated environmental issues into theiraction plans and many of them are implementing measures for integrated land and watermanagement.

Many municipal associations and networks Mancomunidades de Municipios have beenformed along the country. Those associations have been principally driven by the need tomanage a common pool of resources. The River Gande basin, for example, one of thecentral basins of the country, include tree mayor associations of municipalities dealing withwatershed management issues, including the administration of protected areas, and thepromotion of sustainable soil and water management systems. Furthermore MunicipalAssociations are able to maintain representation bodies in principal cities to manage publicrelations with the government of the province and other potential private and publicpartners to encourage local development and investment.

Other sides, civil society networks have been changing from networks principally driven byideology (environmentalists, human rights networks, Catholic Church NGOs) towardsmunicipal networks dealing with the different aspects of local development. Civil societyhas been organizing at local level claiming for mayor participation and accountability.Since 1992 the Comite de Vigilancia and other mechanisms of social control have beenempowered by those networks.

Table 6: Summary of the Best Practices linked to climate change adaptation inBolivia.Best Practice Experience Principal Stakeholders Mayor trends, gaps and

opportunitiesEarly Warning Systems: The country doesnt have enough

capacities for conducting a nationalclimate early warning system

National Food Security Early WarningSystem (SINSAAT)

EU FundingMinistry of Agriculture

EU funding is finishing and thesustainability of the system is

jeopardizedForest Fires Early Warning System(SATIF)

Bolfor Project

UN Conflict Early warning System PMA, OPS/OMS, PNUD, UNICEF,FAO, World Bank, PNUFID, UNFPA,UN-LiREC, OCAH y UNV.

Pre-Disaster Planning Pre-Disaster-Planning is converting anintegrated part of the majority ofinternational assistance projects

Peace and Indigenous Development inthe Ayllus of La Paz

Vision Mundial

Local Early warning Systems innorthern Potosi

CARE Bolivia CARE has many other project withPre-Disaster planning components

Disaster Prevention in Northern Beni COOPIMedicus Mundi

Integrated WatershedManagement

The country is putting mayor emphasisupon watershed managementschemes. Many experiences along theRiver Pilcomayo and the upstream ofRiver Grande have been initiated in thelast ten years.


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Best Practice Experience Principal Stakeholders Mayor trends, gaps and

opportunitiesEnvironmental ServicePayments:

The country doesnt have a legalframework for regulating ESPcontracts between parties.

ESP Project Mayrana Santa Cruz Funded by UNDP-GEF Small GrantsProgramCIAT

Biological Reserve Sama TarijaWatershed management project

The Nature Concervancy USAIDPROMETA Tarija

Foro Regional sobre Sistemas dePago por Servicios Ambientales

FAOIIED

Rural ICT The country started the implementationof its national ICT strategy (ENTIC),forty-five information centers have nowbeen set up all over the country withsupport of IICD and UNDP.

Farmer ICT centersTIC AgrecolACLOCIOEC

AOPEBCEPACAPCOP SEDUCA

Foundation AGRECOL AndesFunded by COSUDE, DEDIICD

The centers provide information about,ecological production, qualitystandards, certification and markets

Ch@ski Foundation AYNI Bolivia NetherlandsCenter of Information in indigenousissues, advocacy and negotiations

CIDOB

Source: Nur University, Best Practices Data Base

As showed above, the process of municipalisation (decentralization) can not be assessedfrom a simplistic perspective. The Bolivian process of decentralization has not been free ofconflict and human suffering, but at the same time the process of municipalization hasbrought remarkable experiences within the country and empowered people to decide their

future.From the point of view of climate change adaptation, decentralization has been alreadydone and we are still adapting to new forms of governance. Nevertheless there is a clearpossibility challenge to participate by the third generation of reforms aroundcompetitiveness of local business, which provides the backdrop for further actions. In thiscontext not only a coherent microeconomic policy is needed but also a consistentenvironmental, municipal, energy and educational policy is needed to empower ruralinstitutions and provide better conditions and incentives for local business.


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Task Force Building for Promoting Climate Change Adaptation in Bolivia

The project started during year 2004 with support of the Imperial College of London and

funded by Shell Foundation. The project encouraged consultations with stakeholders indifferent spheres and decision levels in the context of climate change adaptation, riskand community resilience. The consultations have been carried out with thematicleaders in different fields related with climate change adaptation, risk management andcommunity resilience on an ongoing basis to build an effective and top level TaskForce. Different outstanding individuals have been invited to participate during the firstTask Force meeting which took place during the month of September 2004. Individualscommitted themselves to follow up project results and guide the process to theobjective of better adaptation. Among the institutions participating in consultations were:PREANDINO, Rio + 10 office, GNTP Universidad Nur, National Climate ChangeProgram, the NGOs Arboland, Biosfera and PROCAVI, UNDP GEF Small GrantsProgram, ICT National Strategy (ERTIC), Cochabamba Municipalities Association(AMDECO), The Cochabamba the Environmental Services Committee, Communities ofNational Park Tunari, The German NGO Germanwatch, and the EnvironmentalProgram of the Danish Cooperation.

In addition 45 active individuals and institutions are participating in the activities of thevirtual community, using the virtual library, links and electronic forumswww.lapaz.nur.edu/resiliencia


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4. Knowledge, Experiential and Co-learning Networks, towards astrategy for climate change adaptation

Human society is facing huge challenges in the context of global environmental change,the global environment is changing so dramatically due to human interventions, that thescientific community has began to talk about the antropocene era.

At this moment of societal development we are only limited to understand the realimplications of such global transformations noted by Holling 2004 as phanarchy. Globalenvironmental changes are just one cluster of symptoms of global disequilibrium, whichare signing a profound crisis of human affairs, the increasing gaps between the north andthe south, the weakness of united nations system and the strengthening of reactiveantiglobaization movements in contraposition to the emergence of an information andknowledge society signed by decentralization, multi and trans-culturalism and globalcitizenship as a symptoms of a changing and transforming society which is continuousadapting to new environmental, social and economical conditions.

As noted by Adger (2003) the promotion of resilience and avoidance of vulnerability aredirectly related to equity, autonomy and freedom, arising from the entitlement and accessto resources and security. Furthermore resilience means moving away from simple limitson environmental resource use towards active promotion of dynamic evolutionaryprocesses.

The redistribution of power among actors to more multi-level governance systems, thepromotion of polycentrisms in the context of decentralization and local governments, civilsociety empowerment are clear signals in this direction. As noted by Ostrom (2001)polycentric governance systems have considerable strengths viewed from a dynamiccomplex system perspective, and this has to be put into consideration from the perspectiveof global environmental change adaptation.

Those polycentric governance systems might be viewed as self-organizing structuresprompted by different levels of general purpose government, whereby the smallest unitsmay be seen as parallel adaptive systems nested within larger units. Adaptive capacityincreases trough the autonomy of parallel units to experiment with diverse rules forresource use and responses to external shocks. Local knowledge is available for decisionmaking and in addition sharing experiences and replication of successful experiences ispossible in other parallel units.

Farhana Yamin (2004) summarized in the context of international development that a newstyle development will have to emerge from the creative conjunction of recognizedinterconnectedness, the ability of human society to innovate and transform and the

concourse of local communities asserting their voice and demanding accountability.As noted above there is a mayor discussion to put the climate change adaptation issue inthe context of development but at the same time there is a need to put this in the contextof urgent measures of social transformation and justice, principally to reduce GreenhouseGas Emissions drastically, but also to ensure human wellbeing.

The Rio + 10 negotiations provided a new approach to the whole treatment ofenvironmental concerns and development. First environmental concerns can not be


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treated separately from other human development concerns like water provision, food andhuman health, and second North South relationship can not still be considered under thesimplistic development model of industrialization, but in the context of democracy, justiceand interconnectedness.

Since Rio + 10 several global partnerships have been started to ensure compliance withthe MDGs (see Table 7) and lots of them are linked to energy and climate changeadaptation. Even those partnerships are just emerging and building global networks, theirimpact upon North South technology transfer; social and environmental investment andsustainable development might be in the long term stronger than the impacts of theflexibility and enforcement mechanisms of the Kyoto Protocol, so far they contribute forchanging habits and promote new technologies massively.

Table 7: Global Partnerships, networks and learning communities, dealing withclimate change adaptation 6.

Name of theInitiative

Principal Objective Principal Partners

Cities for ClimateProtection

To promote best practices for energy efficiency, labeling andinformation campaigns

To facilitate local activities in the context of national and regionalpolicies

To promote sustainable transport

ICLEI , National Governments,Municipal Governments, CityGovernments

Several country specificTelework Associationsand Networks

Principally driven by environmental concerns (to reducetransportation) but also to create job opportunities for vulnerablegroups

Private firms, governmentalagencies and NGOs

Global Village EnergyPartnership

To promote the use of renewable energy sources Research institutions, privateenterprises, NGOs, Private FirmsAssociations, governmentalagencies and others

Healthy municipalities To ensure quality of life and health trough a healthy environmentand people

PHO, Municipal governments,governmental agencies

Communities 21 To promote sustainable practices at local level Promoted by ICLEI

Civil society may also play a mayor role in defining the political agenda of the globalenvironmental agreements. CoP 10 in Buenos Aires has shown that the global diplomacy

along is totally incapable to guide a survival strategy for mankind and the future of humancivilization. The Argentinean Journalist Miguel Grinberg (Global 500 Award) expressedthat important stakeholders like the Sierra Club, The Natural Resources Defense Council,The Worlwatch Institute, just to mention some of them with long track record ofinternational activism, where totally absent of the process. The conclusion is that climatenegotiations and an effective climate regime are not sufficient to protect the environmentand encourage adaptation.

6 Those initiatives are dealing with adaptation from the point of view of the author


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Besides power devolution to the local levels, the idea of polycentric governance systems islinked to the possibility of polycentrism in knowledge and technology. Global policy hasbeen putting its efforts on technology transfer and providing the framework conditions forthe open flux of goods and services among country borders. The international law is alsoputting mayor efforts in providing legal frameworks for intellectual property rights such asindividual and communal as well. But at the same time a lot of intellectual goods andresources, knowledge and software technology is crossing borders every day without anyrestriction throughout the internet.

This information and knowledge provide the possibility to use global knowledge locally andempower people, but at the same time current communications technologies may alsoencourage the generation and revaluation of local and traditional specific knowledge whichat the moment is only underestimated in the context of development.

Municipalities also, have initiated different networks for the exchange of experiences, bestpractices and lessons learnt. Those networks are promoting horizontal exchange ofinformation and knowledge promoting the exchange of technical assistance, market

access, funding and facilitating communication process among civil society foraccountability and advocacy.

To use those municipal networks to promote climate change adaptation and accelerate theprocess the principal challenge is to put it into the context of polycentric governance andlocal development and simplify current discourse to make it integrated part of a collectivelearning and action process which involves the entire society.

As noted in chapter 3, for the case of Bolivia, the institutional reforms in the context of asecond level of local empowerment has to be connected with innovative mechanisms toenhance market accessibility and competitiveness and improve financial and insurancemechanisms at local level.

In the transition of the information society towards the knowledge society, the concept ofcollective learning is not new, concepts like co-inteligence, social and collectiveintelligence base on the assumption that Together we can be wiser than any of us can bealone. We need to know how to tap that wisdom ( www.co-intelligence.org ).

Even though virtual communities are coupled with the possibilities and constraintsprovided by Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) they also rely on thepotentials, challenges and opportunities of the information and knowledge society. Sharinginformation and knowledge might be viewed as a way to accelerate the neededtransformation for social adaptation and resilience to global environmental and socio-economic changes.


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Bibliographic references

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Bohle, Hans-Georg. 2001. "Vulnerability and Criticality: Perspectives from SocialGeography." Update IHDP, Newsletter of the International Human Dimensions Programmeon Global Environmental Change 2/01.

Ayo, D., El control social en Bolivia. GNTP Logo Link, SERIE Documentos de Trabajo,Santa Cruz 2004

Chambers, Robert. 1989. "Vulnerability, coping and policy." IDS Bulletin Vol 20, No 1-7.

Francou, B. et al. 1998. El glaciar de Chacaltaya (Cordillera Real, Bolivia). Investigacionesglaciolgicas (1991-1997). Informe N 56-1998, ORSTOM, La Paz.

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______. 2002, Vulnerabilidad y Adaptacin al Cambio y Variabilidad Climtica en losSistemas Alimentarios de Regiones Semiridas de Montaa, La Paz

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Ribot, Jesse C., Climate Variability, Climate Change and Social Vulnerability in the Semi-Arid Tropics, Center for Population and Development Studies, Harvard University 1994

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promoting social adaptation[1]

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