Building trusting relationships to reduce climate risk: A Case Study of the Tanta community in Peru
Summary
Continuing the work of the Mountain EbA project, the Tanta community and Instituto de Montaña implemented an Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) measure in partnership with the Nor Yauyos-Cochas Landscape Reserve and IUCN. Our solution combined local knowledge with current science and technology and comprised three components: Strengthening of community organization, Strengthening local skills and knowledge, and Green-gray infrastructure. Through a participatory process, the community proposed to build a climate shed in response to increased disease and animal mortality due to extreme weather events. Making the shed a reality renewed the community's trust in cooperating with institutions, which had been eroded by previous bad experiences. Thanks to this and to the strengthening of the livestock department (committee) and the community itself, the organization improved, the work was completed, and livestock management was resumed, which is key to improving the health of the ecosystems.
Classifications
Region
Scale of implementation
Ecosystem
Theme
Other theme
Challenges
Sustainable development goals
Aichi targets
Sendai Framework
Challenges
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Climate variability affects livestock production: extreme events such as frost and weather-related diseases increase livestock mortality.
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Degraded pastures and wetlands due to overgrazing in turn decrease livestock productivity.
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Weakened organization: past projects and initiatives have divided the community, generating distrust.
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The tension between the population and the authorities due to personal interests has been a barrier in the process of establishing trusting relationships with the community.
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Gender inequality hinders women's participation in decision-making.
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Labor shortage due to migration.
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Most of the communal territory is family usufruct, which represents a challenge for collective decision-making.
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Increase in diseases affecting livestock in the highlands. Cattle ranchers do not know how to treat them and no competent state agency is addressing the problem.
Beneficiaries
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Direct: 79 families (approx. 350 people) of the Tanta Community.
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Indirect: Populations living in the middle and lower part of the Cañete river basin.
Building blocks
How do the building blocks interact?
Three components or building blocks contribute to the sustainability of the initiative: infrastructure, combined with actions to strengthen technical and organizational capacities.
Building the relationship with the community organization in Tanta was key to the joint design and implementation of the EbA measure. Likewise, capacity building was achieved through a dialogue between traditional and scientific knowledge: community members and professionals in rural construction, veterinary medicine, and rangeland ecology designed and defined the measure, with the facilitation of the project team. These two components were key to achieving community commitment, not only in the joint design and implementation of the green/gray infrastructure but also in assuming commitments for its operation and maintenance, as well as in implementing the plan for the use of the communal farm. The effort made has built ownership, which will contribute to sustainability.
Components:
- Strengthening of the communal organization.
- Strengthening of local capacities and knowledge.
- Infrastructure/Technology recovery.
Impacts
The construction of the shed protects the cattle, especially the calves, from extreme weather events such as frost and hail, thus helping to reduce their mortality. The infrastructure also serves as a barn for the milk-producing cows. These improvements have had a positive impact on families' livelihoods, who depend mainly on livestock for their livelihoods.
Thanks to the trainings, the community now has a better understanding of the potential impacts of climate change on ecosystems and their future productivity. This, along with the strengthening of local organization, has led to an improved pasture rotation plan. The community has resumed the communal farm's livestock management process, defining sectors for each species: alpacas, sheep, and cattle.
During the trust-building process between the community and the institutions, and as an initiative of the Nor Yauyos-Cochas Landscape Reserve (NYCLR), the project supported the community in developing a proposal for the recovery of natural pastures. The community received a grant of US$27,950 through the Ministry of the Environment's "Mechanisms of Rewards for Ecosystem Services" (MRSE-FIDA) program. This contributes to the sustainability of the project and the achievement of adaptation and sustainable livelihoods objectives.
Story
Excerpt from the testimonies of Clemente Lázaro and Nancy Cangalaya, former president of the Tanta community livestock department (committee) and Justice of the Peace of the Tanta district, respectively.
"The climate has changed quite a bit. The rain is no longer like it used to be; when it wants to rain, it rains and when it doesn't, it doesn't. We feel quite harmed by climate change. Before, the rain used to start in November and stays until April. Now it comes late, in January, and leaves quickly, by March." (Nancy Cangalaya).
"This affects our land, the natural pastures are no longer the same, they no longer develop. More than anything it affects our livestock. Our health too: we have more respiratory diseases, us and our animals. Now we have to rely on medicine. There are more expenses for the medicines we have to give to our animals.
Water is also affected. There is no more snow and the lagoon has dried up; there is no more water to drink. (Clemente Lázaro)
"The project, with its workshops and training, has helped us a lot. For example, the training on grazing; where we have learned that according to the size of the land we have, we must have a limited number of animals, because otherwise the pastures will not supply. If we overgraze, we are depredating our land. We have also participated in health-related trainings, we have been given several workshops. This is something we should always have, so that people can learn more. (Clemente Lázaro)
"The shed has also helped us. We keep our calves there and they don't get wet. We just milk there and it helps us a lot because they don't get sick and there is less mortality. Although it also depends on the people who handle the animals, the shepherds. Sometimes they are not very careful and do not vaccinate them at the right time, due to lack of management, but when they bring them [to the shed] they are protected. That is why the shed has benefited us both at the family and community level; and it is a model for other projects that also want the shed, so that they can replicate it". (Clemente Lázaro)
"Chumpes [grazing area] also has a more grown and more populated pasture and the infiltration channel is irrigating." (Nancy Cangalaya)
Pictures
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