The working group Cuenca del Plata – Gran Chaco, created in early 2009, seeks to generate complementarity between a potential institutions and enterprises launched in the region to enhance synergies, develop replicable and scalable projects, and improve participatory management with a perspective in sustainability and equity.
Urundei member-organizations, Proteger, Fungir, Gran Chaco and Yangareko, work with local communities on issues relating to training and institutional strengthening, land management, environmental monitoring and the state of specific resources such as fisheries and the management water, wetlands and productive systems.
The map shows the organizations participating in the initiative and the area of work.
Chaco traditional communities, farmers, fishermen and indigenous people in the basin of the Pilcomayo River in Bolivia and Argentina, Paraná and Paraguay, Argentina and Parapetí in Bolivia are among the populations with which they have been working with participatory and comprehensive approach that includes social, economic, cultural and environmental aspects, mainly.
The initiative within the current challenges traversed by climate change, resource degradation and high poverty levels, gather a tradition work of NGOs and experts who have over twenty years of presence in the vast territory of the Gran Chaco and the rivers that are part of the basin, the most important in South America with the Amazon.
The exchange of experiences and complementary of capabilities allow to take advantage and enhance initiatives of the involved organizations and communities involved. The existing coordination with specialists and scientific institutes and with different levels of government, represents links to implement on a larger scale developments.
Part of this vision also involves research of methods of sustainable management, adding value to natural resources and productive systems of small and medium scale, with a clear choice for the ecosystem approach to strategies to maintain the integrity of watersheds.
It is known that in the region of Plata Basin where Gran Chaco is located is not easy to obtain data on the ground and promote scientific and technological developments capable of responding to issues relevant to water management, territories and resources on which populations depend, especially in the context of climate change impacts and adaptation options.
The organizations that drive the working group are implementing innovative approaches to sustainable intervention in ecosystems, as part of co-management plans to serve the needs of local communities. These experiences, systematized and integrated, tend to strengthen a proposal to provide the sustainable economic and social development of communities in the Gran Chaco.
Transfer models and fieldwork techniques that were developed and are being conducted, have been adopted by other organizations and communities. The lessons learned in recent decades have generated valuable inputs for further work in the Gran Chaco and can even be applied in other regions and other issues.
Contribute to the areas of discussion between organizations working in the region, facilitate new ones and generate reliable information with local communities and interpret them aiming at eradicating poverty and achieving a better quality of life -in the sense of living well or well living – are other objectives of the initiative.
The evaluation of the consequences of climate change and its impacts on water availability, fisheries and other vital resources, as well as agriculture and environmental security is a transverse line of work.
Identify areas, resources and highly vulnerable social sectors, promoting community monitoring on environmental conditions and socio-economic aspects, the revival and updating of management practices and sustainable use of natural assets, and the study of legal gaps to activate proposals for new regulations from the needs of different actors and sectors, are other goals.
Proper reporting of results and proposals aimed at all levels of society and mainly communities of the area of work, giving greater visibility to the region, is also a fundamental tool. This includes the rescue of the culture, values and the remarkable importance at inland and global level of the ecosystems and peoples of the Gran Chaco – Plata Basin.
Spanish version: http://www.cuencadelplata-granchaco.org/sobre-nuestro-trabajo/
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