How does the Paramo capture and store water? The role of plants and people.
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Edinburgh
Department Name: Roslin Institute
Abstract
Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.
Planned Impact
Our project's high level goal is to safeguard the sustainable use of the Northern Andean Páramos and so ultimately improve the livelihoods and wellbeing of people living in Colombia and other Andean countries. The proposed research, which aims to substantially enhance current understanding of the Páramos' socio-ecological system, forms a core step towards this goal. The project aims to achieve measurable impact in terms of real changes in people's knowledge, skills and behaviours associated to the Páramos.
Stakeholder groups which we have identified and targeted are:
1.The Páramo Guantiva-la Rusia local farming communities, who rely on the Páramo for their livelihood, will benefit from this project by learning more about their role and impact on the functioning of the Páramo, information which could help support their decision making.
2. The Páramo Guantiva-la Rusia local decision makers, who have a direct impact on the local economy and sustainable use of the Páramo, will benefit by learning about the role of plants and people in the functioning of the Páramo. They will also benefit from the land cover and Páramo status maps and the Páramo valuation the project will produce which will help them in their decision making.
3. Colombian early career scientists and students and who are seeking opportunities for exchanges in expertise within Colombia and between Colombia and UK through collaborations and training. Through the field work bursaries we will be providing opportunities for Colombian early career scientist and students to join the project's activities and so expose them to the expertise of UK and Colombian senior scientists. They will also gain skills and knowledge through informal and formal training that will occur during the planned field campaign and workshops. The four months research visits to the UK offered to 2 Colombian early career scientists will further enhance the exchange of expertise and skills and facilitate international networking.
4. The Colombian community of practitioners and researchers who are interested in Drone technology and are keen to exchange drone experiences through an informal national drone network. This community will benefit from sharing with the UK experiences and from evaluating the collected drone imagery collected by the project.
The project will also be relevant to a variety of other stakeholder groups who will be: for example, national and international NGOs who are concerned with the preservation of the Páramo, or who are interested in the welfare of the local communities; regional and national decision makers and policy makers who are concerned with the sustainable use of the Páramo within the context of the national green economy agenda; private companies for whom the Páramo is a resource of genetic diversity, water or minerals; and the general public (Colombian and UK).
Stakeholder groups which we have identified and targeted are:
1.The Páramo Guantiva-la Rusia local farming communities, who rely on the Páramo for their livelihood, will benefit from this project by learning more about their role and impact on the functioning of the Páramo, information which could help support their decision making.
2. The Páramo Guantiva-la Rusia local decision makers, who have a direct impact on the local economy and sustainable use of the Páramo, will benefit by learning about the role of plants and people in the functioning of the Páramo. They will also benefit from the land cover and Páramo status maps and the Páramo valuation the project will produce which will help them in their decision making.
3. Colombian early career scientists and students and who are seeking opportunities for exchanges in expertise within Colombia and between Colombia and UK through collaborations and training. Through the field work bursaries we will be providing opportunities for Colombian early career scientist and students to join the project's activities and so expose them to the expertise of UK and Colombian senior scientists. They will also gain skills and knowledge through informal and formal training that will occur during the planned field campaign and workshops. The four months research visits to the UK offered to 2 Colombian early career scientists will further enhance the exchange of expertise and skills and facilitate international networking.
4. The Colombian community of practitioners and researchers who are interested in Drone technology and are keen to exchange drone experiences through an informal national drone network. This community will benefit from sharing with the UK experiences and from evaluating the collected drone imagery collected by the project.
The project will also be relevant to a variety of other stakeholder groups who will be: for example, national and international NGOs who are concerned with the preservation of the Páramo, or who are interested in the welfare of the local communities; regional and national decision makers and policy makers who are concerned with the sustainable use of the Páramo within the context of the national green economy agenda; private companies for whom the Páramo is a resource of genetic diversity, water or minerals; and the general public (Colombian and UK).
Organisations
People |
ORCID iD |
| Dominic Moran (Principal Investigator) |
Publications
Sykes AJ
(2020)
Characterising the biophysical, economic and social impacts of soil carbon sequestration as a greenhouse gas removal technology.
in Global change biology
Oldekop JA
(2020)
Forest-linked livelihoods in a globalized world.
in Nature plants
Knook J
(2020)
The evaluation of a participatory extension programme focused on climate friendly farming
in Journal of Rural Studies
Knook J
(2020)
Policy and Practice Certainty for Effective Uptake of Diffuse Pollution Practices in A Light-Touch Regulated Country.
in Environmental management
Dittrich R
(2018)
A cost-benefit analysis of afforestation as a climate change adaptation measure to reduce flood risk
in Journal of Flood Risk Management
| Description | Paramo systems are a source of water for urban populations in Colombia. This value of this hydrological ecosystem service is not fully understood by competing land users and is currently at risk from partially informed land use change decisions. Existing valuation approaches are largely based on a neo classical economic valuation approach to derive monetary values for environmental goods and services. This monetary valuation metric presents problems in certain low income contexts where existing non-monetary value systems are already mediating exchange of market and non market goods and services. This research has conceptualised alternative valuation approaches including value elicitation from key stakeholders near our case study areas. Since early 2020 we have been considering the most novel valuation approach to water valuation in the paramo (or more precisely the welfare effects of changes to water availability). The estimation of the welfare effects associated with changes in Paramo land covers -- for these changes are indicative of competing conservation practices -- was approached as an econometric problem. The water value meta-analysis structured around it suggests that water production in the Paramo cannot be conceptualised as an (economic) production function, requiring instead Machine Learning heuristics to link water discharge rates to available irrigation water. Our demand-side estimations show that a 10% increase in the area of cultivated land, within the Paramo buffer zone, implies an average 1.15% reduction in the economic surplus of local water abstractor groups -- bearing a yearly cost of approximately £11,638,400 (across relevant municipalities). • A full manuscript on the meta-analysis of water values is available: delays caused by disruptions in data collection and reduced collaboration with partners prompted new research challenges -- the creation of a new methodological framework, the processing of secondary datasets, and the engagement with new local stakeholders. • We are finalising the NLP analysis of the Agrosolidaria workshop: unanticipated research opportunity within UoE to apply precursory research findings to a specific COVID challenge. • We are working on a joint piece on value with Bristol: delays caused by the asynchronous impacts of the pandemic on distinct research teams. • We are involved in the Brujula project to disseminate the PeP results: delays in the overall PeP research process have truncated a more timely dissemination of more varied and voluminous outcomes. • We are looking at an agent-based exercise to model distinct conservation scenarios using raster data to inform biophysical predictions -- asked Kris (Kings) if of interest but have not heard from him yet, and we are using the PI's raster data for illustration (hope a PeP colleague could circulate their own). We have coded some of the basic features of these agents in terms of changes in the underlying polygons: delays caused by the asynchronous impacts of the pandemic on distinct research teams -- Kings team in Colombia for fieldwork. |
| Exploitation Route | A novel methodological framework to obtain the welfare effects of changes in land use was created. Our methodology connects biophysical variables with the economic determinants of water abstraction, producing monetary estimates of variations in distinct conservation measures or lack thereof. These estimates can be considered an approximation to the value of irrigation water made available by the regulating properties of the Paramo's complex hydro-geological structure. To which sectors do you think the outcomes of this funding are most relevant? An array of for-profit organisations covering a ranged spectrum of economic activities -- e.g. Agriculture, Food and Drink, Chemicals -- as well as governmental and non-profit actors, immersed in Environment, Government, Democracy and Justice, and similar themes, will be able to draw on our work in order to better frame the impact of their decisions. We also expect our work to mobilise new research into the economics of the Paramo water culture. |
| Sectors | Agriculture, Food and Drink,Chemicals,Environment,Government, Democracy and Justice,Other |
| Description | Prior to the lockdown period in 2020 we were able to establish a relationship with an NGO working in our Paramo area (Agro Solidaria), through which we developed a project proposal for onward funding that was submitted to AHRC. The proposal was unsuccessful but has provided a basis for continued collaboration to reach project goals and to develop new collaborations. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2020 |
| Sector | Agriculture, Food and Drink,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| Impact Types | Cultural,Societal,Economic,Policy & public services |
| Title | A Formal Critique of the Value of the Colombian Páramo |
| Description | This article presents conceptual and methodological frameworks to prioritise interventions on the Colombian Páramo. The mode of analysis that our work takes up is that of questioning value and related categories as definite empirically perceived phenomena. We contend that the valuation of ecosystem services -- even in its post-normal forms -- and the ecosystem services framework not only fail to examine value-based categories, but reproduce the problematic aspects of value-based social relations, which ultimately bear on the ecological issues affecting the Páramo. Upon this premise we set out to formalise a (computational) dialogical scenario where arguments stating distinct, and often contradictory, actions delineate possible forms of appropriating the Páramo, while motivating the examination of their defining sociality. |
| Type Of Material | Computer model/algorithm |
| Year Produced | 2020 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | A critical appraisal of the value-based sociality, as assimilated into the Paramo culture, is conducive to a dialogical setting where alternative water use practices are delineated. These practices may thematise a resistance against the advance of the value-based categories. |
| URL | https://arxiv.org/abs/2005.02810 |
| Description | Paramo (local) Communities Workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Our first field trip to the Guantiva-La Rusia paramo took place during January 2020. We covered the paramo complex in its entirety, presented our project to locals, and collected data/information through one workshop and several semistructured interviews. The locals' views and water use practices were observed and registered, in order to generate compatible water governance guidelines. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://arxiv.org/abs/2005.02810 |