- This new collaboration, with the support of the Foundation Jacobs Future, it will combine the hydrology of cutting-edge knowledge of communities to better understand how the restoration of the andean forests protect the water, the biodiversity and climate resiliency.
Lima, Peru / London, United Kingdom — Conservación Amazónica–ACCA and the Imperial College of London have launched a new and ambitious research collaboration to study how the restoration of forests in the high Andes, it can reinforce water security, biodiversity and climate resiliency in the region of the andean Amazon.
Thanks to funding from the Foundation Jacobs Future, the project will establish an innovative network of environmental monitoring in the southeast of Peru, covering almost 5,000 meters of altitude, from the puna to the jungle floor. The initiative will generate scientific data fundamental about how the ecological restoration influences the water, the soil, the climate and biodiversity in one of the landscapes most important and most vulnerable of the world.
The Andes are the source of the water that feeds the Amazon basin. However, despite increasing investments in forest restoration, we know surprisingly little about how the restoration of the ecosystems of the high-altitude affects the availability of water downstream or how to improve ecosystem services for local communities.
"To understand the relationship between the restoration and the water is one of the challenges scientists and conservation larger today in the Andes," said Corine Vriesendorp, scientific Director of Conservation Amazónica–ACCA. "The andean ecosystems healthy provide water to the communities, agriculture and the Amazon. This partnership will help us to understand how restorative approaches to provide the greatest benefits both for people and for nature."
The project is based on the long history of ACCA in themes of restoration in the region of Cusco, directed by the Specialist in restoration Marlene Mamani, who works in collaboration with local communities to restore the andean landscapes degraded. The researchers from Imperial will provide their knowledge, internationally recognized, in hydrology, soil science, and ecosystems and to establish systems of monitoring to measure the flow of rivers, the health of the soil, the climate and biodiversity in the different locations of restoration.
The members of the community will help to identify the points of monitoring, maintaining the equipment, to collect environmental data and interpret the results along with the scientists. His deep knowledge of the seasonal patterns of water, the changes in the landscapes and local ecosystems will complement the environmental research of avant-garde, creating a vision richer and more complete way of how the restore is transformed these landscapes.
"Science is more powerful arises when you bring together local knowledge and scientific innovation," said Wouter Buytaert, professor of Water Resources and Hydrology in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Imperial. "The communities have spent generations looking at these landscapes. Combine that knowledge with a tracking hydrological advanced allows us to answer questions that neither of the two approaches could solve by itself".
The project will also invest in the next generation of environmental leaders through field courses and intensive workshops of technology that will be to peruvian students, community members, conservation professionals and students of Imperial themes of environmental monitoring, data analysis and science of restoration.
All environmental data generated through the project will be made available to the public, thus creating a framework of practical monitoring that can be replicated throughout Peru and along the Andes. The results will support the local communities, managers of protected areas and the policy makers to develop strategies for restoration to strengthen water security and climate resiliency.
The support of the Foundation Jacobs Future is making it possible for this unique collaboration between science, conservation and local communities. When you invest in the long-term monitoring and the exchange of knowledge, the Foundation is helping to generate the evidence needed to guide restoration efforts in one of the most biodiverse regions of the world: the andean Amazon.