Global environment facility governments of colombia, ecuador, peru and venezuela

Annex 7: Institutional résumés of executing agencies

CONDESAN -Andes

Consortium members make alliances to define and undertake research and development projects. The hallmark of the benchmark teams is that they join good science and development expertise with community organizations. Other, more thematic teams draw together the best organizations regionally to address common issues. The major trans-Andean research activities fall into four categories:

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  Soil and water management and conservation;
  
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  Conservation and use of agrobiodiversity in Andean roots and tubers and pasture species;
  
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  Improved farming systems, covering all aspects of the system from producer to consumer;
  
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  Policy research to promote sustainable development and conservation in the Andes.
  

INSTITUTO ALEXANDER von HUMBOLDT - Colombia

Law 99 of 1993 establishes that the Institute is responsible for the scientific and applied investigation of the biotic and hydrobiological resources continental territory of the nation. The Institute will support, through technical consultancies and technology transfer, the Regional Autonomous Corporations of Sustainable Development, the Departments, the Districts, the Municipalities and other territorial entities in charge of the administration of the environment and renewable natural resources. The investigations lead by the Institute and the associated data bank, will be the base for the development of the national biodiversity inventory. The Institute has the mission of promoting, coordinating and executing research that contributes to the conservation and sustainable use of the Colombian biodiversity.

Given the Colombian biophysical complexity, the Institute has approached the execution of its mission concentrating on certain fields of knowledge and certain regions. The institute’s research lines comprise four programs: Conservation Biology, Use and Valuation of the Biodiversity, Inventories of Biodiversity, and Politics and Legislation. In their first years of existence, research concentrated on the dry ecosystems; then, the oriental mountain ecosystems were studied, and from 2001 on, the investigation of the Institute has concentrated on the Andes and the Orinoquia. This recent experience has allowed Institute researchers to come closer to the problem of biodiversity knowledge and of the conservation of the high mountain ecosystems through biodiversity characterizations and the study of the factors of its transformation, such as agriculture and mining.

ECOCIENCIA - Ecuador

EcoCiencia, in its 15 years of existence, has worked in several main themes that include ecological and biological research, natural resources management, environmental policies, economic valuation of biodiversity, environmental education, training and interpretation, and biodiversity information managing. Funding generally comes from international sources and has included donors such as the Dutch Government, USAID, the British Government, the MacArthur Foundation and GEF.

The foundation has its headquarters in Quito but works in the whole territory of Ecuador, including the Galapagos. Its involvement with the Paramo ecosystem dates to the first years of its existence but became consolidated in 1996 with the one-year Dutch Government funded project "Perspectives for the Conservation of Paramos in Ecuador"; in collaboration with the Mountain Institute's Andean office. From this experience, among other things a close link with the University of Amsterdam began that resulted in another Dutch Government funded "Proyecto Paramo" (also with the Mountain Institute), which lasted from 1998 to 2001 and produced several participatory management plans in thirteen Paramo pilot sites along the Andean region, an Action Plan for the Ministry of the Environment, an ecological zoning of the ecosystem, a complete data- base and several publications. This project can be seen as the Ecuadorian seed for the Andean Paramo Project that united similar efforts from Venezuela, Colombia and Peru and is currently finishing a PDF-B phase funded by GEF.

EcoCiencia also coordinates the National Paramo Working Group in Ecuador, which brings together approx. 120 institutions from governmental, non-governmental, private and community sectors in an information-exchange and discussion platform that gathers tri-monthly around a selected issue (gender, infrastructure, ecological services and products, policies, forestation, biodiversity, community projects, culture, etc.). These meetings are published through a quarterly publication currently in its 16th installment. Currently its funding comes from the Dutch Government and formerly included resources from the Netherlands Committee for IUCN.

THE MOUNTAIN INSTITUTE - Andean Program, Perú

Among the specific technical capacities of the Andean Program we can mention:

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  Development, validation and publication of participatory methodologies for the planning and design of development integrated conservation projects for the zoning of protected areas, the design of site plans, the participatory elaboration of maps, the territorial code and the design of routes. Use of conflict management methodologies in areas with mining influence.
  
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  Strengthening environmental education in local elementary schools in protected areas.
  
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  Manuals for community based tourism and for range management.
  
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  Guides for the identification of wild plants and wild forage species
  
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  Development of cooperative alliances at regional scales (coordination of groups) and access to diverse international support networks in conservation and sustainable mountain development matters.
  
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  GIS and mountain data bases. Landscape change studies with repeated photography.
  
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  Low cost range management technologies.
  
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  Staff Languages: Spanish, Quechua, English.
  

INSTITUTO DE CIENCIAS AMBIENTALES Y ECOLOGICAS - Universidad de los Andes, Venezuela

During its entire trajectory, the ICAE has been characterized by three essential aspects:

1. The execution of basic ecology projects, oriented towards the resolution of regionally important problems with environmental and social repercussions, integrated in several research lines, with emphasis on Andean environmental problems, tropical and subtropical ecosystems’ functioning, biodiversity conservation and the effect of global changes on these ecosystems.

2. An important scientific production materialized in 175 articles in specialized magazines and 10 books as well as 79 chapters in books, besides the active participation of researchers in congresses, simposia and other scientific meetings of national and international character (more than 460 presentations).

3. Development of programs of international cooperation with institutions of several countries. At the moment, ICAE maintains cooperation projects with the Biodiversity Nets CYTED (Grasslands and Mountains), IAI and the European Union, besides projects financed by CDCHT-ULA, FONACIT, which are developed by 15 ICAE researchers, 4 associate investigators, 5 technicians and two secretaries. Including thesis students and visiting researchers, some 40 people work at the institute.

As results of its 35-year research, the ICAE has become one of the worldwide references on the knowledge about the Paramo ecosystem, with special emphasis on aspects related to biodiversity and functioning, adaptations that allow plants to be successful in the conditions of the cold tropic, restoration dynamics and regeneration of the Paramo, and analysis of the ecological bases for the most important strategies of human management (agriculture and cattle raising).

THE INSTITUTE FOR BIODIVERSITY AND ECOSYSTEM DYNAMICS - University of Amsterdam The Netherlands

Besides the volume of knowledge generated on the diversity, operation and management of ecosystems, a large number of secondary results were achieved in relation to professional education and institutional strengthening. In total, more than a hundred students from Colombia, Mexico, Venezuela, Ecuador, Costa Rica and Brazil have been trained. Recently, in the field of research IBED is developing a long term program (a proposal to the Netherlands Science Organization; NWO) on the dynamics of Andean forests that includes natural processes (diversity, evolutionary history) as well as anthropic processes (deforestation, climatic change, use). In the field of institutional collaboration and the education, IBED is executing a Master Degree program in tropical ecology in Ecuador, Colombia and The Netherlands that will mainly benefit students of Andean countries.

UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN - Unites States of America