Confronting the climate - water - biodiversity interactions : how rural communities can choose to become sustainable

The project aims to enhance the sustainable development of rural and dispersed communities living in tropical dry areas of Colombia. Reaching that goal requires a firm understanding of the climate-water-biodiversity interactions.

We use groundwater resources as a laboratory to study these interactions in ten communities that manage their commons through self-governance models.

Groundwater resources are common pool resources (CPR), and the risk of overexploitation is high, leading to the decline of “ecosystem services”.Given the complexity of the interactions and the urgency of response, we expect that cooperation is a real challenge to planning for and addressing sustainable solutions.

The project will address the deficits in knowledge through participatory cartography, customary law diagnostic tools, and field-framed experiments on water extraction caps.

The window of opportunity is closing rapidly, and these communities stand alone in their adaptation strategies to climate change. However, they are central to Colombia´s effort to conserve and restore tropical dry forests.

Colombia declared the tropical dry forest a top priority for conservation and restoration and called for the restoration of one million hectares by 2035.

Consequently, the project will strengthen the knowledge base for decision-making for communities and other stakeholders, support local capacity building within and outside their communities, and stimulate their policy and societal engagement