Project Summary
Countries: Colombia, Dominican Republic
Delivery Partner: University of Lincoln
Project Partners: Fundación Herencia Ambiental Caribe, Centro Recuperación de Ecosistemas Acuáticos – Fundación CREACUA, Parques Nacionales, Colombia, The Nature Conservancy, Fondo Agua Yaque del Norte, Inc
Principle Investigator: Dr Luca Mao, Programme Leader, University of Lincoln
Project Summary
Tropical river floodplains host precious biodiversity but are affected by a range of human impacts at the scale of basin and river networks such as forest clearcut, excessive erosion, sediment mining, and occupancy of flood-prone areas. Floodplains tend to host deprived communities increasingly exposed to flooding risks due to climate change.
The project aims at breaking the vicious circle of unhealthy fluvial ecosystems driving livelihood losses, exacerbated by climate change that increases flooding and droughts. The project couples dialogue with local/Indigenous communities and stakeholders, advanced modelling tools, and field data collection. It will develop an evidence-based, bottom-up, and scalable new paradigm of floodplain use that reduces the impacts on the eco-geomorphological diversity of rivers while improving the use of the floodplains to increase the sustainable production of food.
The concept will be tested in two study sites where local households and stakeholders will reduce their impacts on the eco-geomorphological diversity of rivers while improving livelihoods. This will be accomplished by creating pilot green gardens in safe portions of the floodplain to secure an income for households (in Colombia), and by including improved ecosystem services into water security investments (in Dominican Republic). The outcomes will profit local communities and will increase ecosystem services for the benefit of humanity.