'Crazy' climate forces Colombian farmers to adapt

News24: Once upon a time, farming was a blissfully low-tech business on Colombia's northern plains. The lush tropical climate allowed rice farmers to harvest two or three times a year and protect their crops using little more than scarecrows and slingshots to fend off hungry birds. But recently, climate change has been sowing chaos in their fields.

...In less than a decade, the average minimum temperature for the region has risen 3°C, average relative humidity has shot up to a steamy 85% and rains have become increasingly erratic, alternating between deluge and drought. All that has taken a heavy toll on farmers.

Rice yields in Colombia have fallen from six tonnes per hectare to
five over the past five years because of climate fluctuations, according to national rice-growers' federation Fedearroz, which has 12 000 members. Decreasing yields is a country-wide problem for Colombia, which has 450 000Ha of rice fields and more than 200 towns and villages where growing rice is the main economic activity.

The slide in harvests comes at a delicate time. Under a trade deal with the United States, rice tariffs will be removed in five years in Colombia, a net rice importer. That means the country is likely to be flooded by cheap rice grown in the United States, where production costs are nearly half as much as they are in Colombia.

...Alarmed, two years ago the local office of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, which sponsors research to improve farming practices worldwide, began analyzing crop-related data in Colombia on an unprecedented scale.

From weather forecasts to soil studies to solar radiation measurements, the group churned through numbers with cutting-edge software in a project dubbed "Big Data". It came up with a list of highly localized recommendations for farmers, particularly on the ideal windows for planting.

"Farmers can be reluctant to change the way they traditionally do things, especially when someone from the city comes and tells them what to do. But with climate change they've lost their bearings so they're in distress", said Sylvian Delerce, a French researcher who developed the project....

Flooded Colombian sugar cane fields, shot by CIAT, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under the Creative Commons license 2.0

Colombia can grow economy "through nature without destroying it" - environment vice minister

Anastasia Moloney at the Thomson Reuters Foundation: Colombia must tackle conflicts over land use and look for new ways to extract natural resources while protecting biodiversity as prospectors rush for territory in the country’s rainforests and mountains, says Colombia’s environment vice minister.

One of Latin America’s fastest-growing economies, Colombia is enjoying record foreign investment driven by a commodities boom and improved security. However, it needs to balance this growth and ensure natural resources are exploited in a sustainable way, while protecting indigenous land rights and ecosystems from the Amazon rainforest to Andean mountain glaciers, the vice minister said.

“I think that the development model Colombia has needs to be shifted towards a development model that’s more compatible in terms of how rich we are in natural resources,” Pablo Vieira told Thomson Reuters Foundation in an interview.

“Fifty percent of the country is covered with forests. We are probably the most biodiverse country in the world per hectare. Our economy is not really compatible with that.” The world's fifth-biggest coal producer and Latin America's fourth-largest oil producer, Colombia is attracting rising numbers of oil, coal and mineral companies looking to extract resources for export.

Furthermore, unexplored frontiers could open up and more investors come in if ongoing peace talks between the government and Colombia’s largest rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), succeed in ending 50 years of war.

Vieira urged innovation in the extraction of natural resources – so that it’s not just “cutting forests and extraction”. ..

A forest in Colombia, shot by icolasgalindo, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr,  under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license

Data sharing and joint thinking urged for Amazonia

Zoraida Portillo in SciDev.net: Countries in the Amazon region need better data sharing and a more holistic view of development if they are to avoid conflicts and costs relating to key resources such as water over the next 50 years, experts warn.

A report making recommendations for a new, international security agenda for the Amazon, says the region’s nations should link-up and circulate data on water, energy, health and food security to ensure sustainable development and tackle challenges posed by changes in climate and land use. A failure to do so, it says, could lead to far greater economic and social disruption in the mid-term and create unprecedented challenges for South America’s political leaders.

“The data exist, but are very fragmented,” says Andy Jarvis, a programme leader at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), and an author of the report released by CIAT and think-tank the Global Canopy Programme last month (17 December). The report was developed with input from science experts and political leaders from Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru.

According to Jarvis, existing data on matters crucial for the region’s future security are out of date, and there is a lack of a consistent monitoring on issues such as access to water, energy and health. Where there are data, the links between these issues, or between data collected at a regional, national or international level, are missing, he adds.

Jarvis also laments the disjointed approach to development in the region, with resource extraction currently dominating the development agenda, instead of efforts to deliver sustainable and holistic progress....

An Orange-winged Amazon near Yarina Lodge, Napo Province, Ecuador. Shot by Geoff Gallice, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license

Amazon forest loss risks water security across South America

Paul Brown in the Ecologist: ... The combination of industrial and agricultural pollution and droughts is creating a once unthinkable vulnerability for the five countries of Amazonia. The continued destruction of the Amazon to exploit its resources for mining, agriculture and hydro-power is threatening the future of the South American continent, according to a report by campaigning groups using the latest scientific data.

Five countries - Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru - share the Amazon, and for all of them the forest area occupies more than 40% of their territory. All face threats to their water supply, energy production, food and health.

In addition, the report says, because of the over-exploitation of the region rainfall will fall by 20% over a heavily-populated area far to the south of Amazonia known as the La Plata basin, covering parts of Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay.

Last month it was reported that deforestation in Amazonia had increased by almost a third in the past year, with an area equal to 50 football pitches destroyed every minute since 2000. The report, the Amazonia Security Agenda, authored by the Global Canopy Programme and CIAT, the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture, says the prosperity of the region is based on the abundance of water.

"Amazonia's abundant natural resources underpin water, food, energy, and health security for the economy and people of the region and far beyond", the report states. "At the heart of this nexus of securities is water. So abundant in the region, but now under increasing threat as industrial pollution increases, and unprecedented droughts reveal a once unthinkable water vulnerability."...

A river boat on the Amazon, shot by Pontanegra, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license 

Innovative report calls for a new security agenda for Amazonia

Digital Journal via PRWEB UK:  In a report released today, the Global Canopy Programme and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture call for a new security agenda for Amazonia and its countries. One that focuses not only on national security in a traditional sense, but acts to strengthen the fundamental underpinnings of a flourishing society: sustained access to water, energy, food and good health for all.

Manuel Pulgar, Minister of Environment for Peru (host country of the UNFCCC Climate Change Summit COP 20 – December 2014) said, “Climate change is a global problem, but one that will multiply local and regional problems in unforeseeable ways. In Latin America, we have taken Amazonia and its seemingly limitless water and forests as a given. But recent unprecedented droughts have shown us just what happens when that water security falters: it impacts food and energy production, it affects the wellbeing of entire populations, and it leaves governments and businesses with a big bill to pay. The science is clear, so we cannot afford to miss the opportunity for positive action now.”

The report, developed with input from science experts and political leaders from Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, lays out initial recommendations as building blocks for dialogue and action in each of these countries. Since Amazonia’s ecosystems are shared between countries, there is also a need for governments to collaborate on coordinated responses to these shared risks.

Carlos Klink, Brazil’s National Secretary for Climate Change and Environmental Quality, said: “We are understanding more and more how interdependent water, food, energy and health security are across our continent. There is also interdependence between the countries that share the Amazon, which recycles trillions of tons of water that all our people and economies rely on. The challenge that we are just beginning to recognise and act upon is one of transitioning to a more sustainable economy - one that values the role of a healthy Amazonia in underpinning long-term security and prosperity.”...

A NASA image of the Amazon River near Manaus. You can see Fitzcarraldo!

Increasing of protected area does not necessarily lead to proportional improvement in ecosystem conservation

Pensoft Publishers: The Orinoco River flows from the Andes in Colombia to the Atlantic in Venezuela. The area of the basin includes landscapes of the Andes, plains of the Llanos and the Guiana shield. Orinoco's tributary rivers form a basin considered to be the 3rd most important river system on the planet, and one of the most biologically diverse areas of the world.

Colombia has shown a strong commitment to the achievement of the Convention on Biological Diversity's 2010 biodiversity target, by promoting the conservation of at least 10% of its natural ecosystems. Protected Area categories in Colombia are undergoing a standardization process that should enhance the country's capacity to protect its ecosystems. It has been examined how the legislation and the civil society's initiatives help in the conservation of natural ecosystems in the Colombian Orinoco Basin.

Just recently the Ministry of Environment passed a decree to standardize the Protected Area categories and to organize the National System of Protected Areas. More than 100 protected areas and more than 100 indigenous reserves have been established in the Colombian Orinoco Basin over the last six decades. However, the only strictly protected areas in Colombia are the National Natural Parks System Areas, which protect only 10% of the area of natural ecosystems and less than 50% of the natural ecosystems in the Basin. Indigenous Reserves help significantly in the conservation of the natural ecosystems in the Basin, but are not a Protected Area category, making it difficult for indigenous groups to assist with natural conservation in Colombia.

Some areas in the Llanos eco-region have lost up to 1/4 of their woody vegetation cover in the last decade. The natural savannas have been destroyed at an annual rate of more than 1,000 km² and converted to pastures and oil palm plantations. Some areas have management problems, such as the lack of control on the population growth inside the parks and the unsustainable use of the resources. Burning occurs more often in the natural savannas inside Indigenous Reserves than in private ranches. Private ranches dedicated to cattle farming on native vegetation tend to burn less often than other areas in this region. This might be a good indicator of the high-quality management capacity of private landowners....

A falls on the Orinoco, shot by Fev, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

Colombian river basin passes the test of El Niño and La Niña

Constanza Vieira  in IPS via Tierramérica: Patricia Gómez, an engineer, is leading a training workshop for a group of 11 men at the fire station in Neiva, the capital of the department of Huila in southwest Colombia....  Gómez is demonstrating the Integrated Hydrometeorological Monitoring and Early Warning Network for the Las Ceibas River Basin (RIMAC), a high-technology system for disaster prevention in real time.

The Las Ceibas River is both a source of life and a source of disasters.  The river is the sole source of water for the city of Neiva. But deforestation and slash-and-burn agriculture, a traditional peasant farming practice that wreaks havoc on the Andean mountain slopes, have led ever larger amounts of sediments to run into the river, deteriorating water quality and increasing the risk of landslides.

When the river overflows, it floods the poor neighbourhoods of the city, located on the riverbanks. At the training workshop on RIMAC, Gómez shows the firefighters how the effects of the heavy rains in the city earlier in the day are reflected on screen.

A table of indicators, produced with data sent every five minutes by sensors installed at different points along the river basin, shows that the rainstorm resulted in the highest water level in the river so far this month: 2.36 metres.

The RIMAC network currently encompasses eight monitoring stations, but will eventually extend to 22, as part of an inter-institutional project coordinated by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) that has been underway for four and a half years....

The Las Ceibas River passing through Neiva, shot by Seamless20, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

Hydropower threatens Andes–Amazon link

Gayathri Vaidyanathan in Nature: Out of some 151 dams proposed for the Amazon river system, more than half will sever the connectivity between the Amazon lowlands and headwaters in the Andes mountains, according to the latest study. The unimpeded flow of the river over the past 10 million years is thought to have fuelled the extraordinary biodiversity of the Amazon ecosystem1.

The finding follows decisions to prioritize hydropower development in the countries that share the Amazon tributaries, including Bolivia, Columbia, Peru, Brazil and Ecuador. As many as 48 dams that produce at least two megawatts of power each are already in place, and there are plans to triple that number by 2030. Peru, especially, is aggressively pursuing hydropower in cooperation with Brazil.

The study, published in the journal PLoS ONE2, is the first to evaluate the impact of all proposed dams on the six Amazon river basins across five countries, together with associated projects to construct road and power lines. Previous impact assessments focused only on individual projects and country-level impacts.

This kind of analysis “has been needed for a long time to take a comprehensive view of the Amazon basin”, says Robert Naiman, a river ecologist at the University of Washington in Seattle.

The study began in 2010 when Matt Finer, a staff ecologist at Save America’s Forests in Washington DC, and his colleague Clinton Jenkins, of North Carolina State University in Raleigh, acquired data on the locations of proposed dams from government ministries in all five nations. The information included their power-generation capacities and their requirements for roads and electric grids....

Lock number one under construction at Tucurui Dam in Brazil, shot by Luis Felipe Paulinyi, Wikimedia Commons, public domain

Thriving microfinance sector strengthens Colombia’s economy

Andrew Berger in TriplePundit: Bakeries, food and clothing vendors, stalls, stands and restaurants, consumer electronics shops, barber and tailor shops, taxi and bus drivers, they’re all beneficiaries of a thriving micro-finance industry in Colombia, one of any number of nations where finding, or creating, employment is difficult at best, and obtaining steady, well-paid work even more so.

Nearly 50% of Colombia’s 46 million citizens live below the poverty line. Micro-finance organizations such as Colombians Supporting Colombians (CAC) are giving entrepreneurs a leg up by providing micro-loans and other banking services that conventional banks are unwilling to offer. Some $3.5 billion in micro-credit was disbursed in 2010 to more than 2 million borrowers.

There are more than 1.2 million so-called micro-enterprises doing business in Colombia, along with small businesses making up an astonishing 96% of all companies in the country and employing 50% of national employment, according to a Vision Economica report. ...

Micro- and small businesses “generally do not meet the requirements set by commercial banks, which do not lend money to people with limited economic resources either, due to the risk of default,” Jorge Varón, manager of the development credit fund of Colombians Supporting Colombians (CAC) program, told Helda Martinez of the InterPress News Service...

An open-air market in Tacueyo, Colomgia, shot by Juan Sebastián Ramírez Navas, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license

La Niña and global warming blamed as torrential rains swamp Colombia

Marie Delcas in the Guardian (UK) via Le Monde: It has never rained so much in Colombia. "Over the past 10 months we have registered five or six times more rainfall than usual," says weather specialist Ricardo Lozano. Torrential rain and flooding have affected more than three-quarters of the country. The most recent Red Cross bulletin reports 425 fatalities and 3 million disaster victims.

With 12,000 homes destroyed and 356,000 damaged, thousands of people have had to move out, taking refuge in temporary shelters. More than 1m hectares of land are underwater. "But the disaster prevention system worked," Lozano adds, saving between 5,000 and 10,000 lives.

Colombia is known for its heavy rain and apparent lack of seasons, but this year the downpour has been almost continuous. The mountains are sodden, so runoff flows down the slopes to fill rivers, which flood the plains and coastal areas. Mudslides have damaged the precarious road system. At 2,500 metres above sea level even the vast Sabana plain, on which the capital Bogotá is built, is partly flooded. Food prices are going up and the drainage system is completely saturated, with the risk of a dengue epidemic.

This is mainly the fault of La Niña, a cyclical weather system. "It used to occur once every five to six years, but it is increasingly frequent and severe due to global warming," says Lozano. The current spell of bad weather is expected to last another two months.

The authorities are also culprits. "They have allowed corrupt politicians, cattle breeders, mining companies, logging firms, drug traffickers and property developers to destroy woods and wetlands, and wreck river basins," says the economist Roberto Arango. "They have tolerated rampant social inequality, so the poorest people must live in hazardous areas."…

From November 2010, as photographed from 220 miles above Earth by an Expedition 25 crew member in the orbiting International Space Station, this building cumulonimbus cloud is over the rain forest area of east central Colombia

Colombia launches major emergency operations after floods

Terra Daily via AFP: Some 160,000 Colombian police officers and 52 aircraft are participating in emergency operations following deadly floods that killed 67 people and caused widespread damage, officials said Monday. The police are focusing on rescue, evacuation, food distribution, security at shelters, manning state roads and other emergencies, according to a statement from the police directorate.

Heavy rains that battered Colombia this month have so far left 67 dead, 36 wounded and eight missing, while another 98,000 were injured and 183 homes were destroyed. …The heavy rains, triggered by the La Nina weather phenomenon, have caused damage in 28 of the country's 32 departments, and have blocked 16 major roads due to landslides. Some have collapsed entirely….

Map of Colombia by Marburi96, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported

Colombian Amazon village bans prying tourists

Terra Daily via AFP: Just off the Amazon River, lies the village of Nazareth. But don't think about dropping by. Tired of being a curiosity to the outside world, the indigenous people have banned tourists.Thousands of adventurous, backpacking tourists flock to southern Colombia every year, drawn by eco-tourism and the hope of interacting with the peoples who live and commune with the Amazon jungle following age-old traditions.

The Colombian Amazon, a peninsula sandwiched between Brazil and Peru, is famed for its spectacular flora and fauna, some of the most varied on the planet. Last year 35,000 tourists poured into the region to swing with the monkeys, swim with the famed pink dolphins that frolic in the Amazon waters or to fish for piranhas.

But here in Nazareth, guards armed with their traditional sticks stand ready to deter unwelcome visitors. And the very few who are invited to visit with the community of about 800 residents must register with the guards and show an ID. The village, reached by a 20-minute boatride from the nearest town of Leticia, has been off-limits to visitors for the past two years.

…Nazareth's actions reveal a split among the indigenous communities that live along the river about what role tourism should play in the region's development. With the rise of eco-tourism, the Amazon has seen a flood of travelers arriving to experience the world's most biologically diverse region.

The Amazon River about95 km upstream of Tabatinga/Leticia (Frontier Colombia-Peru. A satellite image from NASA

Heavy rains continue as Colombia seeks to aid flood victims

Chris Kraul in the Los Angeles Times: Even as the government struggled to get emergency relief to thousands of flood victims, torrential rains continued to batter northern Colombia on Wednesday, adding to the misery caused by one of the worst natural disasters in this nation's modern history. Weeks of rainfall — and the breach of an important canal levee — has caused flooding that has killed 257 people and affected more than 1.9 million residents, or nearly 5% of the population. An exact count of those left homeless by water damage in several parts of Colombia was unavailable, but the total is believed to be in the tens of thousands.

…Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa arrived in Cali on Wednesday to offer help and inspect flood damage with Santos. The two leaders also announced the imminent restoration of diplomatic relations, which were severed after Colombian troops invaded Ecuador in 2008 to kill a rebel leader.

Government estimates of damages run up to $5 billion. More than 320,000 schoolchildren are without classrooms, and 1.5 million acres of farmland and cattle pastures have been inundated. Dozens of roads and bridges have been washed out. Officials in Cartagena said this week that most roads leading into the northern port city were closed.

Meteorologists said El Niño conditions call for heavy rains to continue through February. Health officials alerted hospitals and clinics to the possible outbreak of disease among victims exposed to the elements and scarcities of food and clean water….

Rains leave rising death toll in Colombia, Venezuela

Terra Daily via AFP: The toll from weeks of heavy rains across Colombia has risen to 174 people dead and over 1.5 million homeless, the Colombian Red Cross said Saturday. And in neighboring Venezuela to the east, driving rains have triggered flooding and cave-ins that have killed 34 people over the past week and left an estimated 73,000 people homeless nationwide, officials said.

In Colombia, 225 people have been injured and 19 were missing, Colombian Red Cross deputy director of operations Cesar Uruena told reporters. A total of 1,821 homes have been damaged or destroyed. "We've never had this many people affected by the rainy season," he added, noting that the punishing rains were hitting 95 percent of the country.

Some regions, including southwestern Valle del Cauca department, saw more than 12 hours of non-stop rain. More than a dozen mudslides blocked roads from Valle's capital Cali to the Pacific port town of Buenaventura, stranding hundreds of trucks and passenger vehicles….

Map of Colombia and Venezuela by NormanEinstein, Wikimedia Commons, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license