"No one keeps hungry. It is very tenacious to say to a peasant: 'here we have an endangered species and that is why it cannot knock it down'. But if you have the family without food and they offer you money for that species, what do you think you prefer? ”
"No one keeps hungry. It is very tenacious to say to a peasant: 'here we have an endangered species and that is why it cannot knock it down'. But if you have the family without food and they offer you money for that species, what do you think you prefer? ”
In this way, Jhonny Carvajal tries to describe the dimension of the work involved in the conservation of the Tuluá and Morales river basins. He is 49 years old and the last ten he has dedicated to knowing a part of the wide territory that these basins cover. According to him, it has been a difficult job, but at the same time rewarding.
“The work in the basins is of a gigantic dimension. The Tuluá and Morales river basins, for example, total 120,000 hectares; but it's not about the number. You just have to imagine that the farthest population from Tuluá is four hours away and they are communities without energy or running water.
How does one get there with the discourse: 'we are going to conserve'? ”
For his fortune and that of 12 other river user associations, his management took a new impetus three years ago, when they joined the Water for Life and Sustainability Fund, led by Asocaña.
From there, the work carried out over the length and breadth of the Bolo, Guabas, Palo, Nima, Amaime, Guadalajara, Desbaratado, Frayle and Zabaletas rivers was consolidated and the results are seen today.
“We went with biologists to the most conserved areas of the basin and with their help and the knowledge of the community we made samples of flora and fauna. Then we exchanged knowledge and began by demonstrating to the population the great wealth that exists and why we should conserve it, ”adds Jhonny, president of the Ríos Tuluá y Morales Foundation.
“In our case, we thought about organizing ourselves through a management plan for the Guabas river basin. It was not easy to get a peasant to think in terms of planning, but in this way we have managed to stop the entry of mega mining, ”says Martha Isabel Tenorio, executive director of Asoguabas.
But just as the results are already beginning to be seen, the recognition of this effort could not be missing. For this reason, last November the Water for Life and Sustainability Fund obtained third place in the BIBO 2012 awards, in the Integrated Management of Water Resources category. Undoubtedly, a boost to those who, like Jhonny, want to continue moving through the 120,000 hectares of their basins with a conservationist message.
“The success of the work carried out by the Fund is that all the processes are carried out by the Associations of Water Users of the different basins, with the particularity that the Associations are important actors in each area and their presence is accepted by the community as they have demonstrated permanence over time ”.
Pedro Moreno
Director of the Water for Life and Sustainability Fund.
