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Participatory rural appraisal of ecosystem services of wetlands in the Amazonian Piedmont of Colombia: elements for a sustainable management concept

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Abstract

Considering the rapid changes in land use in tropical countries and the difficulties of law enforcement in remote areas, management of ecosystems benefits from the landscape approach. Within the landscape approach it is important to assess the different livelihoods of the local populations, as well as the vulnerability of the ecosystems that are supporting these livelihoods. Specifically for wetlands in rural tropical areas that face fast developing agro-industrial land use change, there is little information available on the attitude of stakeholders considering the ecosystems they manage. We used a combination of participatory rural appraisal and participatory mapping methods on rural wetlands in the Amazonian Piedmont region in Colombia, an area that has hardly ever been studied. We found that 77.7 % of the current livelihoods depend directly on the provisioning ecosystem services delivered by the wetlands, where fishing and hunting are the most important services that contribute to the household income. Ecotourism, which is emerging as a promising source of income, was also pointed as one key ecosystem service. However, our results revealed that the wetlands in our study area are very vulnerable (up to 41 % endangered). The main causes for wetland deterioration were cattle ranching, invasive grasses, deforestation, drainage, and burning. We conclude with a brief overview on the pros and cons of reconciling wetland conservation and human development in sensitive regions such as the Amazonian Piedmont in Colombia and other similar regions in the Tropics.

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Acknowledgments

This study was founded through Instituto Amazónico de Investigaciones Científicas Sinchi and Ramsar Convention on Wetlands (Small Grants Fund, Project SGF/00/COL/1). Especially we thank Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Sciences and Technology, EAWAG and German Academic Exchange Service, DAAD (LFR). Publication # 4 of the UNESCO Chair on River Culture (KMW). We would like to thank Alexander Velásquez-Valencia, curator of the Museo de Historia Natural de la Universidad de la Amazonia, Florencia, for scientific support. The comments by the associated editor, four anonymous reviewers, and Luis Cayetano of EAWAG, Duebendorf, Switzerland helped to improve the manuscript. We are indebted to all local people and researchers who participated in this project.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Aquatic Ecology, Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Sciences and Technology, EAWAG, Duebendorf, Switzerland

    Luisa Fernanda Ricaurte & Jukka Jokela

  2. Institute of Integrative Biology, IBZ, ETH-Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

    Luisa Fernanda Ricaurte & Jukka Jokela

  3. UNESCO Chair for River Culture (Fleuve et Patrimoine), Interdisciplinary Research Center for Cities, Territories, Environment and Society (CITERES-CNRS UMR 7324), Université François Rabelais, Parc Grandmont, 37200, Tours, France

    Karl Matthias Wantzen

  4. Instituto Amazónico de Investigaciones Científicas SINCHI, Avenida Vásquez Cobo entre 15 y 16, Leticia and calle 17 No. 11-67, Florencia, Colombia

    Edwin Agudelo & Bernardo Betancourt

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  1. Luisa Fernanda Ricaurte
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  2. Karl Matthias Wantzen
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  3. Edwin Agudelo
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  5. Jukka Jokela
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Correspondence to Luisa Fernanda Ricaurte.

Appendices

Appendix 1

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Table 3 List of plants reported by the participants at the workshops
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Appendix 2

See Table 4.

Table 4 List of the animals reported by the participants at the workshops
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Ricaurte, L.F., Wantzen, K.M., Agudelo, E. et al. Participatory rural appraisal of ecosystem services of wetlands in the Amazonian Piedmont of Colombia: elements for a sustainable management concept. Wetlands Ecol Manage 22, 343–361 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11273-013-9333-3

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