Instituto Mayor Campesino (IMCA), Colombia

Final report
General overview of the project
Objectives and expected outputs
Strengths of project implementation
Other important elements
Recommendations for a second phase.

Progress Reports

General overview of the project

Methodological framework  

The methodology used by the CBDC Project in Colombia has three basic elements:
  • Dealing with biodiversity as widely as possible, as all its components are interdependent and contribute to local welfare and sustainability.
  • Recuperation and exchange of local knowledge on biodiversity
  • Influencing local schools as a tool for strengthening local knowledge

Objectives and expected outputs

Objective 1:

A higher level of utilization of biodiversity by participating communities.

Most participating communities are now using more biodiversity, especially for food and medicinal purposes. Medicinal plants most commonly used augmented from 15 to 30. Among food plants, sidra and arracacha were the most widely re-activated. Reactivation was reached mainly through a much wider exchange of plant resources, and a stronger interest provoked by the promotion of new and old (partially abandoned) uses. Testimonies by participating communities also indicate that local genetic resources are now better appreciated, and that communities are aware of the role they can play in the conservation of biodiversity, specially through the exchange of seeds and knowledge.

The use of local genetic resources did not become part of development plans, but participating families have incorporated diversification and use of local genetic resources to their farms.

The project was presented to local communities, but no special management groups were formed. Participation in the project was channeled through already exisiting groups.

The participatory farming-system and community appraisals were highly useful to identify resources of common or general interest to start the processes of seed and information exchange that led to a higher level of utilization and valuing of local genetic resources.

Objective 2:

A higher level of autonomy among participating communities to use, conserve and develop genetic resources.

Local groups have undertaken conservation, utilization and exchange activities related to the use of local genetic resources, although not always as formally or as permanently as initially planned. Local information on techniques have been recuperated and reactivated through these groups. Local groups or families tested, multiplied and disseminated.

Objective 3:

Local schools actively support local processes of recuperation, conservation and development of genetic resources.

The support by local schools was often provided, but it was not constant and depended to a high degree upon the personal interest of school teachers. The information generated by the project was sporadically used in some of the schools in the project area, but the issues around local biodiversity were not incorporated into the core contents of courses. No local school created a permanent group to support the work of the community around biodiversity and genetic resources.

Objective 4:

To produce information that can be used to support, improve, and/or multiply the experience developed by this project.

A significant amount of information was retrieved and returned to communities through local workshops and training materials. There is information on local storage, selection and breeding techniques, as well as on methodologies for carrying out conservation work. Much of this information has been used during the final months of this phase as well as for planning the coming phase. However, there is still important information that needs to be systematized further and made available to communities.

Strengths of Project implementation

  • To take communities (and not single families and farms) as the project site, because this allows to coordinate different actors, different resources and different forms of action, hence allowing a greater potential impact.
  • To work with existing groups within participating communities, as it allowed a more dynamic participation without having to invest significant efforts in formalizing a project steering group, as initially planned.
  • Seed exchange has become an important element for the recuperation and dissemination of genetic resources and related knowledge, working as an alternative to local seed banks.
  • Different publications made by the project have allowed participating communities to appropriate different forms of knowledge –including local one- and to disseminate such knowledge to other spaces.
  • Promoting the participation of groups working with medicinal plants in local and regional fairs allowed that this experience be known and followed by other communities and institutions.
  • To shift the emphasis from local schools as main actors to supporting actors within participating communities enabled the project to take advantage of the important role of schools at the local level, without depending on difficult and unpredictable institutional processes.

Other important elements

Institutional
  • The project has been and continues to be an important learning process on methodologies and conceptual frameworks for IMCA and its staff.
  • Continuous staff changes made implementation less coherent regarding approaches and methodologies.
  • The initial lack of experience in biodiversity conservation of many staff members, and the fact that they did not participate in the planning of the project, made implementation specially difficult in its first stages.
  • The experience built by implementing the CBDC project strengthened our view that any sustainable initiative on rural development must include the use and conservation of biodiversity.
Contextual

Some contextual aspects that have affected the development of the project are:
  • Several changes of staff members within public and governmental organizations interrupted or hindered processes of reaching institutional agreements fro a wider implementation of biodiversity activities.
  • Growing violence in the project area has generated uncertainty, fear and migration of farming communities, damaging their participation in the project.
Conceptual and methodological

Shifting the role of local schools from a central to a supportive status is considered an important methodological adjustment to existing conditions.

The exchange of different forms of local knowledge ("saberes") has become one of the most important ways of socializing information and recuperating farmers’ techniques for the use and conservation of biodiversity. An important part of this methodology has been to organize "encuentros de custodios" (meetings of stewards); these meetings function as opportunities for training and dialoguing among farmers. Stewards are those farmers who are considered outstanding in their management of local genetic resources. These meetings have involved farmers working with the CBDC as well as with other projects, thus enriching the exchange of information and knowledge.

Recuperating medicinal and food uses has been critical for recuperating genetic resources themselves.

The project had a limited capacity to influence policy processes related to genetic resources, because it did not participate in wider discussions.

Recommendations for a second phase

  • The planning of the second phase should take results and lessons of the first phase into account.
  • Outputs for the second phase should indicate a clear advancement over the first phase
  • Support and monitoring form the regional Coordination should be permanent and place emphasis in reaching project objectives.
  • A permanent dialogue with other CBDC Projects should allow the exchange of experiences and a better development of the project.