📋 Tender Overview
The following two projects funded by IDB together with NDF show how early warning systems are helping small farmers in Latin America prepare and adapt to volatile and extreme weather patterns related to climate change with far-reaching results1. Proadapt Gran Chaco Argentina Paraguay BoliviaThe hot semi-arid area of Gran Chaco which spans Paraguay Argentina and Bolivia and the Brazilian Mato Grosso has been described as one of the most isolated places on earth. The farms themselves are spread very far apart recalls Carmen Lacambra Director of Research and Environmental Services at Grupo Laera who visited the area as an evaluator. Some farmers might have 200 hectares of land for running less than 40 cows.Farmers in the region experience unpredictable rainfall characterised by severe flooding which threatens crops livestock and even human lives. Small areas can experience large amounts of rain sometimes in a very short time says Proadapt Project Coordinator Mauricio Moresco. And our meteorological stations separated by vast distances cant capture all of the data in time for communities to prepare for the onset of floods. Building an appWorking with peers from inside affected communities Proadapt Gran Chaco set out to address this problem. The first step was to get shared access to meteorological information from more than 150 measurement stations across the three countries while identifying the remote areas where locals would need to contribute by collecting rainfall data themselves.As well as local radio and cell phone communication including a WhatsApp group the project has also developed its own specialised app managed by community leaders to alert farmers and their families of approaching weather hazards. Originally the project was aiming for a very high-tech information platform but they were held back by the fact that many farmers didnt have access to running water or electricity let alone phone or Internet connections. So instead the early warning system evolved into a more traditional approach using radio and some Internet services such as a WhatsApp group with 150 registered users as well as the app. When the farmers in the group visited settlement areas they can get online and upload information to mobile devices. Lifesaving results The App group did quite well says Lacambra. During the 2018 rainy season when it rained a lot and the waters rose thanks to the early warning systems the losses in terms of cattle as well as income was significantly reduced.And not a single life was lost Moresco stresses. Roads were reportedly submerged scores of homes were toppled or buried by heavy mudslides but more than 10000 people and half a million cattle were successfully evacuated. An unpredictable riverThe Pilcomayo which flows over more than 1000 km of the region and borders all three countries is at the centre of these weather disasters. Its a river that carries very high volumes of sediments in the order of 90 to 160 million tons per year and is continually building its own riverbed clogging itself by dropping the sediments in its own bed raising it again and again to fill it. When this happens the channel no longer has the capacity to transport incoming water and takes another course. The river doesnt want to go that way anymore now he wants to go there is the anthropized way the locals describe the Pilcomayo.Getting to know this river better was another major step in the project. We did this by developing risk maps Moresco explains. Using information from the communities as well as historical satellite imagery. This was no easy task the risk map of the lower river basin alone covers an area of approximately 50000 square kilometres. However at the centre of this information gathering was anthropologist Luis Maria de la Cruz who has spent his professional life on the Pilcomayo living with indigenous communities and observing the rivers changing twists and turns. This is much more than just computer modelling Lacambra insists but the result of real knowledge from the field particularly from Luis Maria who knows the region the communities living of it and affected by it and has walked the Pilcomayo he knows the river. More than just a disaster alertThe app has evolved into a knowledge sharing system that goes beyond just preparing for disaster.People are much more aware now of the need to adapt to climate change with new practices and tools for how to raise livestock and how to make the best use of water and were using the app to share this knowledge Moresco says.Proadapt Gran Chaco visualised the role of climate for a lot of people who werent previously thinking about climate in El Chaco Lacambra affirms. Describing it as the first project of its kind in this area to even talk about how climate viability impacts people productivity and livelihoods.Strength through local ownershipIt began as an umbrella project focused on the weather and the river but along the way it began to ask other questions like what else could we do instead of cattle and so they brought in beekeeping and organic honey. Then the project reached cities which didnt have adaptation plans and now nine cities already have plans. It is strengthening resilience because its touching institutions its touching sectors and its touching people on the ground. Lacambra cant resist praising the strength of the projects implementing staff. These are not consultants who were parachuted in from somewhere else. These are organizations from three different countries working together and supporting each other. The people driving this project forward are Bolivian Argentinean and Paraguayan experts and professionals. Their work will continue because they have strong links to this land several of them live on this land and they love this land.
