Field work - Conservation International

Freshwater Field Work 

© CI/Photo by John Martin 
© CI/Photo by John Martin 
Our projects 

To ensure the development of successful, replicable strategies to conserve the ecosystem services provided by freshwater systems and other ecosystems, CI and our partners are implementing pilot projects in different regions. These projects integrate science and natural resource management to inform policy and land-use decisions regarding dam development, agricultural development, watershed management, and tourism development.

Results are also translated into conservation plans, habitat restoration actions, and sustainable landscape designs to demonstrate and help pay for conserving biodiversity and maintaining ecological functions across terrestrial and aquatic biomes.

These projects are testing the extent to which standardized approaches are possible across different contexts and provide insights on how our ecosystem services and freshwater approaches can be adapted to varying sociopolitical, economic and cultural contexts.

The following are some highlights from CI’s field projects around the world.

 
 
In October 2007 our scientists were able to conduct a biological survey of Virachey National Park, one of Cambodia’s most unique protected areas. 
 
Freshwater resources around China’s town of Lijiang are in short supply. This audio report demonstrates our partnerships that are ensuring water forever runs through the ancient town.
 
CI is working with local partners to protect the critical groundwater system of the Yucatan Peninsula.  Beneath the Yucatan Peninsula is an underground system of streams and lakes so vast it contains about 25 percent of Mexico’s total fresh water supply.
 
  • In the Philippines, we are mapping and assessing deforestation and risk/hazard probabilities within catchments to identify areas critical for the maintenance of water supplies for people and ecological functions for species. The results are being used to create a sustainable development plan for the Eastern Mindanao Biodiversity Conservation Corridor.

  • We are working with Wetlands International–South Asia to develop scenarios linking lake water levels and maintenance of critical habitat areas in India’s Keibul Lamjao National Park that will be translated into an optimal water allocation plan. This plan will ensure the maintenance of habitats and fish migration routes (upon which 200,000 fisherman depend for survival), as well as hydropower generation and agricultural and domestic uses of water;

  • We are working in the Abiseo-Cóndor-Kutukú Conservation Corridor in the Andes to define ways to conserve watersheds and manage land uses. Activities include predicting the potential for forest-carbon investment, identifying connectivity potential between key biodiversity areas for larger-ranging species (e.g., the spectacled bear), and mapping and quantifying development trends (settlements and population, current and proposed roads, mining concessions, and other infrastructure projects). A proposed land-use plan and financing strategy will be ready for discussion and negotiation with local stakeholders and regional management authorities in fiscal year 2009.

  • In Cambodia, we are identifying freshwater priority areas or key biodiversity areas that must be protected to prevent the extinction of globally threatened freshwater species; developing freshwater sanctuaries that would be supported and co-managed by local communities to protect areas where a high concentration of biodiversity intersects heavy human reliance on fish protein; projecting the impacts of a series of proposed dams on both communities and biodiversity; and evaluating the economic value of intact forests for dam operators (through controlling water flows and reducing sedimentation) to assess the potential to fund forest conservation through fees on hydropower facilities.

  • In Mexico, we are identifying areas of zero extinction in the northern Mexican desert (), where one or more species that do not exist anywhere else on the planet are found in small pools; and we are conducting an integrated resource management project in the Yucatan Peninsula that includes an assessment of species in the underground cave system that supplies water resources to coastal tourism and 25 percent of Mexico’s citizens. We are also partnering with Amigos de Sian Ka’an and the Coral Reef Alliance to develop guidelines to help cruise lines and hotels reduce water use and ensure adequate sewage treatment.

  • We are working with relief agencies and corporations in Guatemala to restore watersheds and ensure freshwater provision and payment for water services for community residents in the Sierra de Las Minas region.

  • We are working in the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area in Australia, one of 35 basins discharging into the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area, to understand ridge-to-reef flows. The modeling approach being developed will be transferable to other regions and will prompt policy initiatives such as payment-for-water-quality programs for tour operators who are affected by sedimentation and nutrient deposition.

  • In Africa, we are working in the Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area, which crosses Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Some 2 million rural people depend on ecosystem services in this 300,000 km2 area. We are identifying vulnerabilities and strategies for enhancing ecosystem resilience and human adaptation to different climate change scenarios, and providing recommendations on the allocation of scarce conservation resources toward ensuring adequate protection of key priority habitats, natural resources, and ecosystem services.

  • Finally, in the Sichuan province in China, we are estimating values of water provision, carbon, and biodiversity and have identified a potential payment-for-ecosystem-services plan in which water users pay a water usage fee to cover conservation actions within a park. The Ecological Compensation Fund was also established to rehabilitate habitat and preserve watershed services, including water availability for downstream users, and give upstream villagers a way to earn income.
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