The kick-off meeting of the inception and planning phase of the Sustainable and Climate Resilient Management of High Andean Ecosystems (HAME) project was held on 20 May at the Ministry of the Environment, chaired by Yamina Silva Vidal, Deputy-Minister for the Strategic Development of Natural Resources of the Ministry of the Environment. She shared the stage with Anton Hilber, SDC Director of SDC in Peru and the Andean Region; Mauricio Cerna, consultant of the OAS Water Programme and coordinator of the new regional initiative; Jocelyn Ostolaza, SDC National Programme Officer; Karen Price, Head of the Technical Secretariat of the Andean Mountain Initiative (CONDESAN); and Christian Huggel and Fabian Drenkahn, glaciologists from the University of Zurich and project researchers.

High Andean ecosystems, such as glaciers, wetlands and moorlands, are under increasing pressure from the expansion of agriculture, informal mining and other human activities. At the same time, climate change puts additional pressure on water availability, and affects the occurrence of natural disasters, such as landslides or glacial lake outburst floods.

In view of this, Switzerland, through the SDC’s Global Climate Change and Environment Programme, is promoting the regional Sustainable and Climate-Resilient Management of High Andean Ecosystems initiative. The initiative’s main objective is to increase the resilience of high Andean ecosystems in strategic watersheds in Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru to the effects of climate change and changes in land cover and land use through the conservation and sustainable use of these ecosystems and their provisioning and regulating services. The project is implemented by a Consortium formed by the University of Zurich, the Consortium for the Development of the Andean Ecoregion (CONDESAN) and the General Secretariat of the Organization of American States (OAS), through the Water Programme of its Department of Sustainable Development.

A regional intervention strategy

With an integrated management focus on strategic and representative basins in the region, the programme will operate in the priority countries through three components: i) knowledge generation, ii) solutions under a multi-purpose and nature-based approach and iii) governance, policy and investment.

There is more information about this new initiative in this link.