MANAGEMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL ACTION PROJECTS WITH VULNERABLE COMMUNITIES IN BOLIVIA: UNDERSTANDING, LEARNING, PROPOSING

Abstract

Bolivia's chaotic development has led to alarming environmental pollution over the last 50 years, and is exposing rural communities to an increasing socioeconomic and environmental vulnerability. This situation has provoked, in recent years, a phenomenon of migration due to land use change. During this time, many academic and international cooperation environmental projects have been implemented to help these vulnerable populations, but they have had a limited impact due to the complexity of the situation. The Integrated Water Management component of the CReA Project, funded by VLIR, seeks to find solutions to increase the resilience of communities to water-related problems with an integrated and sustainable vision. The transdisciplinary projects developed are carried out with and for the communities, with the support of other national and international actors. The project "Agua y Vida en La Maica" works in a vulnerable agricultural area of the municipality of Cochabamba and established, with the community, a work based on 3 fundamental axes: "Understanding" through research, "Learning" through knowledge exchanges and "Proposing" with the development of tools adapted to the reality of the community.