Community Based Conservation in the Llancahue Watershed

Today we learned about community based conservation in the Llancahue watershed. The Universidad Austral de Chile is working with the local community of Lomas del Sol to promote the stewardship of ecosystems and to provide income for the local people.




Llancahue is the watershed for 80% of Valdivia´s water supply, but has been experiencing declining rainfall in the past 30 years. Llancahue is 1300 hectares and is the closest native forest to Valdivia, which is convenient because one of the Valdivia Province´s development goals is eco-tourism. Currently, a tourist in Valdivia must travel to 40 minutes to Parque Oncol to visit native forest. The Universidad Austral de Chile recently acquired ownership of the watershed. When the local community of 23 families learned of the ownership change, the rate of high-grading in the watershed increased dramatically. Llancahue was their source of livelihood and they feared what the new owner would restrict.




The university invested time into getting to know the community and learn what their needs were in order to manage Llancahue with the community. Now, only one family remains uncooperative with the watershed management plan. One park guard is employed and is being trained on proper tree marking techniques. Six pairs of men from the community operate in the woods to produce firewood, which is in the process of becoming certified firewood under Sistema Nacional de Certification de Lena. Each two man team is paid a salary based on a production limit of 150 cubic meters of firewood per 15 days or 300 cubic meters per month during the summer. Each team is paid 300,000 Chilean pesos per month, which is about $600 US. Pablo Donoso (Professor, UACH) says this is a very good salary; better than they could make selling the wood illegally, and at the university´s production limit, they do not have to work the forest every day, therefore allowing them to find other work as well to supplement their income.

Jenny Romero, who works with Agrupacion de Ingenieros Forestales por el Bosque Nativo, discussed the importance of certified fuelwood in Chile. A majority of the fuelwood used for energy is currently obtained through illegal operations. There is a need for the expansion of the wood certification system to increase efficiency of fuelwood, improve marketing of certified fuelwood, and to decrease pollution by using wood with lower moisture content.

We also had numerous encounters with leeches slithering up our pantalones in Llancahue. Many members of the group had their first leech experience and got plenty practice removing the little grubby bloodsuckers from their skin. Don't worry, pictures of wounds to come!

la paz,
Jenny and Diane