3.6. Ecuador: First steps: Information and knowledge advocacy for climate change amongst small-scale farmers

Denise Senmartin, Knowledge Sharing Officer, IICD, and Wietse Bruinsma, Country Manager Ecuador, IICD

Climate change adaptation requires sound knowledge of resource management at the local level. ICTs are instrumental in helping to document how communities and businesses manage resources, as well as recording changes in their environment. Collecting, systematising and disseminating this information provides the basis for the work of facing the challenges posed by the change of climate patterns.

IICD supports projects that integrate the use of ICTs for sustainable livelihoods, including sustainable production practices, agro-ecological initiatives and sustainable energy approaches among small-scale farmers in nine different countries. When faced with climate change adaptation, small-scale farmers become particularly vulnerable, as their main means of subsistence is threatened. At the same time there is a lack of attention given to their condition, and few resources set aside to help them. Through focus group discussions with farmers and the projects themselves, we have learned about key challenges they currently face: the depletion of natural resources, different agricultural practices, and the consequences of climate change are bringing concrete changes to the way they live, support themselves and farm. While they are searching for ways to address these challenges, a first step is to document and learn from what is happening.

Documenting the management of natural resources

Acción Ecológica, an NGO based in Ecuador, is working on documenting and raising awareness on how natural resources are managed in several regions in the country. Active since 1987 and with twenty permanent staff and several volunteers, Acción Ecológica serves as a watchdog on a variety of environmental issues, from biodiversity and conservation, to the consequences of various extractive technologies and free trade. They draw on a wide range of sources from the private, public, civil society, academic and scientific sectors in order to keep the public well informed.

Acción Ecológica uses ICTs to strengthen the dissemination of information and increase awareness about the importance of the enormous environmental challenges in Ecuador. As one of the NGO’s members put it in a video interview: “We can reach people much more quickly and effectively [using ICTs]. In this way, people can become aware of the… exploitation of natural resources in the country”.²²

The project’s activities include training courses on how to mobilise and empower small farmers so that they can counteract the powerful agribusiness lobby in Ecuador, seminars, discussion forums, and an e-learning platform. In addition, a database has been set up to share material developed by Acción Ecológica.²³ The NGO’s portal is popular, with about 45,000 page requests per month. They publish electronic newsletters, maintain six different discussion lists, produce presentations for public events, and publish interactive maps on maize and sugar cane production and agricultural commerce in Ecuador. With support from IICD, Acción Ecológica is also using ICTs to develop a food security strategy for small and medium-scale farmers to help them decide on the sustainable use of natural resources.

A spotlight on maize production

The first phase of Acción Ecológica’s intervention focused on investigating maize production, notably in Loja and Los Ríos provinces, to identify, diagnose and propose alternative approaches to the new environment. Involvement of the community is a key aspect of the project. Local producers participated in workshops to discuss and document both historical and current practices in maize production.

“The training helped me learn how to make presentations and allowed me to help design materials as means for communicating the environment projects.” – Farmer, a participant in a workshop on maize production

The information from the first phase was also used as a basis to produce a draft version of an interactive map to visualise maize production, the main companies involved in maize commercialisation, and land use conflicts in Ecuador.

“The community has started to respect nature and take care of it, implementing other ways for subsistence other than logging, and has started to coordinate activities like campaigns and workshops.” – Farmer, a participant in a workshop on maize production

ICTs are also giving small-scale farmers a chance to make their voices heard and appeal for action. Some of the suggestions coming out of the workshops include educative, economic, cultural and political actions. These included statements such as: “Disseminate more information at schools and hospitals”; “Recuperate multi-crop farming, not just mono-farming”; “Expand sustainable farming not based on chemicals”; “Guard traditional seeds and knowledge”; and “Demand realistic policies for small-holding farmers”.

Based on this experience, Acción Ecológica has started similar activities related to the production of sugar cane and of transgenics and biofuels, which pose a challenge, but also an opportunity to involve diverse stakeholders.

It is expected that by the completion of this project phase, there will be a database with crucial information on the production of maize, sugar cane and biofuels, a video about agribusiness – highlighting the threat it poses to small farmers – and concrete cases of political lobbying for addressing environmental challenges at the local level. Acción Ecológica is also organising a number of “Clínicas Ambientales” (Environmental Clinics) in the Amazonia region of Ecuador, in which farmers are equipped with cameras to document their activities. IICD will facilitate exchanges with AGRECOL, an organisation it supports in Bolivia that uses a similar approach in assisting small-scale farmers.²⁴

Although much more work needs to be done to help the farming communities in Ecuador prepare for changes in climate patterns, the first steps of documenting local realities and making them known is taking place, with ICT playing a key role in the process. It is expected that access to this information and the expansion of the awareness campaigns will mainstream climate change adaptation needs in public, private and political discourse, as well as in development projects targeting the most vulnerable groups.

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Acción Ecológica web portal

²² he interview is available at video link: www.iicd.org/video/ict-to-serve-ecological-action/?searchterm=accion%20ecologica (the quote used here can be found at the four-minute mark.)

²³ www.accionecologica.org

²⁴ www.iicd.org/projects/bolivia-agrecol/?searchterm=agrecol

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