HelpAge International: Building the resilience of rural communities in the
Bolivia
Bolivia is exposed to a range of climatic risks and with many people livelihood’s
dependent on agriculture; this is a major resilience issue for the country as a whole. In
Bolivia over the last two decades almost 6 million people have been affected by hydro
meteorological events. HelpAge with its partners have been working to assist rural
communities to build their resilience to a range of shocks and stresses in the rural areas
of the low lands and lower altiplano. HelpAge worked with local communities and its
older people in particular to gather knowledge on the range of issues that they confront
on a daily basis. HelpAge was interested in the perceptions of older people living in rural
Bolivia commonly called Campesinos about the climatic and environmental changes, how
over their lifetime that had impacted upon them and also the specific localised
knowledge they had on weather and local indicators of change. Age was an important
criterion to make sure that the people interviewed had lived in the area for at least 15
years as way of ensuring their true account of the changes perceived. In all, 30 older
people were interviewed. Older people highlighted that the changing conditions has
severely impacted upon their agricultural livelihoods.
In one area in the lowlands it was found that in the past floods had occurred every 5 –
10 years, this had given them enough time and stability to produce plantain and cassava
and create a stock so that when the floods came they could survive. Now the floods were
occurring almost every year along with drought seasons. Now they just grew what they
could whenever they could. The result of this was a range of other social and economic
hazards. The reduced food availability and income severely impacted on older people
and the wider community’s nutrition and health, this situation being particularly serious
for the older and younger members of the community. It had also meant that many
people had migrated to cities for work which had resulted in a very large rural older
person population, in some case where they had been left to care for grandchildren; this
resulted in social issues such as isolation, poor mental health and extreme poverty as
the Bolivian pension was well below the amount needed to survive and provided now
additional grant when older people were responsible for grandchildren. The lack of
regular agricultural production also limited the available markets that the older farmers
could tap into and being dependent on just one or two crops meant that they were
extremely vulnerable to specific pests, weather conditions and price variations.
The information gathered by the community on the local events and changes was backed
up by information from the Meteorological department of Bolivia as well as a research
such as Climate Variability and Climate Change in the Bolivian Andes by Britta
Horstmann and the work of the IPCC. Covering both the Andes and the Amazon, the
climate of Bolivia is very varied with highly specific climatic characteristics due to El
Nino, Andean rain shadows and lack Titicaca. The major climatic hazards in Bolivia are
drought on the altiplano and flooding in the lowlands, but landslides, hail, forest fire and
extreme hot and cold temperatures all also cause damage.
Climate projections for Bolivia are complicated by the complex topography of the Andes,
the presence of the Amazon rainforest, whose future response to climate change is
unclear but which has the potential for abrupt changes which would radically alter the
climate of the region, and the effect of climate change on El Niño (IPCC 2007). The lack
of regional climate simulations or downscaling experiments over Bolivia make it hard to
be precise about the nature of future change, especially given that Bolivia is made up 2
very different climatic regimes, therefore any project needed to be responsive to both
the possibilities of increasing flood and drought events.
On further consultation with older people, they described an ancient pre Columbian
farming technique called Camellones (Camel Humps), however these had been lost from
practice but could be re-employed to build more resilient agricultural and livelihood’s
with these older rural communities. HelpAge International with its partners in Bolivia
OXFAM GB and Fundacion Para la Ciencia y el Desarrollo Sostenible del Beni (Beni
Foundation for Science and the Environment – technical partner) helped the community
achieve this through a project entitle
Use of ancestral knowledge for climate
Lowlands Funded by SIDA and DFID (LAPPA)
adaption
in
the
Bolivian
These raised beds are designed in such a way that they allow water to drain off the crops
much more efficiently, either side of the beds canals are dug to capture the run off and
the rain and flood water, this also helped prevent soil erosion and retain nutrients in the
soil, making it overall ecologically more sound. When the rivers bursts its banks the
canals either side fill up but the crops remain safe. The retention of water in the canals
also means that in times of drought this water can be re piped up onto the Camellones,
rather than needing water pumped long distances, reducing fuel costs, or the need to
fetched manually which was often difficult for older farmers. The range of produced on
the camellones were increased to a wider range of crops, maize, rice, cassava and
vegetables and the canals used a s fish ponds, this massively diversified their crop and
livelihood base and also created a secondary livelihood of fish farming, which opened up
further markets to the cities for the older farmers. The fish farming was also much
easier for older people as it was less labour intensive. The project also created a more
diverse diet for older people and their grandchildren. The older farmers contributed their
traditional knowledge which when combined with more scientific knowledge of future
climate risks allowed for innovative and locally appropriate solutions to be found, which
addressed a range of current and future issues. They were also active in constructing
and the beds and canals, learning new skills; this also helped in reducing feeling of
isolation and increased feelings of well-being.
While this innovative approach worked in the very lowland areas subject to major
flooding, in areas such as Chuquisaca, which is at a higher altitude, persistence drought
was the issue and other options were needed. HelpAge’s partner Sumaj Punchay
(Toward better Days) through the project
Micro
Irrigation
systems
in
Chuquisaca
Funded
by
SIDA,
Fundacion Biodiversidad, Big Give and Global Giving is implementing a microirrigation system project and family vegetable gardens to improve agricultural production
and deal with the recurrent drought. Rain over the years had become extremely irregular
and in some cases had ceased in any substantial way almost completely, older people
recalling:


It used to rain a lot and one couldn’t cross the river; pastures grew high; only in
Carnaval (February) could we cross the river.
Before it used to rain continuously/regularly, now it only rains a little; there is
less hail than there used to be; the frost used to be heavy
This had caused massive out migration of the middle adult population to find other
livelihood options and had left communities of extremely old and isolated people, even
more so than in the lowlands, often responsible for caring for young grandchildren. The
project is combining ancestral and scientific knowledge about water sources, farming and
weather to ensure ecologically sustainable food security. Food insecurity and
malnutrition are rife in this poor area as the environment is extremely marginal,
therefore nutrition and food security was of high importance. The vegetable gardens set
up take advantage of natural water sources. There are springs in the highlands, which
the older people highlighted. From there, the water is brought by a system of pipes to a
storage tank, and then to the vegetable gardens to provide irrigation. Based on that, the
vegetables are being grown organically in an ecologically sound way, with the aim of
guaranteeing food security for the family. All this has been done with the participation of
the whole family, but the older people have played the leading role. The diversified
range of vegetables and crops produced again further opened up markets to these older
farmers.
In spite of the great upheavals encountered over recent years, older people maintain an
optimism and creativity, constantly adapting to the changing circumstances. These are
some of the proposals and practices that people are adopting spontaneously as a result
of the project:
 introduction of news kinds of potato varieties as the weather becomes warmer
 introduction of new crops, fruit trees, wheat, alfalfa, even maize, a crop from the
valleys 1000-1500 metres lower (warmer climate)
 Some are developing new indicators based on the new conditions (if potato
production with irrigation turns out well, it will be a good year; if the sun is
particularly hot, this is likely to lead to a hailstorm; birds fly high before a
hailstorm, etc.); others now also listen to the radio for information about the
weather
 Many said that with irrigation, they would be able to produce all sorts of crops;
While HelpAge International remit is to assist older populations, it is also a key necessity
when it comes to building resilience. Over the next 50 years the globe will age, as
countries grow old before they grow rich. By 2050 there will be more people age 60+
than below the age of 14. While this longevity is a triumph of development in many
ways, unless action is taken to support the livelihood, social protection, health and
safety needs of the growing number of older people, resilience will be unachievable as
the number of vulnerable people increase.