Hankkeen työpaja Moyobambassa / Project's workshop in Moyobamba

Olemme olleet nyt kaupungissa kuusi päivää. Näistä kolme ensimmäistä käytettiin näytteiden kunnon tarkastukseen, datan syöttämiseen tietokoneelle ja työpajaan valmistautumiseen, seuraavat kaksi työpajaan ja tämä viimeinen kaupunkipäivä lepoon ja maastotöihin valmistautumiseen.

Here I'm giving my presentation in the workshop. In my opinion, Spanish is a lot more difficult than it first seems. Thanks to Robert Elias Mendivil for correcting my slides – speech comes uncorrected though. Later I heard that it eventually went well although it felt a bit like walking on thin ice.

Työpajassa Turun yliopiston, Conservation Internationalin, San Martinin yliopiston, Alto Mayon suojelualueen ja San Martinin aluehallinnon edustajat etsivät yhteistä säveltä siinä, minkälaista tutkimusta Alto Mayon alueella tarvittaisiin, jotta siitä olisi apua käytännön ongelmiin. Työpajan tavoitteena oli koota yhteen uusia ideoita mahdollisen EU-hankehakemuksen pohjaksi. Oma roolini oli lähinnä esitellä menossa oleva tutkimus.

My improvised sanitation project proposal is no new idea, but nevertheless came to my mind as we walked the districts of Yuracyacu and Sol de Oro. In Finland there is expertise in dry toilets – the challenge would be to find solutions how they would work in these perhumid conditions, and in people's minds.

The participants of the workshop in a joint picture. In the upper row, second from the left, is Ulla Helimo, the coordinator of the BioCuencas project working for Conservation International and based in Moyobamba. Ulla is from Finland but has been living and working in different parts of Peru for ten years now. Her contribution, expertise and wide network of acquaintances in Peru and Finland was essential for the creation of the BioCuencas project.

Mario Ríos, from the Regional Environment Authority of San Martín, explaining how a drainage basin joins different people with different needs. From his presentation, I remember him saying: "Every time it starts raining, we are afraid: Where does the land slide next, where does the flood occur next, where do we find the funds for the repairs?" Extensive deforestation makes some areas more prone to landslides and floods. In this case, forest does have a value other than commercial: it can help in avoiding the costs of natural disasters.

This slide shows examples of threatened plants in the Alto Mayo reserve, and their status (the column on the right). En peligro crítico = critically endangered. Of all these, the orchid Phragmipedium kovachii is surely the most widely known.

This slide shows the plant species endemic to the Alto Mayo reserve. This is a relatively high number of endemism, thinking that the Alto Mayo reserve has an area of 182 000 hectares – in Finland, only the National Parks of Urho Kekkonen and Lemmenjoki in Lapland are larger than this, but they do not have any endemic plant species. The parallel drawn to Finland is of course unfair due to climatic constraints, but nevertheless the Tropical Andes is one of the biodiversity hotspots in the world.

Here a UTU geographer, Carlos Conzales Inca, is explaining the complex flow of groundwater. A big part of annual discharge to the mountain streams feeding the river Mayo is in the form of groundwater flow. Forested areas maintain a permeable surface soil, which helps in keeping a good groundwater infiltration rate. Deforestation causes decrease in groundwater flow and more abrupt peak floods after the rains.

Ivonne Paico, representing the protected area authority in Alto Mayo, explained the basics of the Alto Mayo reserve: why it was created and which problems are confronted now. In the northern part of the reserve, uncontrolled human settlement is the biggest problem. The settlements distinguish in the map as black dots within the green reserve. The grey area around it is designated as the reserve's buffer zone, where human activities should be somewhat limited.

Conservation International is a non-governmental organization that is leading the BioCuencas project. Project funding comes from the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland. Local CI workers had made this very beautiful workshop poster.

Critically looking at the results of the workshop for a synthesis.