Two parallel and independent historic processes have paternity rights to the birth of watershed management:
i) the restoration of the Alps which started in the last quarter of the nineteenth century; and ii) the conservation movement in the USA which led to the creation in 1935 of the Soil Erosion Service (later the Soil Conservation Service).1 FAO, as it was created 40 years ago, acted as a catalyst to internationalize the two approaches, blending the land restoration and torrent control techniques developed in Europe with the vegetation manipulation and soil and water conservation techniques developed in the USA, together with conceptual and technical inputs from other sources as well. Adapting methods and techniques to respond to the situation of developing countries, to generate the so-called integrated watershed management approach recognized at present by FAO, has taken several decades. The main landmarks of this process were:
(i) The setting up in 1950 by the European Forestry Commission of the Working Party on the Management of Mountain Watersheds and its 14 sessions up to the 1984 one in Spain. Similar attempts made in Asia, Latin America and the Near East Region to establish specialized subsidiary bodies were not long lasting.
(ii) Watershed management training centers and regional seminars which have been organized in Hazaribagh, India, in 1957, in Iran in 1960, in Lebanon in 1962, in Pakistan in 1968, in the USSR in 1970, in Argentina in 1971, in Nepal in 1982, in Kenya in 1983 and in Spain in 1984.
(iii) Study tours for participants from developing countries organized in the USA with the Forest Service in 1959, to 6 countries in Europe in 1962, to China in 1979 and to 4 countries in the Caribbean in 1980.
(iv) Publications including the early watershed management manuals in 1958 and 1962, Forest Influences in 1962, soil conservation manuals (since 1950). followed by the FAO Conservation Guide Series (1973-1985).
(v) Pioneer watershed management projects in the 1950-1970 period in India, Guatemala, Argentina, Chile, the Philippines, South Korea, Turkey, Israel, Nepal, Morocco, Tunisia, Venezuela and Jamaica.
The spread of watershed management principles in terms of national programmes and projects has, in fact, been very rapid for a relatively new discipline. In the late 60's in Latin America, only Argentina had specialists in the subject, trained in La Plata with the support of an FAD project. Nowadays, there are watershed management specialists and important field programmes in almost every country in that region. However, the expansion of watershed management techniques has not been uniform at the global level. Regions like Africa are lagging behind. Programmes in some countries have stagnated and some have even been abandoned.
1 Watersheds: background, trends, prospects. Secretariat note EFC/MW/78 - 4 June 1978.
Making a rough overview of the situation of developing countries, three categories may be recognized regarding the status of watershed management:
(i) Countries where the awareness and capabilities for watershed management exist and which are close to self-reliance, such as Chile, Colombia, Venezuela and Jamaica in Latin America, South Korea, Indonesia, Thailand and India in Asia, and Morocco and Tunisia in North Africa.
(ii) Countries which very much depend on external inputs or which are at the initial stage of watershed management.
(iii) Countries where there is little awareness or interest or where watershed management techniques have not adapted in an appropriate way to the local conditions. Countries which remain practically untouched are those in Western Africa, in the Sahel and in several countries in the Near East.
The development of suitable watershed management approaches and techniques for each type of environment has been constrained by a lack of research, which is practically non existing in developing countries. Except for research conducted by EAFRO in Kimakia, Kenya, by CTFT in Madagascar and currently in French Guyana, and by FAO (built-in as component in a number of pilot and demonstration projects in Jamaica, El Salvador, Thailand, Nepal, Cape Verde, Brazil), little effort has been made to adapt or to innovate watershed management techniques in developing countries.
Training is another area in which major constraints for programme development are encountered. In fact, other than the watershed management graduate curricula offered by a number of universities in developed countries, which are often not entirely suited for the needs of the developing world, there are very few courses where technicians from developing countries can specialize. Courses are particularly lacking for specialization of French speaking professional staff.
Experience shows that sound demonstration areas and pilot watershed management projects are the essential first steps before launching large scale watershed management programmes. These are used for on-the-job training, for making politicians, planners and administrators more aware, and for motivation and extension work with village leaders and local communities. There is therefore great need to establish this type of very carefully conceived pioneer efforts in countries where there is no awareness of the benefits of watershed management. But to that end you must find interested people in the venture at the national level and the necessary external technical and financial resources to support it.
Institutions geared to the implementation of programmes at the national level come next. It is of no use to promote the establishment of a specific agency if there is no real-life model at all in the country to help sell the idea of watershed management. Institutional cooperative frameworks may be needed to make compatible the mandates of several agencies related to watershed problems. It has proved useful in a number of countries to associate with water resources or land use planners and to link watershed management efforts to the protection of infrastructure, flood plains and human settlements. Ensuring the short-term impact of watershed management measures is essential where decision-makers are not responsive to long-term effects; this is a vital issue for resource allocation in national development plans. Investment in watershed management normally needs many years of field work in order to have tested measures and to be able to quantify costs and benefits. It is difficult to interest banking institutions in watershed management in isolation. Projects embodied in integrated rural development and related to water resource development schemes are more readily accepted.
The above problems and constraints are some of the key issues that we would like to discuss in this expert meeting, in order to develop appropriate strategies. Another important purpose of this forum is to examine critically the concepts and approaches for watershed management on which international cooperation is founded, and to determine ways in which technical know-how and motivation can be more efficiently transmitted to the developing world. We will briefly introduce and discuss various ways in which FAO operates at present in order to seek your advice for refining our approaches.
FAO's action is developed at three levels: (i) at the global level with particular reference to production of reference, training and extension materials; (ii) at the regional level with emphasis on transfer of technology and training; and (iii) at the national level focusing on institutional strengthening, manpower development and pilot projects. The main activities currently conducted at the various levels are described in the following paragraphs.
Publications
The FAO Conservation Guide is the main effort; nine volumes have been published and a dozen more are under preparation including guidelines on incentives., on economic appraisal of watershed projects and on community involvement. The FA0 Watershed Management Field Handbook will also be part of this series. Manuscripts ready for printing are already available on torrent control, gully stabilization, biological measures for slope stabilization, terraces and ditches. Volumes are under preparation that are devoted to water harvesting, watershed management surveys and planning, road stabilization, site preparation for afforestation, and landslide stabilization. Guidelines for land evaluation for forestry have been published and comprehensive guidelines for integrated land use planning are in manuscript form under the aegis of the FAO Inter-Departmental Working Group on Land Use Planning. A reference manual on soil and water conservation in arid lands and a dozen of other publications on arid zone rehabilitation are also under preparation.
Audio-Visual Aids
Some 50 filmstrips on conservation and community forestry have been produced during the past four years. This material has proved to be most valuable and is widely used to create awareness for training and extension. In the 1986-87 biennium, video-films will be developed specially for training and motivation. Films that have been produced with FA0 support are "The fragile mountain" in Nepal, and "Agroforestry and shifting cultivation" in the Philippines. A film on soil and water conservation will be produced this year by the BBC.
Training
Regional seminars and training courses will continue to be organized. Further to the Seminar on Watershed and Forest Restoration in Arid Lands organized in Spain in September (at which 32 developing countries were represented), two training courses Are planned in cooperation with Finland. These include a training course for Asia and the Pacific held in Kathmandu in May 1985 and a workshop for the SADCC and Eastern Africa countries held early in 1986. Under the RAS/81/053 Regional Project, a training course in Thailand, a study tour to China, and a workshop for the South Pacific islands are planned in 1986. Under the RAF/81/060 Integrated Management of the Fouts Djallon, FAO, and UNESCO will organize a number of seminars for Guinea and the neighboring countries.
Seminars, Expert Meetings, Conferences, Specialized Statutory Bodies
Further to this Expert Meeting, watershed management is one of the main subjects of discussion at a number of forthcoming meetings, including the FAO Committee on Food Security, the Committee on Forestry Development in the Tropics (Rome, June 1985), the Expert Consultation on the Role of Forestry in Combating Desertification (Saltillo, Mexico, June 1985), the 9th World Forestry Congress (Mexico City, July 1985) and Silva Mediterranea (Montpellier, October 1985). A seminar on integrated land use planning will be held in Rome in November 1985 and a seminar on land evaluation for forestry at district level will be organized by FA0 in Bangkok in December 1985. Also a seminar is to be held in Resistencia, Argentina in May 1985 on the management of the soil-plant-water system for flood mitigation.
Regional Projects, Working Groups and Networks
This is an area where great emphasis is placed, in order to develop self-reliant technology transfer mechanisms. The following have already been established:
(i) The Working Party on the Management of Mountain Watersheds, which has its regular sessions every two years and holds occasional symposia. The 15th session of the Working Party is to be held either in Austria or in Venice, Italy, in September 1986, together with a specialized symposium with IUFRO on the application of mathematical modeling.
(ii) The Latin American Watershed Management Network, established in 1980 and coordinated by the Cauca Valley Authority of Colombia, is very active, holding 3-4 task force meetings in selected countries per year.
(iii) The Caribbean Network for Upper Watershed Management - CANUWAM - established in 1983 for 10 English Speaking Countries of the Caribbean, coordinated by the Forestry Department of Trinidad and Tobago.
(iv) The TCDC Network on Watershed Management for Asia and the Pacific, which was designed and agreed during the Government Consultation on Watershed Management for Asia and the Pacific held in Kathmandu in December 1982, which links focal points in 17 countries. The UNDP/FAO Project RAS/81/053 TCDC Network on Watershed Management for Asia and the Pacific, which is a two year project with headquarters in Colombo, Sri Lanka, will provide technical support to the organization of this network. It will be supported by three subregional advisors from the Pacific Islands, South-East Asia and Himalayan-Tibetan regions.
(v) A network established recently by the SADCC countries is supported jointly with SIDA. A planning workshop was organized by FAO in Lesotho in November 1984 and task force visits to selected countries are envisaged for 1985.
Activities at the National Level
At the country level, FAO has had, during the last years, an average of 20-25 projects related with watershed management and upland rehabilitation. The following projects are operational as of 1985:
- Argentina - TCP/ARG/4401/E - Hydrological forest protection and rehabilitation of flood prone areas.
- Benin - BEN/81/003 - Forest resources development (with watershed management component)
- Bolivia - GCP/BOL/016/NOR - Forest land restoration in the Tarija watershed
- Brazil - BRA/82/008 - Forestry development in Brazil (watershed management component in N.E. Brazil)
- Burma - BUR/81/003 - Integrated watershed management
- Cape Verde - GCP/CVI/015/BEL - Forestry development and rehabilitation (with watershed management component)
- Chile - CHILE/83/017 - Research and development of arid and semi-arid wildlands of Northern Chile
- Costa Rica - COS/79/001 - Support to implementation of watershed management projects (Parrita and Nosara watersheds)
- Ecuador - TCP/ECU/4405 - Paute River watershed management
- El Salvador - ELS/78/004 - Conservation and use of natural resources in the Cerron Grande catchment area
- Guinea GUI/82/003 - Reforestation, protection and management of four watersheds
- Haiti GCP/HAI/O11/SWI - Training center for watershed management
- Iran IRA/84/003 - Planning services for training in watershed management
- Jamaica - JAK/82/006 - Institutional strengthening of the Department of Forestry and Soil Conservation
- Laos - LAO/82/006 - Forestry development and watershed management in the North
- Lesotho - LES/035/DPS - Conservation Forest Officer OPAS
- Madagascar - MAG/82/015 - Restoration and development of the Savoka (Phase II)
- Morocco - MOR/81/004 - Development and management of mountain areas
- Nepal - GCP/NEP/041/NOR - Shivapuri watershed management and fuelwood plantation
- Nepal - NEP/80/029 - Watershed management and conservation education
- Pakistan - PAK/78/036 - Watershed management research and education at the Pakistan Forestry Institute
- Thailand - THA/84/002 - Integrated development of Phu Wiang Watershed
- Trinidad and Tobago TRI/79/009 - Upper watershed management and planning
- Tunisia - TUN/81/004 Agro-silvo-pastoral management in the watersheds of N.W. Tunisia.
In addition to these projects operated by the FAO Forestry Department, support is given, together with Soil Conservation and Management Service (AGLS) to watershed management projects operated by the Agricultural Department in China, Ethiopia and Indonesia. AGLS also supports a number of soil and water conservation projects, among them the Norway funded regional project for Africa and national projects such as those in Costa Rica and Kenya.
The FAO activities in watershed management are relatively modest if compared with the magnitude of problems and needs. However, this field of work has had a significant expansion in the last 10 years and tends to be reinforced as issues continue to be discussed in terms of land degradation, deforestation, desertification, floods, droughts, support to agriculture and food security, protection of the resource base and other related topics which dominate international debate among donors and concerned institutions.
Therefore it is intended that this expert meeting assist in better focusing future action, not only for FAO but for the international donor community as a whole, by concentrating its attention on the following key questions:
(i) Is the integrated watershed management approach, as applied by FAO and other sources of assistance, appropriate? Should it closer identify with integrated rural development? Should it be less compromising and resist changes in land use in forest lands? What should be the strategy for the highly populated mountain watersheds, for areas of destructive shifting cultivation, for areas of dominant pastoral economy with over-grazing and misuse of the rangelands?
(ii) What should be the modalities to enhance and make a more efficient use of the financial and technical resources of multi- and bilateral assistance?
(iii) What are the issues and priority areas which merit special efforts in research and development of technology, training, dissemination of information and development of the institutional capability?
Pragmatic approaches, on the basis of the accrued experience and the high caliber expertise present in this Expert Meeting are most welcome in order to foster watershed management.
