News

Platform for climate services launches in the Central Andes

07.03.2019

The Center for Highland Studies (Centro de Estudios de Alta Montaña, CEAM) in cooperation with the Agricultural Secretariat of the Quindío Department, in the Central Andes of Colombia, launched the “Inputs for the creation and implementation of a Water Fund and the generation of Climate Services for the Department of Quindío” in January 2019.

A project for monitoring ecosystem services associated with water quality and water balance in three municipalities of Quindío, located in the country’s renowned coffee region.  In its pilot phase, the project will be conducted in areas of contrasting ecological, and sociocultural conditions. It will include a platform for monitoring ecosystem services, in order to provide decision makers and environmental agencies easy and user-friendly access to the information they need to identify water resource management hotspots. The information collected will also permit the platform act as an early warning system for the management of ecological and hydro-meteorological risks. It is foreseen that the platform will become an important tool for improving environmental policies and their implementation at the subnational level. 

The project is part of the Department Adaptation Plan to Climate Change (PIGCC, for its acronym in Spanish), and the Andean Initiative of Climate Services, initiatives also developed in a collaborative effort of CEAM, the Agricultural Secretariat of the Quindío Department, and the Mountain Partnership.

News by Hugo Mantilla-Meluk

Photo by Paul