Lake Chapala Management - World Lake Database

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issues [9]. Generally speaking there is a lack of public access to information and just few cases of organizative development linked to improvement of social, productive and ecological processes. It’s relevant mention that Lerma-Chapala basin shows depletion of underground water (1 to 5 meters, varying depending of the particular aquifer) and that most frequent struggles have happened between irrigation farmers and Guadalajara City users. This situation increases dramatically when lake Chapala reduces its volume derived of scarce rain and water retention in the upper and middle basin. Federal government created the Lerma-Chapala Basin Council back in 1989 as a mechanism to reach agreements and solve problems related to basin’s water use, but despite several advances in that issue this space has been perceived (and frequently used) as a political arena, often ignoring matters of water recharge linked to territorial use (basin management). Also due to conflictive points of view of participants (representatives of urban, industrials and agricultural uses, besides five state governments), the federal government usually has used a very cautious approach that generated slow changes. The Basin Council emphasizes the role of water users and water agencies, usually ignoring links between rivers with Lake Chapala, forest management, crop planning and urban development issues related to water recharge, quality and volume. Also receiving small consideration are the paper of researchers, universities, environmental agencies and civil society organizations, which rarely gained access to the council and only as speakers. 2. The Integrated Lake Basin Management (ILBM) in Lerma Chapala basin. 2.1 ILBM Structure and origins ILBM is a conceptual framework for assisting lake managers and stakeholders in achieving sustainable management of lakes and their basins. It takes into account the biophysical features as well as managerial requirements for lake basin systems, that are associated with the lentic water properties of lakes as well as the inherent dynamics between humans and nature in the process of development, use and conservation of lake and basin resources [10]. It was developed as result of a Global Environment Facility (GEF) project conducted by the International Lake Environment Committee Foundation (ILEC), a scientific group based in Japan, which analyzed and summarized the experiences of 28 lake basins around the world [11]. The experiences learned from the GEF- ILBM project indicate that good lake basin management requires: a) Institutions to manage the lake and its basin for the benefit of all lake basin resources uses, b) Policies to govern people’s use of lake resources and their impact on lakes, c) Involvement of people, central to lake basin management, d) Technological possibilities and limitation that exist in almost all cases, e) Knowledge, both of a traditional and scientific nature is valuable, and f) Sustainable finances to fund from all of the above activities. These constitute the essential six pillars of basin governance about which ILBM can provide the overall framework for application. 2.2 Applying ILBM in the Lerma-Chapala basin: first steps. Despite the importance of ILBM as a powerful tool for lake basin management it was scarcely known in Mexico and Latin America. Understanding its value to foster the Lerma-Chapala basin management and to overcome the frequent basin users’ quarrels, Corazon de la Tierra, a Mexican Civil Society Organization (CSO) invited ILEC to take part in an Expert Workshop and Open Forum named “World Lake Vision: constructing an Action Plan for Lake Chapala Basin”, held from November 1 st to 4 th , 2006. As result of the intense three days work of 18 participants (12 Mexican and 6 foreigners, each one an expert in their own field) a proposal of Action Plan for the Lerma- Chapala Basin was created, which was then presented to a wide group of stakeholder representatives (117 participants coming from the five states of the basin, including municipal, state and federal government levels; universities, civil organizations, farmers, etc.) This diverse set of people received the information, analyzed and complemented it, finally generating 135 lines of action integrated in six Strategies: Optimal use of water; Prevention and control of water pollution; Biodiversity management; Social involvement for basin management; Monitoring of lake and its basin; and Sustainable management models. The fact that a proposal of this kind could be so widely structured, based in sound scientific information and experience from the expert participants and then backed up by the wide range of attendants was unprecedented. The document was checked and edited, comprising lines of action to 117 to publicly present the document in March 22 nd 2007, as part of the World Water Day [12]. Unfortunately 2006-2007 was a period of deep administrative changes in federal, states and municipal government levels, immediately after political elections. So, most of 2007 and half 2008 were used for lobbying the Action Plan document with new officers, to let them know its thematic contents and to convince them about its importance. A common perception was that the Action Plan was (quoting a federal officer) “too inclusive and extensive” meaning that no institution could accomplish to aboard it completely and that several stakeholders were needed to work together to reach shared goals. As a result a frequent reaction was to decline participation because that represented high effort and (apparently) little political gain. Nevertheless several allies were found in the process, highlighting involvement of Jalisco’s state government
through the Secretary of Environment and Sustainable Development (SEMADES); and the National Institute of Ecology (INE, a federal agency), whose Integrated Basin Management’s head officer took part in constructing the Action Plan. 2.2 Developing guidelines Given the hard path found to foster the Action Plan, several inner meetings were organized and as result we concluded that several conditions could help to push forward it, being these: a) to distribute specific lines of action among particular actors, to be reached more easily; b) to promote the Action Plan at the international level, which would help to get national support for it; c) to use a sub-basin approach, to involve regional stakeholders and make feasible to reach outcomes in a shorter term; d) to create a common ground with government agencies to broaden visions and cement long-term processes. Using such guidelines Corazon de la Tierra included as part of its institutional programs action lines related to ecological sanitation, forest management and environmental education, with reachable goals in short and medium terms. In order to do that, resources from federal and state agencies were obtained and channeled to local communities, mainly through the Sustainable Management Program of Condiro-Canales Mountain Range [13], a forest area within the basin, in process to become a natural protected area. Activities included forest restoration, making of an ecotourism management plan [14], construction of wood-saving stoves [15] and dry-latrines in rural villages [16], inclusion of several tropical deciduous-forest lands in the “ecological services payment” federal-programs, forest management training provided to land owners, installment of community tree nurseries, environmental education projects with school children and youth, among others lines of action included in the Action Plan. As part of the international promotion the Action Plan workshop experience and its derived follow-up activities were presented in the XII World Lake Conference [17] held in Jaipur, India in November 2007, being distinguished with the Ibaraki- Kasumigaura Prize for “its outstanding content”. The case was also presented in the First Management of Arid and Semi-arid Basin Forum, held in Argentina the same year [18]. In July 2008 the experience was presented at the international workshop “Sustainability of Lake Remediation and Interventions” organized by the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the Hyderabad Urban Development Authority, which was held in Hyderabad, India. All these activities were publicized in Mexico, alongside with presenting in Guadalajara City of the book “World Lake Vision Action Report” [19] which includes a chapter related to Lake Chapala. These activities allowed to create regional and national interest for the issue, fostering the perception of the Action Plan importance and feasibility. 2.3 The Sub-basins approach About promoting this approach, during 2007-2008 there were several meetings with INE’s Integrated Basin Management Office. This research institution leads the federal agencies working in the Lerma- Chapala basin and has strong coincidence about importance of the sub-basin management. There are 19 sub-basins in the Lerma-Chapala basin and INE selected five of them as priority, using as criteria the existence of working groups in each one. Also, INE and the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) developed and presented in 2007 the “Atlas de la Cuenca Lerma Chapala” (Atlas of Lerma-Chapala Basin), an integrative book that presents in a precise and useful way a wide amount of high quality scientific information. To raise the sub-basin involvement INE organized a sharing-experience workshop during June 25-26 th 2009, which allowed direct contact of 50 participants from the five priority sub-basins, in an attempt to compare processes, identify useful patterns, common challenges and strategies [20]. As part of the workshop the ILBM approach was presented, awakening a lot of interest particularly because of its practical focus. Use of this instrument by the whole five sub-basins groups (about 75 institutions including municipalities, federal and state agencies; CSOs, universities, research centers and even private companies) will be structured in a followup meeting scheduled for December 2009. 2.4 The Latin American ILBM Workshop Creation of a common ground with government agencies (mainly federal and state level), research centers and other civil society organizations was defined as a crucial matter in order to increase direct involvement in joint projects to achieve integrated management of Lerma-Chapala basin. This was probably the most difficult task, given the distrust generated during past years between many stakeholders. In fact, assuming the facilitator role as a civil society organization represented both vantages and disadvantages, giving us freedom to act without political or administrative constraints and the ability to move quickly or slowly according to circumstances, but also making difficult to be heard by certain sectors given the hard clashes generated in the 1998-2003 period. It was necessary to develop a preciseagreement, long-term approach with several institutions so that step by step strong relationships could be constructed. As part of this “common ground construction” it was clear that ILBM training was necessary to raise the knowledge level and to foster strong stakeholder links. A workshop was selected as a practical tool, attractive for many institutions which
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Lake Chapala Management - World Lake Database

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