Sustainable Resource Governance and Climate Change Adaptation in Action
In the Andean countries, CDE provides scientific support to two major programmes of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation: The Andean Forests Programme (Spanish: Programa Bosques Andinos, PBA) and the Applied Research Project for Climate Change Adaptation (Spanish: Proyecto de investigación aplicada para la adaptación al cambio climático, PIA-ACC).

The Andean Forests Programme (PBA)
PBA is a regional initiative that helps people living in and around the Andean mountain forests to reduce their vulnerability to climate change and to gain social, economic, and environmental benefits from the conservation of Andean forest landscapes. In order to achieve this goal, knowledge is generated, systematized, and disseminated by a broad network of researchers and organizations. The programme’s main goal is to promote the validation and strengthening of sustainable forest management practices, the generation and use of scientific information, and the upscaling and replication of scientific evidence and best practices in policymaking processes at local to global scales. A related additional goal is to raise regional, national, and local interest in the conservation of Andean forests and to promote synergies between strategies for climate change adaptation and mitigation. CDE’s contribution to the PBA includes developing a research agenda based on a dialogue and collaborative initiatives within the research community focused on the current status of scientific knowledge about social and ecological dynamics and their impacts on Andean forest ecosystems.

Applied Research Project for Climate Change Adaptation (PIA-ACC)
PIA-ACC aims to generate knowledge that will help to increase the resilience of those people in the Bolivian Andes who are most vulnerable to the impacts of extreme and gradual climate change due to their exposure to high levels of material, social, and spiritual poverty. The project focuses on four main thematic areas: (1) integrated natural resource management and biocultural diversity, (2) food security and food sovereignty, (3) disaster risk reduction, and (4) intercultural climatic modelling. Within the PIA-ACC, CDE supports the implementing Bolivian universities in developing research agendas, establishing research partnerships, developing capacities for transdisciplinary research, managing knowledge, and disseminating research results.
Publications
Mathez-Stiefel, Sarah-Lan; Peralvo, Manuel; Báez, Selene; Rist, Stephan; Buytaert, Wouter; Cuesta, Francisco; Fadrique, Belén; Feeley, Kenneth J.; Groth, Aaron A. P.; Homeier, Jürgen; Llambí, Luis D.; Locatelli, Bruno; López Sandoval, Maria Fernanda; Malizia, Agustina; Young, Kenneth R. (2017). Research priorities for the conservation and sustainable governance of Andean forest landscapes. Mountain Research and Development, 37(3), S. 323-339. International Mountain Society 10.1659/MRD-JOURNAL-D-16-00093.1
Mathez-Stiefel SL, Peralvo M, Báez S . 2017. Hacia la conservación y la gobernanza sostenible de los paisajes de bosque andinos: una agenda de investigación. Programa Bosques Andinos de la Agencia Suiza para el Desarrollo y la Cooperación - COSUDE, CONDESAN, Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation, CDE - University of Bern. Quito, 32 p.
Jacobi J, Mathez-Stiefel SL, Gambon H, Rist S, Altieri MA. 2016. Whose knowledge, whose development? Exploring the role of local and external knowledge in agroforestry initiatives in Bolivia. Environmental Management 59(3):464–476.
Mathez-Stiefel SL, Ayquipa-Valenzuela J, Corrales-Quispe R, Rosales-Richard L, Valdivia-Díaz M. 2016. Identifying gender-sensitive agroforestry options: Methodological considerations from the field. Mountain Research and Development 36(4):417-430.
Jacobi J, Mathez-Stiefel S-L, Gambon H. 2016. ¿Locales, externos o integrados? El rol de los diferentes tipos de conocimientos en la agroforestería boliviana. LEISA – revista de agroecología 32(1):17–19.
Mathez-Stiefel S-L, Rist S. 2015. Ciencias de la sostenibilidad y sistemas socio-ecológicos: un marco conceptual para la investigación sobre bosques andinos [Slideshow]. Retos de Investigación para la Conservación y Manejo Sostenible de los Bosques Andinos, Lima, Peru, 14 October 2015.
Partners
Andean Forests Programme (PBA)
- Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation
- CONDESAN
Applied Research Project for Climate Change Adaptation (PIA-ACC)
- Universidad Mayor de San Andrés (La Paz)
- Universidad Mayor de San Simón (Cochabamba)
- Swiss Cooperation Office in La Paz, Bolivia