Community climate monitoring, a strategy for climate adaptability from the territories

This Wednesday, March 23, the date on which World Meteorological Day is commemorated, the Colombian Ministry of Environment highlighted the leadership of the territories in the work of community monitoring, a measure that allows us to study and understand the climate in order to make decisions and seek mechanisms for adaptability to climate change.

The Ambiente portfolio highlighted the importance of data collection for communities, because in this way regions can learn some climatic conditions such as soil moisture, which allows them to identify if conditions are optimal for planting, a characteristic of relevance because with the change climate, farmers are no longer certain of the ideal times to plant their produce.

In this regard, the head of the Environment portfolio, Carlos Eduardo Correa, pointed out that communities are indispensable for this activity, “since they can collect information regardless of geographical location”, which becomes relevant, because in some parts of the national territory there is no hydrometeorological information or network.

“That is why, by empowering communities and teaching them how data is taken, they will be able to understand what they need to do so that the effects of climate change do not harm their daily lives, the production of their farms, and they can adapt to new ways of life, among other aspects,” said the Minister of Environment.

Some communities in the country have tools such as the rain gauge, a cone-shaped container that allows them to measure the amount of rain that falls on each of their properties, through which they can know how many millimeters of water falls per square meter, as well as the thermo-hygrometer, an instrument used mainly for monitor the temperature and relative humidity of the environment, whereby recording the minimum and maximum temperature.

For its part, the Environment portfolio noted that through the Directorate for Climate Change and Risk Management, it carries out projects that enhance community climate monitoring, as one of the strategic measures for adaptation with simple instruments that can be used in the regions, among which initiatives are highlighted such as 'Adaptation to the impacts of climate change on water resources of the Andes (Aicca) in Colombia'.

“Similarly, the 'Mojana, Climate and Life' initiative, developed by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and Minambiente, which has the Regional Centre for Forecast and Early Warning of La Mojana, which allows hydrometeorological and climate monitoring of the region and the dissemination of information for the collection of decisions in territorial entities, agricultural sector, peasants, among others,” said the portfolio.

Finally, he highlighted the project 'Building Capacity to Adapt to Climate Change through Food Security and Nutrition Actions in Vulnerable Afro and Indigenous Communities in the Colombia-Ecuador Border Area', which adopts a participatory early warning system of climate watches with approaches to the management of risk, and the strategy 'Adaptation to Climate Change', financed by the GEF fund, to monitor the four prioritized micro-watersheds of the Guandoque River, San Francisco, Chipatá and Chisacá, in Cundinamarca.

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