Professionals and technicians from the Dominican Republic strengthen knowledge in watershed management

•  Ministry of Agriculture staff participated in a technical tour in Costa Rica facilitated by CATIE.
  
  

A group of professionals and technicians from the Ministry of Agriculture of the Dominican Republic participated in a technical tour in Costa Rica with the objective of strengthening knowledge and experiences in watershed management and co-management. The activity was facilitated by the Watersheds, Water Security and Soils Unit of the Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center (CATIE) and took place from July 23 to 26, 2024.

The technical tour was attended by 23 professionals, including 7 women, who are part of the project “Recovery of the natural resources of the sub-watershed of the Jamao and Veragua rivers”, executed by the Ministry of Agriculture.

“The objective of being here is to take advantage of the experience that has been generated at CATIE on the subject of watershed management, extrapolate it and take advantage of it to make more efficient use of resources in the project for the recovery of the Jamao and Veragua river sub-watershed” said José Rafael Jiménez, project technician.

The first part of the training activity took place at CATIE's campus in Turrialba, where CATIE's conceptual approaches to watershed management and co-management were shared. In addition, complementary approaches such as Nature-based Solutions (NBS) and the “from the mountain to the coast” approach were addressed, as well as social aspects of participation and inclusion in watershed co-management. Finally, practical tools for the implementation of these approaches and the contextualization of watershed planning, such as program and project zoning, were shared.

During the sessions, a set of watershed management plans were used as inputs to guide the exercises, including the management and co-management plan for the binational Pedernales river watershed(Haiti and Dominican Republic) and the management plan for the Sarapiquí river watershed (Costa Rica), which were developed with the assistance of CATIE, as well as the management plan for the Reventazón river watershed.

Finally, the activity was complemented with two field tours that allowed the participants to learn about the context of intervention in two contrasting watersheds: the Reventazón and Sarapiquí river watersheds. “In these spaces, emphasis was placed on learning about the experience of the watershed organizations that, at different stages of maturity, have been leading the management of these watersheds: COMCURE (Commission for the Management of the Reventazón River Watershed) and CODESOSA (Commission for the Sustainable Development of the Sarapiquí River Watershed); and cultural aspects such as archeology and natural history in these watersheds were also addressed,” detailed Laura Benegas Negri, director of Research in Inclusive Green Development (DIDVI) and coordinator of CATIE's Watersheds, Water Security and Soils Unit.

The project “Recovery of the natural resources of the sub-watershed of the Jamao and Veragua rivers” is led by the Ministry of Agriculture of the Dominican Republic and is being developed in the provinces of Hermanas Mirabal and Espaillat. The knowledge acquired during this technical tour will serve to complement the training and involve producers and beneficiaries of the project in the management of the sub-watershed and its natural resources.