By German Bernal
From its source in the Nevado del Huila – Moras páramo (within the Nevado del Huila National Natural Park) to its confluence with the iconic Magdalena River, the Saldaña River flows through a watershed that spans nearly 996,000 hectares in the department of Tolima. Along its approximately 363-kilometer course, it runs through 10 municipalities, sustaining a wide variety of ecosystems and providing water for industry, agriculture, commerce, and domestic use.
Due to its importance—and in light of the impacts caused by certain productive activities—the Saldaña River: A Basin of Life alliance was created in 2016 to support its conservation. The initiative began with the collaboration of WCS, Concretos Argos, and Colombia’s National Natural Parks.
Geographically, the project has focused its efforts on the upper part of the watershed, a vast area where—based on the identified negative impacts—various actions have been implemented. These include ecological restoration efforts and interventions aimed at making agricultural systems more environmentally friendly.
Why focus only on the upper watershed?
Lina Caro, Coordinator of Sustainable Landscapes at WCS Colombia, explains that addressing the entire watershed would be a monumental task that exceeds the operational capacity of the alliance. “That’s why,” she says, “we analyzed the existing threats and the priorities of the partners, ultimately deciding to prioritize the protection of water sources originating in the high mountain areas. By safeguarding these zones, we help sustain the entire system.” This approach led to the selection of three sub-watersheds that feed into the Saldaña River—Amoyá, Cucuana, and Siquila—where specific conservation actions are now underway.Lina led the implementation of this strategy from its inception through 2024. “At first, we envisioned a six-month initiative. But as we progressed, more needs and opportunities emerged. Thanks to effective collaboration, Fundación Grupo Argos and Cortolima joined the alliance, and over time we gained the support of other organizations such as the Franklinia Foundation, the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development, the Presidential Agency for International Cooperation of Colombia, Fundación Alto Magdalena, and Hocol,” she recalls. The alliance also includes the active participation of local communities.
What started as a six-month effort has now grown into over nine years of continuous work. This long-term vision, says Germán Rodríguez, head of the Las Hermosas – Gloria Valencia de Castaño National Natural Park, has been key. “It’s essential to understand that we cannot act in isolation. That’s why we set out to build collaborations that would enable more effective action in a region that truly needs it. Together with local communities, we aim to ensure the continuity of the watershed’s ecosystem services, upon which we all depend.”
Allied with the people
Reaching these sub-watersheds was no easy task. In addition to their remote location and difficult access in the Central Andes, these territories bear a history marked by adversity. Danilo Bravo—until recently the Deputy Director of Environmental Planning and Sustainable Development at Cortolima—explains: “In the beginning, there was tension with the communities, as we had been absent for years due to the violence that affected this region. Through the alliance, we began to overcome that initial distrust and gradually built stronger relationships with the people.”
This trust is now reflected in the numerous voluntary conservation agreements signed by several farming families living in the three sub-watersheds, which are located in the municipalities of Chaparral (Amoyá River), Roncesvalles (Cucuana River), and Planadas (Siquila River).
“When we first arrived in the area, one of the hardest tasks was negotiating with the people to help them understand why it was important to intervene in productive practices and create better conditions for natural resources. However, today, it’s the local residents who approach us because they’re interested in establishing and signing these agreements,” says Fanny González, Conservation Areas Specialist and current coordinator of the alliance at WCS Colombia.
As voluntary agreements, these commitments represent a free choice based on the belief in environmental benefits. The institutions offer the community both material and human resources to carry out interventions, including planting native and endangered species, protecting water sources and forested areas, implementing sustainable livestock practices, and treating coffee wastewater and other residues, among others.
In turn, the signatories commit to maintaining forest areas on their properties and protecting water sources. They also participate in various training activities that provide the necessary knowledge to ensure the long-term sustainability of these conservation processes.
To date, 72 voluntary agreements have been signed by landowners in these three communities of the Central Mountain Range. Additionally, three plots of land owned by Cortolima have also been intervened with some implementations, and 15 families have received the necessary support to register their lands as Civil Society Natural Reserves (RNSC) or Other Effective Area-Based Conservation Measures (OMEC). In total, this entire effort covers 9,499 hectares that are already protecting the water, ecosystem, and biodiversity wealth of this corner of the Andean Tolima.
Ensuring sustainability
For María Camila Villegas, director of the Fundación Grupo Argos (FGA), “the value of this alliance lies in its comprehensiveness. In her own words, 'none of the components alone can solve the issue of water security, they complement each other. What we are looking for here, at different levels, is the water security of the region.'”
Catalina Gutiérrez, director of WCS Colombia, confirms this: “Of all our initiatives, this one best represents the integration of the components required for watershed-scale work, and it successfully combines different aspects for the conservation of water resources.” This means that, for example, while ecological restoration processes are underway, there is also an effort to influence productive practices to mitigate water source pollution.
Perhaps this is why the few months of work initially planned have turned into more than 9 years. Andrea Narváez, environmental professional at Concretos Argos for the central region of the country, states without hesitation: “We exceeded expectations!” She adds: “This project, which started with specific goals, has, over time, brought significant benefits not only for the human communities but also for the fauna, flora, and ecosystems in general. This led all partners to renew the agreement and extend it for another 5 years, starting in 2024.”
With this, the number of conservation actions and the area where these interventions take place will be expanded. Additionally, it will maintain other benefits for the people living in these territories, such as communication and environmental education processes, as well as basic sanitation practices.
In this regard, María Camila Villegas explains: “We have incorporated some strategies that the Fundación Grupo Argos (FGA) had already been implementing in other areas of Colombia, which aim to provide communities with access to safe and clean water.” In line with this, the alliance has placed 337 clay filters in rural homes to purify drinking water. It has also installed two water trees (towers that store filtered water) to supply up to 2,000 people with each one.
In the educational field, in addition to the training sessions in which the signatories of the voluntary conservation agreements participate, the “Verde Vivo” program has been implementing a strategy in the region’s educational institutions where students and teachers lead good environmental practices.
Additionally, inspired by the Ecoparches of Parques Nacionales Naturales de Colombia, the alliance created a local communication collective called Amosiqui. This collective, which is entirely made up of people from the rural areas of Tolima, generates outreach content in various formats, making different calls for the conservation of natural resources.
To date, Amosiqui has produced 6 mural newspapers, 8 radio spots, a traveling exhibition with 24 illustrations of the flora and fauna representative of the mountainous ecosystems, two murals, and a podcast series that will soon be released.
Achieving the sustainability of a strategy like this over time requires professionalism and a significant budget. The allied institutions agree that continuing this initiative is a challenge well worth taking on. Lina Caro expresses her excitement as she recalls, “One of the pivotal moments during this experience was when I heard the landowners speak, with complete conviction, about the importance of conservation and the positive impact that is being achieved by doing all of this.”
We can therefore say that the Saldaña River is life from start to finish, and today it has a “river of people” by its side, taking care of the health of its basin and its beautiful flow.