In the Andes, new ways of working and of life.

William Cowper observed in The Time Piece that "mountains interposed make enemies of nations who had else, like kindred drops, been mingled into one." These words apply equally to the internal conflicts that arise over the sharing of mountain resources on which we all rely. In 1999, 23 of the world's 27 major armed conflicts were being fought in mountain regions, which occupy one quarter of the earth's land mass. Just a few years earlier, 14 of these international conflicts were being fought to control water resources. "For many communities in both highland and lowland areas, internal conflicts over the control of mountain waters are a far more real threat than international ones, and they can be just as catastrophic" (www.mountains2002.org).

Fighting over resources is just one of the many factors that threaten mountain ecosystems. So do soil erosion, loss of biodiversity and depletion of soil nutrients caused by mining, logging, deforestation and unsound agricultural practices. More than half the world's population depends on mountain water. A sustainable future means conserving and protecting these regions by ensuring that rural populations, the natural stewards of these resources, can remain in their communities and live off their land. Desarrollo Forestal Comunitario (DFC), a community forestry development project led by the UN Food and Agricultural Organization's Forest Action Plan, together with the Ecuadorian Ministry of the Environment, is helping rural Andean communities by empowering local populations to develop small industries and farming practices that incorporate traditional knowledge with environmentally sustainable agricultural and forestry methods.

One way to sustainably manage agriculture is by agroforestry, or "social forestry", which incorporates tree planting with crops and livestock management. Combining forestry technology with crop planting helps conserve the natural ecosystem and prevents soil erosion, while allowing the rural population to live productively and profitably from the land. When trees are cut down to make way for mining, logging and agriculture, the resulting soil erosion that occurs makes the land and communities more vulnerable to natural disasters such as floods and avalanches. Incorporating native tree species, such as alder, guato and walnut, on the periphery of crops, for example, prevents soil erosion, helps maintain the region's natural biodiversity and enriches the soil, allowing for greater crop yields. DFC works with more than 50 tree and shrub species, 80 per cent of which are native.

Agroforestry also has helped reverse the trend or migration. Too often, decisions regarding the resources that affect the livelihoods of rural populations are made from afar in the centres of power, politically marginalizing local farmers and forcing them to abandon their communities in search of a way to support their families. In Ecuador, where 80 per cent of the population lives in poverty, work is hard, if not impossible, to find in the lowlands. Mountain people tend to be disproportionately poorer because they are not compensated for the exploitation of the resources or the degradation of the environment that occurs to get at those resources, which are often regarded as national assets.

When rural Andeans are forced to abandon their mountain communities, an important source of knowledge is drained from the region. The loss of "ancestral knowledge", which is passed down from generation to generation and includes skills, such as methods of reproducing native species or extracting and storing seeds that are used for reproduction, endangers the potential sustainability of the special mountain ecosystems. Says Pascual Cordero, a farmer and promoter in his community: "We are born here. The solution is not to migrate but to learn new ways of working here."

Goals set by DFC when the project commenced in 1993 have been reached two years ahead of schedule. Five hundred communities, a third of those identified in the Ecuadorian Andes, have been targeted, and 700 promoters--leaders chosen by and from the local population to identify the community needs and help guide the implementation of the project--have been trained. Forty percent of the promoters are women. Though they have traditionally been excluded from the decision-making process, a major component of the project has been to empower women to take leadership roles in their communities. Initially, this was met with considerable resistance, requiring DFC to organize sensitivity training. "In the first years of the project, several men were opposed to the idea. Later, we took the strategy to train men and to sensitize them on the role that women have in our society. This has helped so much that men now have less opposition to this than the women", says Paulina Eraso, a project assistant.

Small forestry enterprises contribute to the economic growth of this region as well, including dried mushrooms, wood products, utensils, woodcrafts, basket weaving, the harvesting and exporting of medicinal plants, and handicrafts such as Tagua nut sculptures carved from the seed of a native palm tree. They help build the self-esteem of communities and enable them to stay in their natal regions, assess their own needs and control the resources generated from their activities. Projects like DFC are helping to improve the quality of life for mountain people. This will ultimately ensure a better quality of life for us all.