The involvement of RPCVs in this project has been extensive-from the Washington level within the Foreign Agricultural Service to Tegucigalpa to the small villages where USDA technicians work closely with local partners and community members
Finding The Balance in Community Based Watershed Restoration: The Honduran Example
by Mike Donald (Honduras 86-88), USDA Honduras Upper Watershed Program Manager
Reactions vary. One campesino said with a smile, "I never thought this would happen here." Another asked to be paid for work to improve the road in front of his house. Other campesino groups ask for minimal assistance with materials, training or organization and then go on to take the initiative to protect their communal water supply. This small sample of reactions to watershed restoration in Honduras reflects varying approaches employed to consult community members.
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) embarked on a two year watershed restoration program after Hurricane Mitch hit Central America in October of 1998. In Honduras, the partnership between USDA and a consortium of Universities (Cornell, Purdue, and North Carolina A & T) has sought the balance between the accomplishment of projects (products) and the process by which those products are accomplished. Including community members in on the original assessment improves the chances that this program will be continued after the relatively short two year introductory phase.
Who has ever heard of watershed restoration in two years? It just doesn't happen. Even in the favorable growing conditions of Honduras' climate, the land doesn't recover from a category V Hurricane like Mitch in two years. That is why it makes sense to institutionalize the restoration process by improving the local capacity to continue restoration activities after the USDA project, with funding provided by USAID, ends in December of 2001. This often means taking things more slowly at first and not accomplishing as much as is possible in a traditional U.S. government top-down approach. But in the long run more is accomplished because the communities are intimately involved.
The partnership between Cornell University (the lead institution in the University Consortium) and USDA has exemplified the balance between process and product. The Cornell team, made up almost entirely of RPVCs, initiated a participatory diagnostic process in 5 sub-watersheds. The sub-watersheds average 1800 hectares, contain from 6 to 11 communities each, and were chosen to focus (though not exclusively) the beneficial effects of the restoration activities. The participatory diagnostics had natural resource sideboards and provided a venue in which the community members could describe their own situation and propose solutions to address self-identified problems. The direct USDA involvement came with implementation, facilitated by Cornell community organization. The Cornell team was led by Dr. Ken Schlather (Philippines 1982-84) who now directs USDA's lower watershed project in Honduras, which is rehabilitating extensive areas of damaged farmland along the Choluteca and Aguan rivers.
The involvement of RPCVs in this project has been extensive-from the Washington level within the Foreign Agricultural Service to Tegucigalpa to the small villages where USDA technicians work closely with local partners and community members. While not everyone can be mentioned, a number of RPCVs played a recurrent role in this effort. The original assessment team for the Humuya watershed included two RPCVs---Ken Schlather from Cornell (mentioned above) and Bruce Bayle of the Forest Service (Guatemala 1975-77). Bruce has continued to provide assistance along with Karen Bennett (Nepal 83-86) in water quality monitoring and in the identification of critical riparian areas needing protection. RPCV Dave Lombardo (Honduras 1975-77) assisted greatly in identifying other Honduran RPCVs who could provide valuable technical assistance. Dave, along with Allen King (Honduras 1970-72) and Glen Juergens (Honduras 1976-79) have been instrumental in undertaking activities in rural road repair and landslide mitigation. These are just some of the RPCVs who have assisted with the Mitch effort in Honduras. The project has also used current Peace Corps Volunteers and Crisis Corps Volunteers as team members to catalyze both process and product accomplishment.
USDA has relied heavily for technical expertise on natural resource management agencies for project implementation, most notably the U.S. Forest Service and the Natural Resource Conservation Service. We have used foresters, engineers, soil conservationists, biologists, soil scientists, watershed managers, agronomists, hydrologists, and geologists among other technical specialties. The technical abilities of the USDA and University Consortium personnel are only half the equation, however. The other half is the ability to work in a developing country and speak the local language. Much of the cross-cultural experience applied in the Hurricane Mitch Reconstruction Project was acquired during Peace Corps service. From language to cultural sensitivity to having the extra patience to work in a developing country and all the extra challenges that provides.
And the difference in attitude from those community members' comments? Which person is most likely to continue watershed restoration activities after the Mitch program is over? The difference is that some of those commenting came from those five focus sub-watersheds where Cornell conducted the participatory diagnostics - where the communities were involved in problem identification and prioritization. The others were from nearby villages where critical sites were addressed but participation was minimal. The lesson was confirmed: Where there is no community participation, there is no sustainability.
