Desarrollo de un modelo conceptual para la gestión ambiental integral en ecosistemas de páramo

Abstract

El uso inadecuado del terreno y la intensificación de actividades agropecuarias en los páramos del macizo colombiano, han generado el deterioro progresivo en la estructura, composición y función de estos socioecosistemas. Esta realidad, ha incidido directamente en el desarrollo sostenible, la productividad y el posicionamiento de la región, afectando también las condiciones de vida de sus comunidades limitando el acceso a una oferta natural cada vez más escasa.

El cambio en el uso del suelo y las dinámicas aleatorias de transformación del territorio, en busca del crecimiento económico, dan testimonio de la ausencia de conceptos y modelos propios para gestionar el ambiente; recayendo constantemente en la implementación de instrumentos foráneos poco eficientes e inadecuados para los contextos socioambientales de los ecosistemas estratégicos paramunos en el Cauca.

Sumado a esto, los procesos de gestión ambiental han tenido un carácter jerárquico, multidisciplinario y compartimentalizado que no ha permitido avanzar en el entendimiento sistémico e interdisciplinar de las interacciones entre procesos naturales y antrópicos; en este sentido la acciones adelantadas por la sociedad se han basado en diferentes cosmovisiones que conllevan acciones ambientales disimiles adoleciendo de articulación y complementariedad en la mayoría de los casos.

Por ello, esta tesis propone una narrativa conceptual (modelo), fundada en un nuevo episteme de “Mestizaje de intervención ambiental” que reconoce la complejidad de las holoregiones paramunas, incorporando la heterogeneidad social y la diversidad natural como elementos complementarios que le otorgan propiedades emergentes distintivas a estos territorios, bajo una lógica de glocalidad rural en escalas espaciales y temporales dinámicas.

The inadequate land use and the intensification of agricultural activities in the paramo of the Colombian massif have generated a progressive deterioration in the structure, composition and function of these socio-ecosystems. This reality has directly affected the sustainable development, productivity and positioning of the region, also disturbing the living conditions of their communities, limiting the access to an increasingly scarce natural supply. The land use change and the random territory transformation dynamics for economic growth, testify the absence of concepts and models managing the environment; constantly relying on the implementation of foreign instruments, which are inefficient and inadequate for the socio-environmental contexts of the strategic Cauca´s paramos ecosystems. In addition, these environmental management processes had a hierarchical, multidisciplinary and compartmentalized approach which has limited the systemic and interdisciplinary understanding of the interactions between natural and anthropic processes; in this sense the actions carried out by society have been based on different cosmovisions mostly involving dissimilar environmental actions without articulation and complementarity focus . For this reason, this thesis proposes a conceptual narrative (model), based on a new episteme of "Environmental Mestizaje" that recognizes the complexity of the paramo´s holoregions to incorporate social heterogeneity and natural diversity as complementary elements to enhance emergent properties with distinctive aspects to these territories, framed in a rural glocality logic with its spatial and temporal dynamic and scales. In this sense, the concepts of socioecological systems (SES), holon and region were articulated, merging them into an epistemic narrative, which conceived the paramo as a holoregion, defining it as a complex socio-encosystem environmentally glocalized with its emerging properties, multilevel structure, combined comprehension processes, learning and management, that allows to live in a changing environment. In this thesis, theoretical and conceptual inputs were integrated in the proposed conceptual model for integral environmental management in the paramo as a socioecosystem; with an holistic approach, through the delimitation of the system of interest, the configuration of its components, the identification of multilevel interactions that occur between the parts and the whole to arrive at the formal representation of the conceptual model. For this, mixed methods were used for the application and representation of the model in the considered holoregions, mapping the operating of 18 indicators and establishing the spatiotemporal trajectories at the mesoscale (semi-detailed) level. Considering the above, this doctoral thesis studied the forms of environmental management in three different regions of interest: i) Pilimbalá sector - Puracé river sub - basin, ii) San Rafael sector - Bedón river basin (Puracé) and iii) Calvache-Gabriel López wetland sector - Palacé river basin (Totoró), analyzing its dynamics in three temporalities a) 1960-1980, b) 1980-2000 and c) present (2000-2014). In the analyzed areas, it was found that for all social groups the governance and self-organization is a determining factor for the development of their collective environmental actions for satisfying their needs and safeguarding their interests; in holoregions where the relationship between individuals – system- authority is merged to social regulation, environmental management can support the achievement of the common purposes of development according to their worldview of the territory, this is clearly observed in the first scenario (Pilimbala-Puracé ). In these holoregions, economic overs environmental rationality directing the anthropic intervention, a situation that has caused the replacement for capital (especially natural) into a weak sustainability scheme that favors the loss of diversity, the reduction of natural landcovers and the paramo´s environmental services, determining the conditions in the three zones for the period 1960-2014. The indicators shows that thin the holoregions the ecological diversity and the social heterogeneity is unknown, with a unique scheme of environmental management driving the detriment observed in the specified socio socio-systems. Finally, the work establishes a different conceptual path facing the challenges of environmental management, recognizing that the mestization of environmental intervention and the combined environment understanding are emerging properties inherent to each holoregion of the páramo in Colombia and other latitudes, This situation justifies the development of different planning and management strategies, pertinent to each context, built from the social base in the understanding of glocalization.