International Humedales costeros - a project competition The wetlands on the Pacific coast of South America form a valuable chain of areas of great ecological value with a high degree of endemism and of vital importance for numerous bird species. They are of great socio-cultural importance because of their beauty and the ecosystem services they provide to local communities, but at the same time they are very fragile and subject to great anthropic pressure. Report by Johannes Burmeister The Action Plan, developed in a participatory This initiative covers coastal wetlands along the manner during the previous phase of the Coas- entire arid-semi-arid coast of the South American tal Wetlands Initiative, promotes cooperation Pacific. The approach is to create a dynamic wet- between various stakeholders in Chile, Peru and land conservation at regional level by promoting Ecuador on the conservation of coastal wetlands cooperation between different actors, defining and coastal birds on the arid-semiarid coast of and prioritising lines of action and supporting the South American Pacific. This Action Plan pro- their implementation. vides a framework for coordinated conservation work between the various stakeholders; it defi- In the first phase of this initiative (2015) we nes priority areas, strategies, activities and spe- carried out a conservation status assessment of cific objectives for wetland conservation, coastal 34 wetlands between Piura in northern Peru and bird protection and networking at regional level, Los Vilos in central-northern Chile. We then con- involving stakeholders from the public, private tacted local stakeholders and promoted dialogue and non-profit sectors. between decision-makers through meetings with government authorities, academics and NGOs in To put this plan into practice, we have laun- Chile, Peru and then in Ecuador. At the same time ched a project competition that encourages lo- we promoted the initiative in relevant seminars cal non-profit organisations and universities to and congresses in the region. develop their own ideas, use their individual ca- 77 pacities and implement each of the components Proposals of the Action Plan according to the needs for the By the end of the application window, a total of protection of their local coastal wetlands. 27 project proposals had been received; 14 from Chile, 8 from Peru and 5 from Ecuador. After re- Scope ceipt of the project proposals, each proposal was On the occasion of the World Wetlands Day (Feb- first checked by our team for its admissibility, i.e. ruary 02, 2019) we published the action plan and for compliance with the general criteria of the launched the project competition. The news was competition. In cases where information or docu- spread at a series of events organized in Chile ments about the applicant organization, letters and Peru on the occasion of the World Wetlands of support, etc. were missing, we gave the appli- Day, and a dedicated website (www.humeda- cants the opportunity to complete their proposal. lescostero.org) was launched, containing all rele- vant information for potential applicants. The dissemination of the competition was sup- ported by the Ministry of Environment of Chile and Ecuador, and we used social networks and newsletters. The application window was open for a period of 3 months, from 15 February to 15 May 2019. Committee of the Coastal Wetlands Initiative Within the framework of this project, we have set up the committee of our initiative, which is made up of representatives of our supporting organisa- tions and the environmental ministries of Chile, Peru and Ecuador. The Atlas of Coastal Wetlands has a Geographic Information System that covers all wetlands on the Pacific coast of South America and a wealth of information and data relevant to the The first task of this committee was to evalu- conservation of these sites. ate the project proposals of this competition ac- cording to a uniform evaluation scheme in order to support the selection process of the winning Despite our efforts, 5 proposals that did not meet projects. In the future, we intend to involve the the criteria or where missing information was not committee in the evaluation of the funded pro- provided in time had to be excluded in the end. In jects and to seek its advice on the planning of the case of Ecuador in particular, the proportion ongoing activities and the strategic direction of of non-compliant proposals was very high; only the initiative. 2 out of 5 proposals passed our admissibility check. The remaining 22 proposals were evalua- Evaluation procedure ted by the committee members and the average The evaluation of all the proposals that we recei- score for each of the projects was calculated. ved and that complied with the conditions set out in the competition guidelines was carried out by According to the average score resulting from the the committee. Committee‘s evaluation, analysis of the individu- al comments and consideration of the comple- The committee members evaluated each pro- mentarity of the individual projects in implemen- posal independently using a template provided ting the Action Plan, a total of ten projects were by us. The criteria used in the evaluation of the selected: proposals were the same as those set out in the 78 guidelines for applicants. Strengthening local capacities for participatory and fragile ecosystems by conducting research monitoring of coastal birds in mangrove areas and conservation activities. By creating allian- (Ecuador) ces with the public and private sectors to work Birds & Conservation is a national partner of Brid- together on awareness campaigns, the project Life with the mission to support the conservation includes media campaigns, the organisation of of birds, their habitat and biodiversity in general special festivals and the painting of murals dedi- in Ecuador. As a very active and ambitious mem- cated to coastal birds and coastal wetlands. The ber of the international community for the con- aim is to raise awareness, increase appreciation servation of coastal birds, it has designed and is of these ecosystems and inspire pride in coastal now continuing the plan for the conservation of wetlands and their birdlife among the local popu- coastal birds in Ecuador. The project concerns an lation in order to gain support for the Eten wet- important coastal bird sanctuary with mangroves and extensive tidal swamps in a large estuary of the Gulf of Guayaquil. Based on previous ef- forts, 60 members of 3 local garbage fishermen associations will be trained to participate in the long-term monitoring of the avifauna present in the area, especially coastal birds, to observe changes in the abundance and richness of bird species. Strengthening of research, administration and institutionality for the environmental manage- ment of the coastal wetlands of Pisco and San Andrés (Peru) The civil association Grupo de Aves del Perú (GAP) has a long history in the research and con- The herbicide bottle found under the washed up plastic waste servation of birds in Peru. It consists of local wor- in a coastal wetland illuminates the manifold threats to the sensitive ecosystems along the coast. king groups in different parts of the country de- dicated to the protection of birds in their natural habitats. The project combines different aspects land to become a protected area and to improve of the Action Plan and focuses on the coastal wetland management in general. wetlands of Pisco and San Andrés. By combining activities such as scientific fieldwork and the de- The guardians of the wetlands (Peru) sign and dissemination of educational materials The Universidad Científica del Sur, with more than with workshops for decision-makers and local 10 years of experience in teaching and research stakeholders, the project aims to create know- in the field of wetland ecology, is conceived as ledge and appreciation of these ecosystems and one of the most important research institutes and their biodiversity and to develop a management producers of knowledge related to Peru‘s coastal plan for the conservation of these wetlands. wetlands. It has played a key role in the first wet- land congresses (2017 and 2019) and has made Getting to know our wetlands at the festivals on an important contribution to the protection of the north coast of Peru (Peru) wetlands at national level. The project takes an The Center for Ornithology and Biodiversity (COR- innovative approach to capacity building for on- BIDI) is a Peruvian NGO that brings together lea- going research, monitoring and environmental ding researchers from Peru and abroad with a education. Students from academic institutions common interest in bird conservation and biodi- in and around Lima have the opportunity to par- versity. Its mission is to promote science and dis- ticipate in a specially designed training course seminate knowledge about endangered species and become official „wetland conservationists“. 79 The goal of assembling a group of 30 students birds and wildlife in Chile through research, pu- from several study areas will certainly provide a blic relations, science and environmental edu- high quality, interdisciplinary education, crea- cation, working with a group of ornithologists ting a powerful group of young professionals distributed along the Chilean coast and an ex- committed to wetland conservation. tensive network of volunteers. The project aims to conserve two emblematic coastal bird species Pichilemu coastal wetlands: On the way to con- (H. palliates and C. nivosus) that nest in the sand servation (Chile) dunes that surround the coastal wetlands, and The Centre for Sustainable Development of Pichi- finally to preserve these highly threatened habi- lemu (CEDESUS) is a local non-profit organisation tats in central and northern Chile. The approach that promotes and supports the protection and consists in the creation of a monitoring program- restoration of the natural and cultural herita- me and a network for the reproduction of these ge around the small but touristically developed birds, which will be implemented during one year coastal fishing village of Pichilemu.