To share knowledge and publicize the progress and achievements of the Colorado River Delta restoration work, Gabriela Caloca Michel and Stefanny Villagomez Palma from the Water and Wetland Conservation Program presented their experiences as part of the activities of the XI Congress on Neotropical Ornithology, which took place from July 28th to August 1st in San José, Costa Rica.
Gabriela Caloca, Project Coordinator for the Water and Wetlands Program, participated in the Symposium “Current challenges and priority actions for shorebirds in the neotropics: integrating intersectional collaborations for the conservation of coastal areas” with the presentation “Collaboration between different sectors, disciplines, and countries to restore a wetland from drought: Colorado River Delta case study.”
In addition to conservation strategies and intersectional and binational collaboration, Gabriela’s talk highlighted that the interaction of different disciplines has made the restoration of the Delta habitat possible and is reflected in the population of birds that visit this site of importance as part of the migratory route.
“Interdisciplinary work is fundamental to achieving the restoration objectives. For example, if there is no water, the way to bring it is sought. It is not only about acquiring rights, you have to make floodgates, install pipes and irrigation systems; there is a lot of work that comes after the reforestation of the site,” said Caloca Michel.
She also shared that to achieve restoration it is important to conduct science, planning, and monitoring-consensus about restoration, community involvement, public policy and binational negotiation, water for the environment, protection and restoration of key sites identified strategies that since the start of the work in the Delta approximately 20 years ago have been changed or added, but that have made the restoration successful so far, both for the community and for the birds.
In addition, Stefanny Villagomez, Biological Monitoring Technician from the Delta region participated in the panel “Sociocultural Dimensions of Bird Conservation” with the presentation “Restoration and environmental flows in the Colorado River Delta: What is the response of the birds?,” in which she shared the results obtained from biological monitoring. “We studied the birds because they are part of the criteria for ecological success; their presence or absence indicates the quality of the habitat. The activities to restore the water flows in the Delta have helped to maintain the diversity of the area in addition to the conservation of the species. In general, the response of the birds in the area has been positive -both abundance and diversity have been growing,” she explained.
“The study of the birds is very important to evaluate the success of ecological restoration measures, since birds are indicators of the quality of the habitat. In general, the response of the bird populations to the restoration and the water flows in the Delta have been positive; ecological parameters like abundance and diversity have been increasing.”
These spaces facilitate “having insight into the work that is currently taking place in topics like ecology, behavior, migration, or genetics, in addition to knowing the challenges and priorities of the different countries in America, to be able to propose better conservation strategies, especially for migratory species,” concluded Villagomez Palma.
