Participatory water monitoring (PaWaMo)

Abstract

Well-maintained watershed functions are caused by well-managed river flows, especially when supported by social institutions that maintain a balance between individual and public interests. Today, people increasingly realize that by planting trees with economic value in their agricultural system they are also maintaining watershed functions at the same time because trees help stabilise hill slopes as well as prevent soil loss through erosion and water flow. However, issues related to watershed management are not only a matter of planting an amount of critical land with trees. Watershed management has different dimensions and each problem requires a different approach. Overcoming problems of landscape management requires open communication between everyone involved (researchers, community members and government policy-makers) leading to negotiation and agreement in joint rehabilitation actions. Integrated understanding about a watershed and its characteristics is required to inform these processes, including 1) the interaction between landscape and rainfall; and 2) the landscape as water organisms’ habitat functioning as an indicator of water quality and pollution levels