Living Land

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ing the complexity and multiple cause-effect relationships

and, above all, for not considering that dryland people are

the major resource in these lands. They know the problems

and potentials of drylands and have developed knowledge,

technologies and skills to produce under restrictive condi-

tions. However, they have been not only ignored, but also

blamed for generating desertification. Traditional land use

methods were often abandoned and replaced by foreign

solutions which in many cases only managed to exacerbate

poverty. Nevertheless, especially in recent times, successful

experiences have been achieved by organizations that were

able to listen to the local people, learn about their prob-

lems and priorities and rescue their knowledge in order to

find shared solutions, putting into practice the concepts

of participation, bottom-up planning, gender sensitization,

reinforcement of identity processes and fighting against

exclusion. In this context, the Demonstrative Production

Unit (DPU) experience is presented, with active participa-

tion of local communities in the Lavalle desert.

The DPU initiative emerged in 2002 as the result

of international cooperation. The Argentine Dryland

Research Institute (IADIZA), Spallanzani Institute and

the Desertification Research Centre (University of Sassari)

conducted a feasibility study and started working on

raising awareness and empowering local communities.

With the support of the United Nations Convention to

Combat Desertification Global Mechanism, a research-

action programme was designed to generate strategies

for local development and production diversification to

combat desertification and poverty. The proposal leans on

three pillars (natural, economic and sociocultural compo-

nents) and, through local development, aims at achieving

a better land use, improving and diversifying goat produc-

tion, reducing livestock pressure and increasing producers’

income. It combines innovative aspects of desertification

assessment and monitoring, recovery and management

of degraded lands for forage production, adaptation to

global change, optimization of water resources, revegeta-

tion, establishment of nurseries, herd sanitation, design of

DPUs directed towards production diversification (healthy

goat milk and by-products), capacity-building in the local

population and government, halting of migration through

business opportunities and youth employment, train-

ing of specialized technicians, promotion of producers’

associations and technical assistance for product trading.

The work combines diverse methodologies: participatory

assessment procedures, thematic mapping, participant

observation, remote sensing, field control and establish-

ment of measurement plots.

The DPU experience is set in the El Junquillal local-

ity (Lavalle, Mendoza), located in the non-irrigated area:

the desert. The territory exceeds 1 million hectares with

indigenous communities, with a population reduced by

migration and poverty to only 3,500 people (0.5 inhab-

itant/km

), grouped in small settlements (hamlets built

with adobe bricks). More than 31 per cent of their basic

needs are unsatisfied and they have an illiteracy rate of

8.2 per cent. They are entirely devoted to subsistence

goat production. The population self-identifies as being

of Huarpe ancestry, and the productive activities they

Members of the DPU community make brooms from rattan, one of the Lavalle desert’s natural resources

Images: IADIZA

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