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recovery of the fields. The experience involves a profound

change in the traditional extensive livestock management

system: with only 28 goats coming into the system of the

DPU, the profit obtained is equal to that generated by 200

goats under the current method of livestock use. The system

would need only 56 goats to double the monthly income

of the family group, versus more than 400 goats with the

current model. Other activities related to the utilization of

the area’s natural resources include production of brooms

from collecting rattan (junquillo), manufacturing ecologi-

cal bricks with local materials for the construction of the

DPU, genetic improvement of goats to keep them rustic and

to produce better milk in larger quantities, and nurseries of

native species with low water requirement for the revegeta-

tion of degraded areas. Training, community empowerment

and local government interest are the factors that ensure that

the enterprise keeps running when IADIZA withdraws the

project. The community has learned and, without intermedi-

aries, has established links with national and local agencies

to access projects that keep this line.

The DPU experience shows that it is possible to promote

an integral development so that communities at risk become

able to support themselves with dignity, in health and pros-

perity. At the same time, those communities are considering

basic principles such as recovery of cultural guidelines; iden-

tity; knowledge of traditional lifestyles; and the creativity

to associate those guidelines with new possibilities derived

from the knowledge of ecosystem structure, functioning

and production capacity. It is an approach that highlights

dryland environments and their sociocultural aspects of

food production and consumption, and innovation in the

production alternatives for a healthy diet and a decent life,

by applying technological advances adapted to the needs and

requirements of the community.

The initiative is an integrated one and involves envi-

ronmental, social and economic dimensions, so during

these years the results have increased impact in and

outside the community. The case was a Land Degradation

Assessment in Drylands pilot site and is currently a pilot

site of the National Observatory of Land Degradation and

Desertification, which ensures high visibility and potential

for replication in areas with similar problems.

Current results indicate that dialogue and joint work

among populations, local governments, research institutes

and international financing agencies are of great impor-

tance for the coherence, depth and continuity of actions to

combat desertification. It is necessary to work in interdis-

ciplinary teams, which go beyond the fragmentary visions

of scientific specialities. Experience indicates this as the

best way to work on mitigating the adverse consequences

of desertification and reach its invisible causes, transcend-

ing isolated cases to tackle complex and dynamic problems

at territory scale. Dialogues with local populations must

exceed consultation levels, generating active processes of

empowerment and equality in terms of decision-making.

Systematic work with populations affected in their rights

denotes the importance of attending, in the short term,

to the possibilities of social reproduction of the groups,

solving their unmet basic needs. Only thus will environ-

mental, social and economic balance be possible.

Construction of the water supply system for the DPU in the desert of Lavalle, Mendoza

Images: IADIZA

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