TY  - JOUR
A1  - Hartman, Brett D.
A1  - Bookhagen, Bodo
A1  - Chadwick, Oliver A.
T1  - The effects of check dams and other erosion control structures on the
restoration of Andean bofedal ecosystems
JF  - Restoration Ecology
N2  - Restoring degraded lands in rural environments that are heavily managed to meet subsistence needs is a challenge due to high rates of disturbance and resource extraction. This study investigates the efficacy of erosion control structures (ECSs) as restoration tools in the context of a watershed rehabilitation and wet meadow (bofedal) restoration program in the Bolivian Andes. In an effort to enhance water security and increase grazing stability, Aymara indigenous communities built over 15,000 check dams, 9,100 terraces, 5,300 infiltration ditches, and 35 pasture improvement trials. Communities built ECSs at different rates, and we compared vegetation change in the highest restoration management intensity, lowest restoration management intensity, and nonproject control communities. We used line transects to measure changes in vegetation cover and standing water in gullies with check dams and without check dams, and related these ground measurements to a time series (1986-2009) of normalized difference vegetation index derived from Landsat TM5 images. Evidence suggests that check dams increase bofedal vegetation and standing water at a local scale, and lead to increased greenness at a basin scale when combined with other ECSs. Watershed rehabilitation enhances ecosystem services significant to local communities (grazing stability, water security), which creates important synergies when conducting land restoration in rural development settings.
KW  - Aymara
KW  - human-environment system
KW  - indigenous people
KW  - land restoration;
 NDVI
KW  - wet meadow
Y1  - 2016
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1111/rec.12402
SN  - 1061-2971
SN  - 1526-100X
VL  - 24
SP  - 761
EP  - 772
PB  - Wiley-Blackwell
CY  - Hoboken
ER  -