Hidroituango: How to Reach Adaptive Management to Recover Part of the Ecosystem Connectivity in the Cauca River Basin in Colombia

Abstract

With the worldwide rapid population increase seen in the past century, the electric energy demand increased also dramatically. In Colombia this led to a boom in the construction of hydroelectric plants in the late 60ies. Today, some accidents while the construction of the biggest plant in the country, Hidroituango, revealed a series of errors made through all those years and opened up a discussion on how to address management focused on the environmental protection of riverine systems in this and similar projects in the Country. Adaptive management has proven to be an effective alternative when giving solutions to this kind of problems. Successful implementation cases have been found in the Colorado and Columbia rivers (In the U.S.A) among others. Similar adaptive management processes can be applied in Colombia. However, there must be considered many local variables as well as political, social, economic and some others interests and complications.