Kyegaguas

Work Areas

Main CEPA work area

Communication: We usually create various art pieces that try to resemble the life living in the wetland and we are active in social media (like Instagram, Whatsapp and LinkedIn) to share about our activities with our followers or from profiles encouraging solutions to environmental problems, reshare key content from partners or local allies, receive expressions of interest to collaborate, and make denouncements when necessary.
Education: We coordinate different education processes that root from popular ideals. On the one hand, we seek to preserve the environmental history of El Burro wetland, as well as other nearby wetlands. We share about how human activity has changed these ecosystems over time and how communities and civil society organizations have pressured institutions to take action and advance restoring them. On the other hand, we highlight the relevancy of interconnectivity of the Main Ecological Structure of the city, and how wetlands are vital for adapting to climate change, guarantee habitat for native and migratory species and improve air quality. We do this by implementing different methodologies in collaboration with other organizations and institutions and giving tools to visitors so that they can join our efforts in the mid or long-term.
Participation: We encourage participation of civil society by organizing ecological tours that allow people to get to know the ecosystem and by exercising our oversight rights over decision making spaces with institutions. We follow up agreements about institutional contracts and legal documents, and demand for less bureaucratic practices so that efforts can show results faster.
Awareness-raising: As part of our activities, we encourage monitoring of biodiversity and other ecosystem features so that people can understand what the current status of life in the wetland is. We practice photography to showcase native species and raise awareness of the problems they face, while also fostering curiosity within visitors as much as possible and can start sensing how their lives depend on healthy ecosystems.

Top three successes

1. Birdwatching guide: We worked hard to produce our own birdwatching guide of all of the wetlands of Bogotá. We launch it by inviting many of our partners and allies and sharing the process behind it. Many people across the environmental movement are using it in their own activities and it has united us a lot as a collective. Institutions also supported it and consider it a great resource for all ecological tours that take place in the wetland.
2. Water walls and days: This was the result of a successful collaboration we built and after a full day of activities to embellish the entrance of the wetland. We planted flowers and native trees, decorated a new sculpture, and picked up waste while also sharing our knowledge with people who had never visited an urban ecosystem before. Institutions also recognized the water walls as part of the official infrastructure of the wetland.
3. Citizen science processes: After a series of workshops about environmental monitoring, we were able to strengthen our relationships with other collectives who were interested in working towards protecting the wetland. We have now built a network of allies that have experience in oversight and in evaluating impact in terms of water quality, noise pollution and soil health.

Top three challenges

1. We have learned that we should work as a team in a more meaningful and conscious way while having visitors. Wetlands offer a space to breathe cleaner air and keep calm, but our role is to also encourage more people to feel connected to them. By committing to our collective responsibilities instead of focusing only on our individual priorities or idleness whilst inside urban wetlands, we make sure that our organization stays united, and alliances and visitors come back with ideas of collaboration.
2. Another example is role distribution and feedback. We have had occasions when we have missed the importance of expressing our opinions and feedback after projects have been implemented. Assessing impact and creating followup plans after big collaborations usually falls on a couple of people, when in reality more people participated in planning, doing outreach, etc. By redistributing tasks and honoring feedback, we can ensure our activities are useful and sustainable.
3. On the other hand, something we are still learning to do better is fundraising and outreach. We have been flexible and creative to make sure we can sustain ourselves over time, but we can improve our overall economic performance by reaching out to funders with more ideas and looking for ways our work can be more visible. We have negotiated with enterprises and have put effort into applying to different funding opportunities, and very recently we have worked more on international collaborations.