2. Connecting local populations to the cryosphere in Chile

In central Chile, the cryosphere is the main source of water, with snow accounting for 85% of streamflow variance (Masiokas and others, Reference Masiokas, Villalba, Luckman, Quesne and Aravena2006) and generally being more important than glaciers the further north one travels in the region (Masiokas and others, Reference Masiokas2020). Whilst Chile contains approximately 84% of glaciers in South America (Masiokas and others, Reference Masiokas2020), only 10% of ice bodies in Chile are found in semiarid and arid regions (Barcaza and others, Reference Barcaza2017), but here the cryosphere provides water for over 10 million inhabitants. However, very few people are aware of these glaciers found high in the Andes, and in such dry environments. The apparent lack of connection between inhabitants and snow and ice is not a new phenomenon. Whilst likely not the first to identify this disconnection, Lliboutry (Reference Lliboutry1956) lamented in the introduction to his work on Chilean snow and glaciers that whilst the snow-capped mountains were front and centre in the national anthem, they were not often in the daily consciousness of the general population. One might argue that over the last two decades, this has started to change (Fernández and others, Reference Fernández, MacDonell, Somos-Valenzuela and González-Reyes2021). Firstly the threat of mining impacts brought glaciers into a general conversation (e.g. Brenning, Reference Brenning2008), and then as impacts of climate change became more evident (e.g. Masiokas and others, Reference Masiokas2020), those discussions became more urgent. They have led to the ongoing development and debate of glacier protection and preservation (Iribarren Anacona and others, Reference Iribarren Anacona2018), and even to the mention of glaciers in the proposed new constitutional texts, voted down in 2022 (Mendoza, Reference Mendoza2022). These debates have often been polarising, and whilst much can come from debate, inclusive decision-making requires information exchange, a willingness to listen and to accept difference or uncertainty. In the spirit of open communication, dialogue and collaboration, for the last decade, cryosphere scientists and outreach teams at CEAZA have been working together with local communities and stakeholders to break down knowledge transfer barriers and to work towards more informed decision-making at all levels. This move was largely precipitated by the ongoing mega drought in northern and central Chile which began in 2010 and which has severely impacted the primary sector, as well as potable water for rural households. As well as prolonged period of low precipitation amounts, problems were exacerbated by a lack of necessary information to take informed decisions at both national and local levels. This work has spanned much of Chile, but the core programmes have focussed primarily on the Coquimbo Region.

3. The Coquimbo Region

The Coquimbo Region straddles the southern margin of the Atacama Desert and extends towards the central region of Chile (Fig. 1). Mining, agriculture and fishing are significant industries in the region and sources of conflict with respect to water and environmental concerns (Carranza and others, Reference Carranza2020), but also help to explain many of the current and original distribution of settlements by the Diaguitas peoples and more recent arrivals.

Figure 1.

Map of the Coquimbo Region showing sites of interest used in community-based programmes: (a) shows the whole region with an inset of Chile in South America; (b) shows the La Laguna catchment in the upper Elqui Valley, where the Tapado Glacier and La Laguna station are located; (c) shows the Estero Derecho catchment. The DEM is from ASF DAAC (2015), and the glacier inventory is from Dirección General de Aguas (2022).

The region is designated semiarid, and has a mean precipitation rate of approximately 167 mm a⁻¹ in the upper headwater catchments (Robson and others, Reference Robson2022). Precipitation is seasonal, falling principally in the austral winter (May – August) and follows a strong orographic gradient. Annual rates are mainly conditioned by ENSO patterns, such that larger precipitation events are generally experienced during El Niño periods (Kinnard and others, Reference Kinnard2020; Réveillet and others, Reference Réveillet2020). The cryosphere drives streamflow in most catchments, with snow melt augmenting flows during spring and summer, and glaciers providing additional flow principally during late summer and autumn (Masiokas and others, Reference Masiokas2020).

Following the 2022 update of the Chilean national glacier inventory, there are ca. 900 glaciers (including mountain, debris-covered and rock glaciers) in the region and they can be found along the length of the mountain chain (Dirección General de Aguas, 2022). Rock glaciers cover the largest total area, but the largest individual, and most studied, glacier complex is the Tapado Glacier (1.25 km², 30.1$^\circ$S, Robson and others, Reference Robson2022), which also contains two rock glacier tongues (0.85 km²). Tapado Glacier has shown significant retreat of the clean ice section (−28.4%) and expansion of the debris-covered area over the last 50 years (Robson and others, Reference Robson2022), which is likely due to changes in precipitation rates (Kinnard and others, Reference Kinnard2020).

4. Reflections on undertaking community based programmes in the Coquimbo Region

As the cryosphere plays such a fundamental role in providing water in this region, we have worked with the wider community to gather data and information to improve early estimations of the regional water balance (Favier and others, Reference Favier, Falvey, Rabatel, Praderio and López2009). To that end, at CEAZA we have worked together with community groups, public and private sector entities, as well as individuals to enhance connections with scientific information, support local development and to improve the science we do. Shared work has included the co-creation of projects, the execution of citizen science programmes and the facilitation of logistical support as well as information (Table 1). The impulse behind these programmes has been to develop continuous interactions, that enhance the ongoing relationships between the community and researchers. Some programmes or products have been picked up by the local community after development and subsequently led or implemented by locals (e.g. Water Academy and Andesita), which means that in some cases whilst CEAZA may not be directly involved in leading the programme anymore, the initiative does not end. Some programmes also morph into a new state of relationship, for example, CEAZA has provided information for the applications by local communities to have parts of their territories designated as nature sanctuaries. In these cases, once the application is approved, the relationship morphs into one of advising, or of undertaking science that links to the aims of the nature sanctuary. For this reason, Table 1 indicates the start date of each initiative but not a fixed end date.

Table 1.

Main programmes that connect cryosphere research with community partners

.

In our programmes we have found that the main first steps of successful engagement come down to respectful communication, identifying issues that are of common interest, honesty and time. Breaking these down further means that allowing time and space to listen, to be wrong and to have to try again is part of the process. The investment in time is what will lead to the development of trust which is necessary for the success of any collaboration.

Whilst not a new idea, we soon realised that the way we communicate directly relates to the success of an engagement initiative (Heffner and others, Reference Heffner, Zandee and Schwander2003). Approaching conversations with an attitude of humility and reciprocity when sharing knowledge and learning to listen to people, promotes closeness, horizontality and empathy, valuing the stories of the observers of the environments and that, at the same time, the communities are interested in the interpretations given by science observations of snow, mountain range and climate in general. Using a language that is understandable by the entire group, considering language, culture, level of education and accessibility of the people who participate, is essential so that the actions for exchanging knowledge and establishing work agreements are horizontal and accessible. Enabling knowledge transfer in all directions engenders respect, and leads to the development of trust. One example of this was when we were exploring possibilities of developing a package of programmes including the ‘Vecinos de las Nieves’ (Snow Neighbours) snow measurement programme, the children's book and glacier management plan initiatives. To facilitate interactions with community members in the foothills, we organised a series of ‘mateadas’ that we held within senior citizen clubs in each locality. These sessions had ‘mate’ (traditional herbal drink) and food at their centre and senior members of the community came to share their experiences and stories with us, and we shared our scientific insights with them. Through these conversations we found many points of intersection, but also realised the wealth of knowledge these people held.

When choosing modes of communication we have had to often adapt to how the community partners want to communicate as opposed to how we as scientists might be most comfortable. For example, in the citizen science programme ‘Vecinos de las Nieves’, as well as filling in their provided booklets, the collaborators enjoy contributing to a phone based messaging platform WhatsApp group, where they can post photos, chat about how much or little precipitation was received at their house, or how terrible the forecast was! In this group, members interact freely and openly, and it has created a safe space for people to share with others in the programme, who might be in another province in the region and would otherwise be unlikely to meet. This has enabled us to break down political and other divides which are generally marked in Chile, around a common area of interest. Additionally, during the COVID-19 pandemic, a new initiative was developed to encourage people to send in old and new photographs of snow-covered mountains. This development was launched and run completely via social media platforms, and a gallery of images was created. Using these images, we were able to validate empirical snowline height estimations from Sentinel-2 NSDI imagery and improve our understanding of the typical range of the 0$^\circ$C isotherm altitude during precipitation events (Schauwecker and others, Reference Schauwecker, Palma, MacDonell, Ayala and Viale2022). Without the use of social media platforms, we could not have created and maintained direct communication with study collaborators or received these datasets.

Ongoing communication also enables the continuous evaluation of programmes, including whether they are still fulfilling requirements. For example, in the snow fence programme, we worked together with the Regional Government and water user associations to install four fences to manage snow accumulation for water resource enhancement in different catchments (see barreras.ceaza.cl for more information). The pilot fences reduced sublimation rates and extended the time that snow was on the ground, but had varied success depending on location (see barreras.ceaza.cl), which is similar to experiments in other places (Harrison, Reference Harrison1986). In ongoing conversations, at one site it was decided that the fences were not suitable, one site sustained significant damage which demoralised the local stakeholders, and the final two partners have maintained the original sites, and are exploring using different approaches to expand the network (e.g. using vegetation and customary building practices to create wind breaks for snow management). Whilst still in discussion, this has enabled project partners to take original results and make decisions for their location as appropriate. Through the open dialogue in this space, we have also connected these original participants to other groups in Chile who are interested in implementing their own snow fences.

Additionally, to set the foundation to build an honest relationship between members of the community and scientists it is necessary to agree on the scope of the scientific work, what the collected information will be useful for, and how any funding will be allocated. Whilst sharing information about funding can sometimes seem intimidating, in our snow fence pilot study, water users associations ended up financially contributing to the project once they understood how their investment could improve outcomes for their catchment above what we were able to achieve with regular funding.

Community based projects sometimes require methodologies to be modified and made more flexible, based on previous agreements, improvement and/or simplification of processes or the interests of the participants (Bonney, Reference Bonney2021). Within this context, many question the quality of obtained data, however, studies have shown that data generated by the local community can be as good as that collected by experts if the appropriate protocols and training are provided (Fore and others, Reference Fore, Paulsen and O'Laughlin2001; Bonney and others, Reference Bonney2014; Danielsen and others, Reference Danielsen2014). To try and minimise errors in our citizen science datasets, we retrain our volunteers each year before the winter season begins and keep in constant contact throughout the precipitation period. This is part of the agreement we have with our partners.

Long-term initiatives to monitor the Cordillera need to establish collaborative agreements between the participants, community managers and scientists. This includes generating spaces to discuss who is going to participate, their interests, joint objectives of monitoring, design of methodologies and their application, the time that the participants will dedicate and how to record the information. These agreements will build trust between scientists and volunteers, by making interests transparent, eliminating the assumptions and uncertainty of the entire group, and promoting teamwork. After some time, these agreements must be evaluated, renewed and updated to the reality of the participants. One example of the need for ongoing agreements was in the Vecinos de las Nieves programme when the lack of snowfall events meant that people started to lose motivation. Following conversations, we added distributed rain gauges to facilitate rainfall measurements and asked the volunteers to take photos of upper mountain slopes where snow had fallen following precipitation events. These photos served to estimate the snowline altitude and led to a scientific publication (Schauwecker and others, Reference Schauwecker, Palma, MacDonell, Ayala and Viale2022). A change in focus has important impacts on the success of such a programme, as already described in e.g. Dickerson-Lange and others (Reference Dickerson-Lange, Bradley Eitel, Dorsey, Link and Lundquist2016), and should be constantly evaluated based on the volunteers needs, interests and questions (Bonney and others, Reference Bonney, Phillips, Ballard and Enck2016).

Another relevant agreement to be reached is the storage, administration, access and availability of the data and information generated. In addition, deciding what will be done with the results should be defined together and possible applications to the participants daily lives discussed. It is important to always keep in mind that the data is collaborative and belongs to all the participants. For this reason, all authors should be recognised and acknowledged, and periodic reports should be generated to make information readily available. One example is that in the Vecinos de las Nieves programme, in which participants were keen for their data to be shared publicly so they could have access and share with others. This led to the publication of the first years of data on a data sharing platform (Aliste and others, Reference Aliste2022).

Community-based initiatives require the dedication and time of individuals and researchers. The time of the participants is as valuable, or more, than the time of the research teams, since the volunteers give time of their lives, share daily moments and intimate experiences that inhabiting the mountain range offers them. Due to the intimacy of being connected to the daily lives of community members, food and informal experiences can often be a great catalyst for constructive partnerships (Brunet and others, Reference Brunet, Hickey and Humphries2014). Leading from this, one important lesson we have learnt is about our own attitude and approach to spending time with community collaborators. As researchers, we often feel pressed for time, and so it is easy to think of long meetings, meals or excessive travel to meet with people in their locality as a cost, but it really should be considered as an investment. For example, it was after spending hours with members of senior citizen clubs in the remotest parts of our region, that we were alerted to the importance of the snow-rain interface and its connection with landsliding in the area. This provided the platform for new research lines (e.g. Schauwecker and others, Reference Schauwecker, Palma, MacDonell, Ayala and Viale2022) that were previously unknown. By spending hours listening and sharing food with those who had spent their lives in the mountains, we also discovered local terms for snow types, timings of stream activation and how ENSO had impacted their lives. By meeting people face to face you also have the chance to build respect, trust and ongoing relationships that will be more likely to continue through hard times.

Commitment also needs to come from both individuals as well as institutions. Our programmes have benefited by incorporating ‘Participatory Science Managers’ within the wider team, one who focuses on stakeholder institutions, and one on our citizen science programme. These people can come from within a community or from the world of science, but they should coordinate actions, open spaces for dialogue and exchange of information, as well as apply motivational strategies with people from the community and science. As this is a large commitment, we strongly recommend that the institution responsible for the programmes either hires that person internally, or supports them in the wider community. For example, in the first iteration of our Water Academy programme for 8-12 year olds, we hired and trained a member of the Pisco Elqui village community in Estero Derecho to run the sessions. This decision led to the possibility of having three sessions with the group each week, as well as access to the Estero Derecho Nature Santuary which would have otherwise been closed to the children and researchers. The contracted person went on to fully lead the programme through their NGO Tierra y Valle and link it into the curriculum of local schools.

Finally, through these programmes we have shown that it is possible to do community-based, locally-relevant science that is still useful for the cryosphere community. For example, from our direct and indirect interactions, we have made advances in understanding snow processes (Réveillet and others, Reference Réveillet2020; Voordendag and others, Reference Voordendag, Réveillet, MacDonell and Lhermitte2021; Schauwecker and others, Reference Schauwecker, Palma, MacDonell, Ayala and Viale2022), glacier and rock glacier processes (Schaffer and others, Reference Schaffer, MacDonell, Réveillet, Yáñez and Valois2019; de Pasquale and others, Reference de Pasquale, Valois, Schaffer and MacDonell2022; Schaffer and MacDonell, Reference Schaffer and MacDonell2022) and catchment hydrology (Valois and others Reference Valois, MacDonell, Núñez and Maureira2020a, Reference Valois2020b, Reference Valois2021). In addition, these interactions, linkages and new perspectives garnered from working with the wider community has produced new questions and areas of study in Andean cryospheric science. For the wider community, as well as increasing awareness, our partnerships have led to both tangible and intangible outcomes. These include: the naming of two community based private nature sanctuaries by the Environment Ministry (Santuario de la Naturaleza Estero Derecho and Santuario de la Naturaleza Río Cochiguaz); changes to school curriculum including the inclusion of snow and water monitoring programmes; training of Environmental Impact Assessors from the identification of a significant knowledge gap in the regional glacier management plan; and the inclusion of snow information in decision-making processes of water user associations.