Lineamientos para establecer un esquema de pagos compensatorios por regulación hídrica en el páramo de la Rusia–Duitama, Boyacá

Abstract

The municipality of Duitama is located in the upper part of the Chicamocha river basin, which is part of the great basin of the Magdalena river. Within its ecological structure, it has the páramo of la Rusia and the Pan de azúcar páramo, which cover the largest territorial extension of the municipality, covering approximately 6,529.2ha (59%), corresponding to the villages of el Carmen, avendaños I and II, Santa Bárbara, Santa Ana, Santa Helena and Quebrada de Becerras (Mayoralty of Duitama, 2010). The municipality is supplied with three different aqueduct systems, being the Surba river system responsible for supplying 60% (19,522 inhabitants) of the urban population of the municipality of Duitama for what is configured as the most important system for the company EMPODUITAMA S.A. E.S.P. and the municipal population; the river rises in the pan de azúcar Lagoon at 3900 masl, it travels approximately 21,053 m in an East - West direction and later takes a North- South direction crossing the city and ending in the Chicamocha river; as tributaries there are the streams: La Zarza, el Chorro, los Cacaos, Hoya Grande, White Jet, Parrales, la Esperanza, las Animas and los Patos.(Empoduitama S.A. E.S.P., 2015) There are several environmental effects generated by the incompatibility of land use resulting in the loss of capacity of the system associated with the Surba river to cover the needs in dry periods, which requires the design of a strategy associated with conservation and maintenance of the population settled in the area; therefore, an analysis of the changes in vegetation coverage that will allow quantifying environmental damage is developed, then areas of management interest are prioritized based on the delimitation of contributing hydrographic units and the changes in the coverage identified in the previous phase. We continue with a feasibility analysis that will allow us to demonstrate in technical, economic andsocial terms; the possibility of implementing the scheme, calculated as an important referent, the opportunity cost associated with the economic activities developed within the study area and finally proceeding to the design of the scheme, generating guidelines for the development and establishment of a payment scheme for environmental services, associated with the ecosystem service of water regulation.