Digital watershed defense network, Peru's macro north

COMMUNITY DIGITAL WATER MONITOR

Line of Action: Democratic Strengthening, Civic Resilience, and Territorial Technological Sovereignty

Line of Focus: Interculturality, Gender, and Defense of Civic Space in Contexts of Socio-Environmental Conflict

Main Area of ​​Work: Macro-North Region, Peru (Selected provinces and watersheds in the departments of La Libertad, Cajamarca, Piura, Loreto, and Amazonas)

Applicant Organization: Apu Catequil Association for Territorial Studies, Communication, and Social Promotion

PROJECT HISTORY AND COLLECTIVE INSPIRATION

Inspired by visions of profound transformation and restoration where regenerative development intimately connects people with their environment, the Community Digital Water Monitor emerges not as a simple technical solution, but as an act of faith, an ethical commitment, and a strategy of autonomous territorial resistance. Like other global initiatives dedicated to protecting fragile ecosystems from environmental degradation, this project is based on holistic community practices grounded in relationships and collective cohesion, creating the necessary conditions for both Andean-Amazonian rural communities and the common resources that sustain their lives to thrive autonomously and with dignity.

Our organization has been continuously implementing the previous phases of this project since 2023. Between 2023 and 2024, we developed the project "Community Tools for Environmental Monitoring and Advocacy in Territories Impacted by Mining in La Libertad and Cajamarca," funded by the Global Greengrants Fund. Subsequently, in 2025, we implemented the phase of "Induction and Capacity Building to Create a Community Water Observatory for Watersheds Affected by Mining, with Environmental Monitors and Watchdogs from La Libertad and Cajamarca," with support from the Belgian coalition 11.11.11 – Broederlijk Delen. Finally, in 2026, we consolidated the initial implementation through the "Implementation of the Community Digital Water Monitor" under the DemocraTICa platform.

Our current work transcends the purely technical use of advanced tools; it aims to consolidate a living ecosystem of water and land governance. Efforts and resource investment are directly aimed at reversing the information asymmetry that violates the collective rights of Indigenous populations in the face of aggressive extractivism. The project actively integrates the entire community into digital participatory science and transmedia construction processes, enabling grassroots organizations to have the appropriate infrastructure to monitor the health of their watersheds, increase their organizational resilience, and ensure a generational transition rooted in environmental defense and food sovereignty.

SCOPE OF WORK AND IMPACT IN LATIN AMERICA

The scope of this project is firmly rooted in the Macro North region of Peru, strategically intervening in eight key territorial nodes encompassing the regions of La Libertad, Cajamarca, Piura, Loreto, and Amazonas. This vast Andean and Amazonian territory concentrates enormous biodiversity and extremely fragile ecosystems that are under intense and constant pressure from legal and illegal extractive activities. It is here that the impact on river basins directly threatens the survival, collective health, and food security of numerous peasant and indigenous communities, including the Awajún people. Water, which constitutes the backbone of local agroecology, is under constant threat from pollution and scarcity, and "official" technical data is often monopolized by the State and corporations.

Far from being conceived as a strictly local experience, the Community Digital Monitor is envisioned as a model of technological sovereignty applicable and replicable throughout Latin America. In a continent systematically marked by high rates of socio-environmental conflict and by the closure or restriction of civic spaces for environmental defenders, the establishment of this digital counterpower serves as a frame of reference for the Global South. By connecting with international civic activism networks such as CIVICUS, this project demonstrates that technological solutions designed from the ground up and governed by a grassroots mandate can redress the balance of power against transnational corporations, paving the way for a genuine Latin American network of territorial defense founded on autonomous and irrefutable scientific evidence.

STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES OF THE PROJECT

In full alignment with the work described, the following specific objectives are established to operationalize the expected impact of the project.