ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the relationship between agricultural dynamics in the paramo region and the conservation of areas providing fundamental hydrologic services for agriculture. The conceptual and methodological approach used is based on the analysis of several spatial scales, all of them integrated through water as an environmental service of the high paramo. The chapter analyzes the relationships between agricultural dynamics and the conservation of páramo ecosystems, especially the wetlands of marshes and swards, areas of origin, and accumulation of the water used for páramo agriculture in the central core of the Cordillera de Mérida above 3000 m. It presents the framework of the project called “Ecological and Social Sustainability of Agricultural Production in the Cordillera de Merida: Flow of Environmental Services of the High Andean Páramos for Potato Agriculture.” Project sponsored by Universidad de Los Andes, Venezuela. The high paramo belt is interpreted as an area for the conservation of biodiversity, water capture, and hydrological equilibrium of outflow rates.
