OLT websites

Prepared by Xavier Lazzaro (BOREA/IRD)

The 2019-2022 OLT official Spanish website

The initial OLT official website (https://olt.geovisorumsa.com) has been implemented by our project's web designer, Marcela Ormachea Rojas (IIGEO/UMSA), using html programming languages. 

Currently, Javier Nuñez Villalba (researcher IIGEO/UMSA, OLT vice-coordinator) and Carla Machicado Sánchez (webmaster) are developping a new  updated Spanish version of the OLT website using Google Sites language. It should be available during the first quarter of 2024 and will be redirected from the initial OLT website. 

The new 2024 OLT official English website

The present English OLT oficial website is implemented by Xavier Lazzaro,  research scientist in aquatic ecology (IRD/BOREA, France), coordinator of the OLT observatory, based on the Google Sites language. 

Herein is the updated 2024 English version of the Spanish OLT oficial website (2019-2022): https://olt.geovisorumsa.com 

The OLT observatory, a initial UNDP pilot project

The UNDP/GEF Pilot Project 05-B-05 'Lake Titicaca permanent Observatory' is one of the eleven pilot projects (five in Bolivia and six in Peru) that constitute the UNDP Binational IWRM Project on the TDPS (Integrated Water Resources Management of the Lake Titicaca - Desaguadero - Poopó  - Salar de Coípasa water system; https://girh-tdps.com/proyecto-piloto-05/). It was funded for four years (2019 to 2022) by the GEF (Global Environment Facility), administered by UNDP (United Nations Development Program), and financially managed by IRD (the French Institute of Research for Development). The 05-B-05 pilot project is a scientific cooperation between staff and associate researchers from the Institute of Ecology (IE) and the Institute of Geographical Research (IIGEO), both from the Universidad Mayor de San Andrés (UMSA) and IRD researchers from the "Biology of Aquatic Organisms and Ecosystems" (BOREA) joint laboratory (Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, CNRS, Sorbonne Université, IRD, Université Caen Normandie & Université des Antilles).

The practical goal of this pilot project is to provide a sound scientific and technical support for the decision making of UGCK/MMAyA (Katari Basin Management Unit of the Bolivian Ministry of Environment and Water), Cancilleria (Bolivian Ministry of Foreign Affairs), SENAMHI (Bolivian National Service of Meteorology and Hydrology) and ALT (Autonomous Binational Authority of Lake Titicaca, Peru-Bolivia), among other institutions, on the evaluation of the state, conservation, management and restoration of Lake Titicaca, with reliable updated information and quality data from research and monitoring.

Its function is also to anticipate the future evolution of the ecosystem of Minor Lake Titicaca ('Lago Menor'), which, with Puno Bay in Peru, is the most vulnerable to the combination of eutrophication and climate change. Indeed, the Bolivian sector is very shallow and highly populated: average depth ≤ 5 m, and > 1 million inhabitants within the urban El Alto region, respectively. It is a sentinel of the regional climate and anthropic changes, in particular to the intensification of extreme events (drought, rains) out of season, combined with the deterioration of the environment and multiple pollution from domestic, industrial, agricultural and/or mining sources.

In October 2023, to synthesize the results of our OLT observatory project and make them accessible to as many people as possible, we published our manual: "Lazzaro X.; Cruz Hernández V. E.; Ormachea Rojas M. A.; Lanza Aguilar W. G.; Maldonado Alfaro J. A.; Nuñez Villalba J.; Eds. (2023). El Observatorio permanente del Lago Titicaca (OLT). IRD/BOREA, UMSA/IE & UMSA/IIGEO, La Paz, Bolivia, 370 pp". Its complete pdf can be downloaded free of charge from:

 - the UNDP website in Bolivia: https://www.undp.org/es/bolivia/publicaciones/el-libro-del-observatorio-permanente-del-lago-titicaca 

 - the ALT website: http://alt-perubolivia.org/download/el-libro-del-observatorio-permanente-del-lago-titicaca/ 

- as well as from the 'Publications' tab of this website, in  addition of the pdf of the three information booklets: "The OLT observatory", "The HydroMet Buoy", and "The satellite remote sensing of chlorophyll-a".  The book and the information booklets are in Spanish. English versions are in project. 

By openly sharing the OLT website, the book, and the information booklets, with the the local communities, general public, the school system, foundations, NGOs, the press, and the policy-makers (not only the scientific community), using an accessible language, we are contributing to the dissemination of the up-to-date knowledge on the state and ecological evolution of Lake Titicaca, in the face of the combined effects of anthropogenic contamination and climate change. As such, we hope to contribute to generating an awareness and respect for the environment and nature that has largely been lost in recent decades. We expect that our efforts will help to generate the ideas and action plans needed to safeguard the sentinel ecosystem of this Great Lake that possess unique characteristics, being both tropical and of high altitude, vital not only for the Andean region, but for the entire South American continent. It also represents a key element in our understanding of how the rest of the planet functions, and of the challenges between conservation and development in a period of climate disruption. 

We are convinced that it is essential and urgent to awaken a general awareness at the level of each individual, with the implementation of concrete and sustainable remediation actions during the present decade, deeply rooted in the principles of ecological engineering taking into account plausible future scenarios. Without this, future generations may not be able to enjoy the magnificence of Lake Titicaca in the heart of the Altiplano and the Andes, nor benefit from the natural resources and micro-climate it has provided for centuries. 

The OLT observatory program is maintained thanks to ALT support

Since the termination of the PNUD funding in October 2022, our OLT observatory and the HydroMet buoy are (logistically, technically, and financially) supported by ALT (the autonomous binational Authority of Lake Titicaca). Without Oscar Limachi, guia de turismo ancestral y nuestro cooperador local en Quehuaya, who recovered our buoy in May 2024 and protected it during 6 months, and without the collaboration of Juan José Ocola Salazar, Executive president of ALT, and Gary Chirinos, ALT technician, the OLT program and the buoy maintenance would have been abandoned, even if my willingness to volunteer had remained intact.  They have all my gratitude.