From the mountains to the lowlands
By The Holland Times Friday 11 December 2009, 15:12
From the mountains of Peru to the decidedly flatter Noord Holland town of Bussum, Julio Cesar Tresierra has called the Netherlands home for the past two years. With the Wereld Natuur Fonds, Tresierra works to restore fragile ecosystems and promote the active involvement of the community in protecting the environment.
How long have you lived in the Netherlands?
I have been here since 2007. But, I have visited here many times before and my first time here was in the 1970s when I was just finishing university to attend a conference.
Where are you from originally?
I am from Peru, but I call the Netherlands home as I am a resident here and my wife is Dutch. So, wherever my wife and my baby are is home.
What made you move to the Netherlands?
My career brought me here. Equitable Payments for Watershed Service is a five-year, two-phase conservation and development programme funded by both the Danish and Dutch governments and managed by two NGOs. CARE in Denmark and WWF here in the Netherlands. It started in 2007 and we have just completed the first year of phase two, and we aim to complete it by 2011.
What are Equitable Payments for Watershed Services?
It is a payment for environmental services and the aim is to restore ecosystems that provide water for downstream users and convince those users to pay upstream communities for that water. Upstream communities are poor farmers and communities; we only work with people at or below the poverty line. Downstream users are the energy, agricultural sectors, industries. Any commercial enterprise including municipal governments that have control of the water for domestic use.
How long have you been working with ecosystems?
I have been working with fragile ecosystems for over 35-years. I have also been a university professor and have combined my teaching with research and policy action in fragile ecosystems with vulnerable people. I have worked all over the world.
Can you talk about your employer, Wereld Natuur Fonds (World Wild Fund for Nature)?
WWF is undergoing a challenging transition from what we can consider traditional conservation to more a 21st century conservation, which directly involves people. Conservation is no longer just flora and fauna or to salvage some species from extinction but it means to work together with people with human communities and to engage them in the process of protecting the environment.
How does WWF’s work differ from other organisations?
WWF is a middle of the road, a more negotiating institution. More a partnering organisation with the private sector and with governments while other organisations are much more confrontational. It depends on the methods you chose, what can bring more effective results.
Are payments for environmental services on the agenda for the Copenhagen Summit taking place this month?
Payments for environmental services is an innovative financial mechanism which can be put to work for different circumstances. Like carbon trading which will be discussed in Copenhagen. And incidentally I will be attending the Summit. It can be put to work in RED (Reduced Emissions from Deforestation) or REDD (Reduced Emissions from Deforestation & Degradation).
This is where you protect the standing forest and negotiate with loggers as partners in order to enter the carbon market and introduce trade agreements so that they get paid for the amount of forest they protect. In this manner the emissions of deforestation is controlled on one hand, and on the other hand the loggers cut their emissions mostly from fossil fuels. So, it’s a partnership with results in reduced emissions from carbon fuel and deforestation.
How has living abroad affected your career?
It has been the best university for me, the best teaching ground. Learning about other people, their values, their cultures, their dreams, their fears, their failures and their successes. I am an internationalist. I belong nowhere, I belong everywhere.
The Netherlands is made of travellers since time immemorial. And that tradition ought to continue. And my advice to young people is to travel the world but first get to know your country thoroughly.
How did you feel about your Dutch home in Bussum?
It is a beautiful Oasis. A great place to come to after long business trips.
What do you miss most about Peru?
Mountains.
How is your Dutch?
Most people have good English and others also speak Spanish and are dying to practice it. I am learning Dutch with my daughter.
Do you think you will settle down in the Netherlands or keep travelling?
Keep travelling.
What do you appreciate about living in the Netherlands?
The history, the architecture. I can walk down on a street that was paved in the year 1100, which is absolutely fascinating. The canals are over 100 years old. I love breathing this history. For any city to keep that alive is fantastic.
How does the quality of life in the Netherlands compare to the quality of life in other countries where you have lived?
Quality of life is a matter of definition. By quality of life, you mean material comforts and a basic level of security, access to services. Obviously here in the Netherlands, you have a much better quality of life. If you call quality of life, living with an extended family, enjoying the outdoors, seeing rivers in their original form and seeing natural landscapes. Then that is a different quality of life. The idea is to combine the best of each place and generate your own notion of quality of life.
