BASIN

Amazon Indians Visit GTZ

Building Advisory Service and Information Network

by Hannah Schreckenbach

In "gate" 4/88 (PP. 53, 54) we reported on the setting-up of BASIN, which is the acronym of the Building Advisory Service and Information Network. Now, almost a year later, we present a description of how this service works. The service was established in response to the increasing need for information on building materials and construction in developing countries. (The statistic of GATE's Questionand-Answer Service showed a rapid increase in enquiries on building issues, constituting the second largest subject area after energy).

Enquiries on building issues are often very specific and require a detailed knowledge of certain subject areas, the main ones being:

a) Production and use of wall building materials (mainly earth blocks and burnt clay bricks);

Free subscriptions will be given to Third World non-governmental organizations and teaching-training institutions which have difficulties in obtaining foreign exchange.

The journal may be ordered from

Human Settlements Programme

IIED

3 Endsleigh Street

London WC 1H ODD

United Kingdom

Environment and Urbanization is a sister journal to Medio Ambiente y Urbanización, published by the Instituto Internacional de Medio Ambiente y Dessarrollo - América Latina, in Buenos Aires, Argentina. X

b) Production and use of roofing materials (mainly innovative materialssuch as fibre concrete);

c) Production and use of cementitious binders (mainly small-scale manufacture of lime, cement and pozzolanas).

Institutions and individuals in developing countries find it difficult to obtain useful literature and advice on building problems because they

a) do not know about institutions, experts or other information sources,

b) have little or no knowledge of suitable publications, and/or

c) cannot pay the high costs of specialized literature or data bank services (which are generally only available from overseas).

Problems encountered in the application of innovative building technologies have frequently resulted from misleading or incomplete information, as well as on account of the belief that the so-called appropriate technologies are simple enough to be handled by people without special skills or training. Quite often information is disseminated on technologies that are still in an early stage of development and are therefore not sufficiently mature.

New developments are often not known, because reports on them are not always evaluated or accessible to the general public. As a result, research and development projects are duplicated in different places, due to the lack of information exchange.

Existing sources of information on building technologies

1. Appropriate technology centres,research and educational institutions in developing countries: usually small groups of dedicated people with limited funds and limited documentation, which makes it difficult for them to answer detailed questions on specific subjects.

2. International organizations as well as appropriate technology centres, research and education al institutions in industrialized countries: usually well-equipped institutions with selected areas of specialization (depending on type of organization, qualification and experience of staff, etc.); printed material or expert advice is in many cases provided free of charge to recipients in developing countries.

3. National and international data banks: from which extensive bibliographies and data are available, though rarely free of charge.

With the above information sources, a great deal of useful information on building issues can be obtained if the institution asked happens to specialize in the subject area in question. The common data banks usually cover many fields and thus cannot treat any single subject in detail. Hence the information received from them may not necessarily be the kind needed, but the fee will still have to be paid.

Therefore, the procurement of information is often a matter of chance and it can be expensive.

The BASIN concept

Considering the current problems

Building Advisory Service and Information Network

GTZ/GATE

Section 4340

P.O. Box5180

t)-6236 Eschborn 1

Federal Republic of

Germany

Phone (06196) 79-0

Fax (06196) 79-11 15

Telex 407501-0 gk d

Cables GERMATEC

Eschborn

ITDG

Myson House

Railway Terrace

Rugby CV21 3HT

U.K.

Phone (0788)

60631

Fax (0788) 540270

Telex 317466 itdg 9

Cables ITDG

Rugby

SKAT

Varnbuelstrasse

14

CH-9000 St. Gail

Switzerland

Phone (071) 302590

Fax (071) 228355 attn.

skat

Telex 881226 skat ch

Cables LATAMI St. Gall

of obtaining information and advice on appropriate building materials and construction technologies, the German Appropriate Technology Exchange (GATE), Intermediate Technology Development Group (ITDG) and Swiss Center for Appropriate Technology (SKAT) decided to establish the Building Advisory Service and Information Network.

The services provided

by BASIN

Information related to the respective subject areas of GATE, ITDG and SKAT will be available in a uniform format under the following headings:

A. Documents

B. Technologies I Equipment

C. Institutions / Consultants I Projects I Equipment Suppliers

Printouts from the BASIN data bank will be available free of charge on request. Each item will fill an A 4 size sheet, providing sufficient information to answer the enquirer's question, or to enable him/her to find the right publication, professional contact, equipment, etc.

In addition, published material in the form of information leaflets, reports, field manuals, product information, journals, newsletters, etc. will be sent wherever appropriate.

In special cases, the services of experienced consultants will be drawn upon to provide details on issues that are not dealt with in the data bank printouts of published material.

BASIN staff members can also be involved in research and development projects as advisers, or alternatively, BASIN may initiate such projects if a subject area of special importance is identified. The research results and experience gained will deliver valuable inputs for the data bank .

Drawing Hannah Schreckenbach

Benefits of the Building Advisory Service and Information Network

1. By dividing the information services of GATE, ITDG and SKAT into clearly defined subject areas, it is not necessary for each one to deal with all building issues in depth. Inquiries in any one of these main subject areas will be referred to the respective advisory service, so that a more qualified service can be provided by the network. The constantly growing data bank, which is operated by experienced subject specialists, will allow most inquiries to be answered quickly and comprehensively.

2. An important aim is to help inquires to find the best sources of information, institutions, experts, materials, equipment, etc., in their own country or region. Quite often the activities of research institutes, appropriate technology centers and the like are not known by the local population.

3. Although promising innovative technologies are actively promoted by BASIN, great emphasis is laid on the dissemination of proven technologies and building standards, in order to avoid the dangers of encouraging inexperienced builders to implement immature technologies, which have caused very unsatisfactory results in the past. This is of great importance to the development of well-functioning local building industries.

4. The network aims to increase the interchange of information between institutions, experts, government organizations and other bodies involved in housing, building and planning in developing countries, in order to avoid duplication of research and development efforts and thus to save valuable funds, time and manpower for other important work.

5. The exchange of information is expected to flow in more than one direction, whereby the feedback received by BASIN will constitute one of the most important sources of practical information, which an information network of this kind depends on to be able to operate successfully. Hence BASIN must not be understood as a network of just three AT organizations, but rather a network of all individuals and institutions that aim to support and develop the local building industries and thus help to improve the depressing housing situation in the less privileged regions of the world.

Amazon Indians Visit GTZ

by Klaus Lengefeld

Led by their President, Evaristo Nugkuag of Peru, a delegation from COICA, the umbrella organization of the Indian confederation of the Amazon Basin, visited GTZ in Eschborn for two days in July. Evaristo, holder of the Alternative Nobel Peace Prize, and his three companions, Indian leaders from Colombia, Ecuador and Bolivia, came to Eschborn at the invitation of GATE.

In talks with the Indian leaders, GTZ representatives stressed that the agency, as the organization entrusted with the implementation of bilateral Technical Cooperation (TC), plans and implements development projects primarily with government counterpart organizations.

In accordance with the principles of Federal German development cooperation, the interests of the target groups affected are one of the prime considerations when assessing suggested projects. Early and appropriate involvement of representatives of target groups is intended to ensure that their interests are taken into account.

No involvement of those affected

The Indian leaders, however, pointed out that there had so far been hardly any involvement of their organizations in projects in their regions. One reason for this, they said, was that the Indians' interests, as problems of a minority, were not taken seriously by the governments of their countries. However, the main cause was the increasing contradiction between the Indians' interest in long-term conservation and use of their habitat and the short-term exploitive interests of the govern meets of the Amazon basin countries. in this connection GTZ had to face the criticism that it also had not paid enough attention to the Indians' interests hitherto.

This criticism is now to be followed up on the spot, in two projects, before making a start on implementing the proposed projects.

During the talks in Eschborn the two sides agreed to seek early and direct contact in the future. Nevertheless, they also agreed that this alone will by no means ensure that the Indians' interests are taken into account. As far as bilateral

Technical Cooperation is concerned, this could only be achieved through direct dialogue between the Indians and the governments of the countries in question.

Prospects for direct assistance through GATE

This situation notwithstanding there are definite prospects that projects of Indian organizations can be financed in the context of supra regional programmes implemented by GATE to assist non-governmental organizations in the Appropriate Technology sector.

With supra regional and multilateral projects the situation is rather different. Here it is possible to finance project preparation measures in the agroforestry sector, e.g studies, via international organizations such as UNESCO or the Tropical Forest Action Plan (TFAP) coordinated by the FAO, and to implement these measures directly with Indian organizations. The Indian leaders saw this as an interesting possibility, because meanwhile some of their organizations are also working on proposed projects for appropriate exploitation of their habitats. However, none of the population groups affected by the TFAP had so far attended any of the twice-yearly sessions of the donor organizations. COICA was no exception here.

Conservationists pursuing their own interests

Just how important this can be, however, is illustrated by the often cited first example of the so-called debt-for-environment swaps, the case of the "Bosque Chimanes" (Chimanes Forest) in Bolivia. This example was strongly criticized by the Bolivian member of the delegation. A part of the Chimanes Forest hat been declared a biological reserve in return for remission of Bolivian foreign debts. It was bought by the North American environmental organization Conservation International. The Chimanes and other Indian tribes of this area were not consulted about this deal nor involved in it. At the same time, big timber companies were allowed to go on devastating the central zone of the Chimanes Forest with exploitation licences issued by the Bolivian government.

All the members of the delegation categorically rejected this strategy, which is also being proposed by other environmental organizations. In this case, only the organizations and their clients interests in conserving the flora and fauna of the tropical forests were being pursued, as a major factor influencing the global climate and a refuge of species already destroyed elsewhere; and the Indian peoples living there were ignored. But long-term conservation of the tropical forests can only be achieved with and through the Indian population, as those most familiar with their complex ecological balance and best able to profit from it; not without them and under no circumstances against them.

Unfortunately . . .

. . . the name of the author of "The GATE/GTZPV lnfo Service" (gate2/ 89, page 20) did not appear in the article. It was Thomas Oczipka, who was doing practical training at GATE at the time.