However, climate change is alarmingly affecting the delicate balance between water and mountains: rainfall patterns are changing and in the last 50 years the glaciers of this tropical area of the Andes have been reduced by almost half. The situation is aggravated by other phenomena, not only environmental but also economic and social, in the Andean rural area: the low level of public investment and priority in supporting family agriculture and livestock, high poverty rates and the impacts of extractive industries, among others. Rural families who manage high mountain ecosystems often have to overexploit their resources in order to survive. Thus, the water regulation capacity of the Upper Andean area, the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of rural families and the water and food security of millions of people are seriously threatened by the shrinking of glaciers and the deterioration of mountain ecosystems.
However, in this very grim scenario there are also reasons for hope, some of them based on nature itself and rooted in the past. Over thousands of years, the high Andean populations have developed complex systems of knowledge and technologies to adapt to this territory of such demanding topography and climate. Long-standing historical processes and more recent ones, such as climate change and migration, have led to many of these technologies being abandoned or underutilized, but efforts are under way to recover them, adapting them to present conditions in order to improve people's responsiveness to climate impacts and other current challenges.
One of these initiatives has been promoted since 2013 by Instituto de Montaña (The Mountain Institute) and IUCN, together with the National Protected Natural Areas Service and rural communities of the Nor Yauyos Cochas Landscape Reserve, in the Peruvian Central Andes. The project, funded by the German Ministry of Environment, puts in practice the concept of Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA), which focuses on the use of biodiversity and ecosystem services to reduce the vulnerability of populations and ecosystems themselves.
The EbA measures implemented by Instituto de Montaña, local communities and partners have an integral and innovative design, in order to (i) improve the distribution and regulation of water through the rehabilitation of ancient and contemporary technologies, (ii) improve the management of pastures and livestock, and (iii) strengthen the natural resources management and rural organization capacities through participatory processes, based on a dialogue between local and scientific knowledge.
For example, a 700-year-old pre-Inca water storage and distribution system was rehabilitated in the rural community of Miraflores. Adapting this ancient technology to the current context allowed reorganizing the livestock grazing system on more than 6,000 hectares of grasslands, previously in very poor condition and now in the process of recovery. These changes have helped improve the economy of the families in the community, reduce the risk of climate impacts, and improve the ecosystem's water regulation capacity, for the benefit of the community but also of the lowlands.
Similar processes are being implemented in other communities in Nor Yauyos-Cochas, always aiming at strengthening local people's leadership, their knowledge and the extraordinary cultural heritage that has allowed them to thrive for thousands of years, and that today serves as an inspiration to find solutions to the challenges humanity is facing.
About the author
Florencia Zapata is an anthropologist and naturalist, specialized in sustainable management of mountain ecosystems, adaptation to climate change and participatory research methodologies. She has more than 20 years of experience working on environmental conservation and cultural affirmation projects in the Andes.
Instituto de Montaña is a non-profit organization dedicated, since 1995, to supporting women and men in mountain communities to thrive in healthy environments through the development of sustainable economies, the conservation of their ecosystems and research and innovation, based on their own culture.
