Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Building climate change resilience through local cooperation: a Peruvian Andes case study

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Regional Environmental Change Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Many of the problems faced by international projects intending to create adaptive social–ecological systems for climate change stem from lack of stakeholder engagement, limited understanding of local political, economic, and environmental complexities, and restricted time. Local organizations focused on conservation and development might have an advantage in creating adaptive social–ecological systems because they understand local processes and are involved with communities for extended periods of time. A local non-governmental organization, Asociación Ecosistemas Andinos (ECOAN), works in twenty-one communities in the Andean highlands outside of Cusco to conserve the endangered Polylepis forests. As part of the conservation project, ECOAN supports community-led development projects such as building greenhouses. Data for this project were gathered through interviews (with community members in three different communities, ECOAN staff, and donors) and participant observation. This paper shows that ECOAN’s extensive use of participation has led to community ownership of the conservation and development projects. The communities’ close connections to the Polylepis project contribute to resilience through creating networks, extending the local environmental ethic to the Polylepis trees, supporting projects that diversify and strengthen community sustenance, and contributing to the growth of economic activities. This case study provides a positive example of the potential for local organizations and people to take charge of their own resiliency efforts where international projects and protocols may otherwise prove ineffective.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. Local organizations are defined in this paper as organizations located in the same state as the communities in which they work.

  2. Andean temperature is expected to increase 4.5–5 °C by the end of the twenty-first century (Vuille et al. 2008). Simultaneously, these areas are undergoing precipitation changes with the wet seasons expected to be wetter and the dry, drier (Vera et al. 2006).

  3. The names of community members and ECOAN staff have been changed for confidentiality. The Yale University Institution Review Board, Human Subjects Committee determined this study to be exempt from the United States’ Code of Federal Regulations for Human Subjects Research.

  4. Environmental ethic used in this sense is similar to Leopold’s (1949:171) land ethic: “The land ethic simply enlarges the boundaries of the community to include soils, waters, plants, and animals, or collectively: the land.” In this case, the boundaries of community have expanded to include the Polylepis.

  5. One example is the case of the Yanacocha mine in Cajamarca where the Newmont Mining Corporation has taken control of traditional, farmer collective water rights through “overt and covert strategies to achieve control over water… often backed up by neo-liberal government policies and by permissive local water authorities” (Sosa and Zwarteveen 2012:360). This example of bypassing local water rights is illustrative of the Peruvian government’s predilection to prioritize national goals, such as receiving revenue from the Yanacocha gold mine, to the detriment of local rights.

References

  • Adger WN, Huq S, Brown K, Conway D, Hulme M (2003) Adaptation to climate change in the developing world. Prog Dev Stud 3(3):179–195. doi:10.1191/1464993403ps060oa

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Adger WN, Lorenzoni I, O’Brien KL (2009) Adapting to climate change: thresholds, values, governance. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. doi:10.1111/j.1475-4959.2010.00360_5.x

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Agrawal A, Gibson CC (1999) Enchantment and disenchantment: the role of community in natural resource conservation. World Dev 27(4):629–649. doi:10.1016/S0305-750X(98)00161-2

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Aucca C, Ramsay PM (2005) Management of biodiversity and land use in southern Peru. Mt Res Dev 25(3):287–289. doi:10.1659/0276-4741(2005)025%5B0287%3AMOBALU%5D2.0.CO%3B2

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barnett TP, Adam JC, Lettenmaier DP (2005) Potential impacts of a warming climate on water availability in snow-dominated regions. Nature 438:303–309. doi:10.1038/nature04141

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Barry RG, Seimon A (2000) Research for mountain area development: climatic fluctuations in the mountains of the Americas and their significance. Ambio 29(7):364–370. doi:10.1579/0044-7447-29.7.364

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bolton R (1979) Guinea pigs, protein, and ritual. Ethnology 18(3):229–252

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bury JT, Mark BG, McKenzie JM, French A, Baraer M, Huh KI, Zapata Luyo MA, Gómez López R (2011) Glacier recession and human vulnerability in the Yanamarey watershed of the Cordillera Blanca, Peru. Clim Change 105(1):179–206. doi:10.1007/s10584-010-9870-1

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cahill JRA, Matthysen E (2007) Habitat use by two specialist birds in high-Andean Polylepis forests. Biol Conserv 140(1):62–69. doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2007.07.022

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cohen JM, Uphoff NT (1980) Participation’s place in rural development: seeking clarity through specificity. World Dev 8(3):213–235. doi:10.1016/0305-750X(80)90011-X

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Coria J, Calfucura E (2012) Ecotourism and the development of indigenous communities: the good, the bad, and the ugly. Ecol Econ 73:47–55. doi:10.1016/j.ecolecon.2011.10.024

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cornwall A (2003) Whose voices? Whose choices? Reflections on gender and participatory development. World Dev 31(8):1325–1342. doi:10.1016/S0305-750X(03)00086-X

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cornwall A (2008) Unpacking ‘participation’: models, meanings and practices. Commun Dev J 43(3):269–283. doi:10.1093/cdj/bsn010

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cranford M, Mourato S (2011) Community conservation and a two-stage approach to payments for ecosystem services. Ecol Econ 71:89–98. doi:10.1016/j.ecolecon.2011.08.007

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ensor J, Berger R (2009) Understanding climate change adaptation: lessons from community-based approaches. Practical Action Publishing, Rugby, UK

  • Few R, Brown K, Tompkins EL (2007) Public participation and climate change adaptation: avoiding the illusion of inclusion. Clim Policy 7(1):46–59. doi:10.1080/14693062.2007.9685637

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fjeldså J (2002a) Polylepis forests-vestiges of a vanishing ecosystem in the Andes. Ecotropica 8(2):111–123

    Google Scholar 

  • Fjeldså J (2002b) Key areas for conserving the avifauna of Polylepis forests. Ecotropica 8:125–131

    Google Scholar 

  • Global Environment Facility (2011) Accessing resources under the special climate change fund. Global Environment Facility

  • Hammond GB, Fernández ID, Villegas LF, Vaisberg AJ (1998) A survey of traditional medicinal plants from the Callejón de Huaylas, department of Ancash, Perú. J Ethnopharmacol 61(1):17–30. doi:10.1016/S0378-8741(98)00009-9

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Harris JA, Hobbs RJ, Higgs E, Aronson J (2006) Ecological restoration and global climate change. Restor Ecol 14(2):170–176. doi:10.1111/j.1526-100X.2006.00136.x

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Herzog SK, Soria R, Troncoso A, Matthysen E (2002) Composition and structure of avian mixed-species flocks in a high-Andean Polylepis forest in Bolivia. Ecotropica 8:133–143

    Google Scholar 

  • IPCC (2007) Climate Change 2007: impacts, adaptation and vulnerability. Contribution of working group II to the fourth assessment report of the intergovernmental panel on climate change, Parry ML, Canziani OF, Palutikof JP, van der Linden PJ, Hanson CE (eds). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

  • Jameson JS, Ramsay PM (2007) Changes in high-altitude Polylepis forest cover and quality in the Cordillera de Vilcanota, Perú, 1956–2005. Biol Conserv 138(1):38–46. doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2007.04.008

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kinnaird MF, O’Brien TG (1996) Ecotourism in the Tangkoko DuaSudara Nature Reserve: opening Pandora’s box? Oryx 30(01):65–73. doi:10.1017/S0030605300021402

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kothari U (2001) Power, knowledge and social control in participatory development. In: Cooke B, Kothari U (eds) Participation: the new tyranny?. Zed Books, London, pp 139–152. doi:10.1016/S0738-0593(02)00022-6

    Google Scholar 

  • Lazcano JM, Espinoza D (2001) Tendencia en el uso de la leña en dos comunidades con bosques de Polylepis con enfasis en variable económicas. Revista Boliviana de Ecología y Conservación Ambiental 9:61–77

    Google Scholar 

  • Li TM (2007) Rendering technical? The will to improve: governmentality development and the practice of politics. Duke University Press, Durham, pp 123–155

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Little PD (1994) The link between local participation and improved conservation: a review of issues and experiences. In: Westem D, Wright RM, Strum S (eds) Natural connections: perspectives in community-based conservation. Island Press, Washington, DC, pp 472–496

    Google Scholar 

  • Lloyd H, Marsden SJ (2008) Bird community variation across Polylepis woodland fragments and matrix habitats: implications for biodiversity conservation within a high Andean landscape. Biodivers Conserv 17(11):2645–2660. doi:10.1007/s10531-008-9343-2

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Manley MS (2008) Quechua language attitudes and maintenance in Cuzco Peru. Lang Policy 7(4):323–344. doi:10.1007/s10993-008-9113-8

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Marcora P, Hensen I, Renison D, Seltmann P, Wesche K (2008) The performance of Polylepis australis trees along their entire altitudinal range: implications of climate change for their conservation. Divers Distrib 14(4):630–636. doi:10.1111/j.1472-4642.2007.00455.x

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mark BG, Bury J, McKenzie JM, French A, Baraer M (2010) Climate change and tropical Andean glacier recession: evaluating hydrologic changes and livelihood vulnerability in the Cordillera Blanca Peru. Ann Assoc Am Geogr 100(4):794–805. doi:10.1080/00045608.2010.497369

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sanabria J, Calanca P, Alarcón C, Canchari G (2014) Potential impacts of early twenty-first century changes in temperature and precipitation on rainfed annual crops in the Central Andes of Peru. Reg Environ Change 14(4):1533–1548. doi:10.1007/s10113-014-0595-y

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Servat GP, Mendoza W, Ochoa JA (2002) Flora y fauna de cuatro bosques de Polylepis (Rosaceae) en la Cordillera del Vilcanota (Cusco Perú). Ecología Aplicada 1(1):25–35

    Google Scholar 

  • Sietz D, Choque SEM, Lüdeke MK (2012) Typical patterns of smallholder vulnerability to weather extremes with regard to food security in the Peruvian Altiplano. Reg Environ Change 12(3):489–505. doi:10.1007/s10113-011-0246-5

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sosa M, Zwarteveen M (2012) Exploring the politics of water grabbing: the case of large mining operations in the Peruvian Andes. Water Altern 5(2):360–375

    Google Scholar 

  • Stronza A, Gordillo J (2008) Community views of ecotourism. Ann Tour Res 35(2):448–468. doi:10.1016/j.annals.2008.01.002

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Toivonen JM, Kessler M, Ruokolainen K, Hertel D (2011) Accessibility predicts structural variation of Andean Polylepis forests. Biodivers Conserv 20(8):1789–1802. doi:10.1007/s10531-011-0061-9

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tompkins EL, Adger W (2004) Does adaptive management of natural resources enhance resilience to climate change? Ecol Soc 9(2):10

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Twyman C (2000) Participatory conservation? Community-based natural resource management in Botswana. Geogr J 166(4):323–335. doi:10.1111/j.1475-4959.2000.tb00034.x

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Valdivia C (2001) Gender livestock assets resource management and food security: lessons from the SR-CRSP. Agric Hum Values 18(1):27–39. doi:10.1023/A:1007613031102

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Van der Ploeg JD (1993) Potatoes and knowledge. In: Hocart M (ed) An anthropological critique of development: the growth of ignorance. Routledge, London, pp 209–227. doi:10.1525/ae.1995.22.3.02a00190

    Google Scholar 

  • Vera C, Silvestri G, Liebmann B, Gonzalez P (2006) Climate change scenarios for seasonal precipitation in South America from IPCC-AR4 models. Geophys Res Lett. doi:10.1029/2006GL025759

    Google Scholar 

  • Vidaurre de la Riva M, Lindner A, Pretzsch J (2014) Assessing adaptation–climate change and indigenous livelihood in the Andes of Bolivia. J Agric Rural Dev Trop Subtrop (JARTS) 114(2):109–122

    Google Scholar 

  • Vuille M, Francou B, Wagnon P, Juen I, Kaser G, Mark BG, Bradley RS (2008) Climate change and tropical Andean glaciers: past present and future. Earth Sci Rev 89(3–4):79–96. doi:10.1016/j.earscirev.2008.04.002

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • West P (2006) The practices of conservation-as-development. Conservation is our government now: the politics of ecology in papua new Guinea. Duke University Press, Durham

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Zimmerer KS (1988) Seeds of peasant subsistence: agrarian structure crop ecology and Quechua agriculture in reference to the loss of biological diversity in the southern Peruvian Andes. Dissertation for University of California Berkeley

Download references

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Dr. Karen Hebert and Dr. Carol Carpenter for their support of this research and comments on preliminary versions of this article. This work would not have been possible without the support and openness of ECOAN staff and the community members of Abra Malaga, Rumira Sondormayo, and Patacancha. I also acknowledge the financial support for the research on which this article is based from The Tropical Resources Institute Endowment Fellowship, Latin American Iberian Travel Grant, Tinker Field Research Grant, and Carpenter Sperry Grant.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, 33 NE San Rafael Street, Portland, OR, 97212, USA

    Caitlin A. Doughty

Authors
  1. Caitlin A. Doughty
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Caitlin A. Doughty.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Doughty, C.A. Building climate change resilience through local cooperation: a Peruvian Andes case study. Reg Environ Change 16, 2187–2197 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-015-0882-2

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-015-0882-2

Keywords

Search

Navigation