The Protected Landscape Approach - Centre for Mediterranean ...

11. Cultural landscapes of the Andes
diverse range of biological resources that have made high mountain agrarian societies sustain -
able in the past. Loss of traditional knowledge and weakening of the local institutions that can
assure steward ship and sustainable management of Andean ecosystems is a major factor
leading to the declining use and presence of biodiversity in the Andes (Koziell, 2001). Further -
more, national policies in food, agriculture and the environment have tended to ignore the value
of indigenous institutions and the biodiversity over which they are the traditional stewards. A
combination of these factors has led to the current situation where Andean crops and livestock
are being replaced by other foods, crops and animals, and habitats are being converted to uses
that are less sustainable and less amenable to local management. The cumulative impact is
fewer livelihood choices and resources for the indigenous people of the Andes, and the erosion
of a fragile habitat rich in biodiversity.
Another important feature of the traditional agricultural system under peril is exchange and
connectivity across landscapes and communities. Legends as well as historical, anthro po -
logical and biological research confirm the importance that pre-Colombian Inca cultures gave
to the movement and exchange of plants and other biological resources with conscious
movement of materials and diversity from the northern to the southernmost extremes of the
Andean zone. Especially important for domestication was the movement of plants and cultivars
from tropical humid lowlands to mountain and high mountain landscapes and vice versa. This
culturally managed gene flow has been much reduced; it is impeded by national borders and
fragmented by different tenure regimes and monoculture production systems. The marginal -
ization of indigenous cultures and the growth of national and global market systems have
replaced traditional patterns of germplasm exchange.
Established in 1998, the Potato Park has gained extensive national and international
recognition for its innovative methods of conserving native genetic diversity as well as the
knowledge associated with the sustainable use and management of genetic resources. The
scheme is conceived as a pilot for a larger initiative in landscape conservation in the Andes
region: the Ruta Sagrada del Cóndor-Wiracocha (introduced in the preceding section of this
chapter). The key element to this model is support to indigenous institutions for stewardship,
community-based resource management and affirmation of local rights. Communities are
organized into Local Learning Groups, which are local platforms for analysing and studying
local phenomena. The structure of the platform is based on the format of traditional arrange -
ments used by local people to discuss and analyse community affairs and make appropriate
decisions. Traditional knowledge has been integrated into all conservation acti vities; this
ensures that local people exercise leadership and control over the project and that any
application of Western science and technology responds to cultural needs. Assessment of
technological needs is based on the analysis of drivers affecting the Quechua culture and not on
scientific abstractions.
Landscape conservation based on traditional knowledge, practices and innovation systems
is likely to have greater success in conserving the local landscape while providing for
livelihoods than those that rely solely on conventional conservation approaches. The six
communities in the Potato Park have formed a park association (Asociacion de Comunidades
del Parque de la Papa), a legal representative entity composed of the elected head of each
community, which is in charge of the day-to-day governance of the park. ANDES and the Park
authorities work hand-in-hand to develop alternative economic activities, based on sustainable
use of the agro-ecosystem’s goods and services, including agro-ecotourism, marketing of
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