The Protected Landscape Approach - Centre for Mediterranean ...

The Protected Landscape Approach: Linking Nature, Culture and Community
horseback excursions around the base of the Antisana volcano. Similar to cattle-ranching on the
páramo, tourism initiatives in these communities are developed communally through mingas,
with key decisions being taken by the community as a whole during assemblies. Ideally, this
mechanism should ensure that tourism develops within the limits of acceptable change set by
the communities involved. Unfortunately, the communities’ successes with tourism are mixed
at best. Their lack of cash resources, access to markets, business and language training (few of
the local inhabitants speak English) means that tourists mostly opt for the better organized and
publicized Private Reserves and “eco-lodges,” in other exotic Ecuadorian destinations better
prepared to handle tourists, such as the downstream lowland Amazon, the coastal plains or the
Galapagos islands. Moreover, the páramo on which these communities’ herds depend has also
come under threat from large-scale water extraction projects in the area for which the
communities have not received any compensation. The unique páramo ecosystem, its critical
role as a natural water reservoir for Quito, and the ways of life of the pastoral communities that
depend on it and maintain it, have come to the attention of national and international groups
who are seeking to find new ways to protect and conserve the area’s natural and cultural
heritage (Chaurette et al., 2003).
Continual usage of slope-lands in the montane cloud forest belt makes this site a prime
example of a living cultural landscape, which is evolving with the drives of the dominant
culture, and which is already used in environmental education campaigns. Thus, the Cumanda
Ethnobotanical Reserve can be seen as an organic landscape, in which colonization has left an
important mark, and a site that is worth showing and protecting through stewardship. Some
inaccessible areas have remained untouched and are in an excellent state of conservation,
despite weak management and control, emphasising the intricate relations of nature at its best
and culture at its worst.
The intricate relation of nature and cultural traits in many places of highland Ecuador, makes
these areas highly appropriate for the application of the new conservation model of Category V
protected areas. As of 2004, the legal designation of “Protected Landscapes and Seascapes”
exists in Ecuador mainly to cover the Seascape portion of the protected Galapagos archipelago.
Including the socio-economic dimension in the new theoretical frames for cultural landscapes
in the Andes mountains will place people as an integral part of the evolving landscape. We have
argued that the Category V designation is the best management option available for sites like
the Quijos River valley or other protected areas within the páramo (Sarmiento et al., 2000).
Conclusions
The new paradigm for protected areas is taking an interesting twist in Latin America, where
ancient civilization relicts and traditional communities co-exist amongst the constructs of
modernity. Implications for the conservation scenario are therefore challenging. In a rather
unique approach, Latin Americans are embracing the notion that cultural landscapes exist as
both agent and subject of ecological and cultural traits, in many cases working towards defining
new models applicable to local realities. This interesting dilemma of considering the living
landscape as the continent of livelihoods and as the content of evolving cultural traits, makes it
possible to use Protected Landscapes as working laboratories for ethnoecological studies in
biodiversity conservation and sustainable development.
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