The Protected Landscape Approach - Centre for Mediterranean ...

11. Cultural landscapes of the Andes
The case studies from Colombia, Ecuador and Peru presented here illustrate different
options available for landscape stewardship in the Andean region, and propose new pathways
for development with conservation. Andean communities are particularly sensitive to en -
dogenous alternatives that capture their identity, empower their social and economic progress,
and reassess their value in the concert of global forces affecting rural communities in the
developing world.
Efforts to further the protected landscape approach in the Andes should be based on a
culturally sensitive organizational and planning strategy. In contrasting and comparing ex -
periences from the region, including the three cases studies above, we find five characteristics
that are common to the new conservation paradigm:
Communicative: The potential of category V protected landscapes should be promoted
through different media to community organizations, NGOs, local and national governments,
and international agencies. The legal framework should be developed in each country to enable
the use of conservation easements and demonstration sites established to provide living
examples of how this conservation tool can work in the Andes.
Inclusive and participatory: National consultations and regional workshops should be held,
bringing together grass-roots organizations, urban-based advocates, government officials,
local community leaders and all other interested parties. Indigenous and traditional people
become protagonists of active conservation stewardship.
Epistemographic: Semantics and the terminology of the highland/lowland dynamics of
mountain ecosystems should be made clear within an Andean context, including notions of
traditional knowledge and ethno-ecological heritage.
Methodological: Experience with protected landscapes in each country should be documented
and shared as lessons learned, aiming to develop best practices for sustainable development
scenarios in Andean landscapes.
Transcendental: Conservation of cultural landscapes should strive to offer lasting, sustainable
options for biodiversity-based livelihoods in the Andes. Opportunities should be sought to
unify and invigorate local cultures.
Coda
The much-needed preservation and strict protection of the remnant shreds of Andean forests
and local cultures is considered the highest priority in strategic scenarios for sustainable
mountain development in the region. Precautionary measures should be placed in the policymaking
process that affects water supply and watershed management to serve the ever-thirsty,
growing Andean cities. The old approach of setting aside pristine páramos for conservation
away from human interference (for example in National Parks, according to the so-called
“Yellowstone model”) should yield to the new approach of sustaining living landscapes for
conservation in cooperation with the communities that have created and inhabit them (e.g., the
approach known as the “Green Mountains model” from the mountains of Vermont (Chaurette
et al., 2003).
Out-dated generalizations about the pristine character of tropical ecosystems, especially
about tropical mountains, should be avoided in light of new lessons for changing paradigms,
modern technologies, and the increasingly sophisticated tools available to restore the degraded
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