Curiosos Create Change in the Andes

The tall grasses whirled in Canrey Chico under the burning Peruvian sun. I am sitting with Alicho, a friend from Canrey, on a hill about the town at nearly 13,000 feet; and we are looking down on the Ocshahueta grasslands…barren and blackened by a recent fire.

Alicho glances down, overcome by feelings of sadness, frustration and helplessness as he looks at the remnants of burnt pastures. He says, “I used to go there to graze my animals as a child, but now it’s been turned into a park and we are not even allowed to cut any of the grass, not even for the roofs of our houses.

“What should I do? Obey the rules or not? I wish I were president of Canrey Chico, so that I could speak my mind to the people who are making the rules for the Park and our pastures.”

The burning of this hill had taken away not only the grass, but also the years of hard labor that had built new pasture enclosures. Extranjeros sientificos (foreign scientists) had been studying how this rich Andean ecosystem might flourish if protected from overgrazing, but they had not involved the local farmers in their project, which had now been destroyed by fire.

In response to this experience on the hill with Alicho, who is formally illiterate but has a very inquisitive mind and is knowledgeable about every inch of his land, I started to work in Canrey Chico through The Mountain Institute. Five other curiosos, or “farmer researchers” as we called them, joined Alicho to form a community group to share good ideas and test them in the field.

Five years later, Alicho became president of Canrey Chico, which is located in the buffer zone of Huascarán National Park in the Andes; and he has made a tangible difference already.

The “farmer researchers” have used low-cost, innovative ways to improve their pastures, like TMI’s simple irrigation system that uses standing water and a soft, flexible hose. New grazing methods and cultivation of native grasses have transformed their land and boosted milk productivity---and thus income---for most households in the village. And in designing the new Plan Maestro---Master Plan---for Huascaran National Park in 2003, The Mountain Institute listened to Alicho and other local voices like his…the result is a community-based system that honors traditional livelihoods in the buffer zone while protecting the highly threatened ecosystem of this important preserve.