I recently travelled to my home country of Peru as part of my PhD field trip proposal. For nearly one month, from the 25th of September to the 19th of October, I visited two locations: Miraflores, Nor Yauyos and Puerto Miguel, Loreto.
I visited the first location, Miraflores, twice. Once from the 26th to the 29th, and the second from the 2nd to the 5th of October. Unlike the popular neighbourhood Miraflores in the capital city of Lima, this area is located in a tiny village in the Peruvian Andes at 3,600 meters above sea level (m.a.s.l.). During my time there, I visited a project called ‘Scaling up Ecosystem-based Adaptations (EbA) in the Andes’ which was implemented from 2019-2022 by an NGO named Instituto de Montaña. EbA is a form of Nature-based Solutions (NbS), which is a key focus and main field of work in my PhD. Put simply, NbS are actions that work with nature to address societal challenges such as water security, climate change adaptation and food security. My PhD's main focus is on the politics of trade-offs (situations where choosing one benefit can lead to losing another), and decision-making in climate change adaptation. Since beginning my PhD I have focused on the first part based on literature. Now, this second part examines different projects in various ecosystems. For this reason, I went to visit the project being implemented by Instituto de Montaña.
During the visit I was invited to join an expedition to see the project with a group of Peruvian government experts. Based on the project’s lessons, this expedition was part of a training course organized by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ). Together, we explored how to apply NbS from different points of view. During the second visit, I conducted eight interviews with community leaders, government officials and the local community. The length and intensity of the interviews and discussions allowed me to obtain empirical data that can test the analytical framework created during the first part of my PhD.
What is interesting about the project is that the actions as part of the NbS take place in the headwaters of the basin—where rivers begin—and help ensure that water and ecosystems remain healthy. To address these issues, the local community worked together with the Instituto de Montaña to design and apply several measures, such as:
- Enclosing certain high-altitude wetlands to keep livestock out and allow plants to recover.
- Protecting and maintaining ancient stone dikes that help purify and store water in the wetlands.
- Rotating grazing areas and limiting the number of animals per farmer to prevent overuse of the land.
These steps have improved water conservation and helped restore vegetation. At the same time, they also created some trade-offs. For example, restricting grazing areas can temporarily reduce access to pasture for some families. Understanding and balancing these effects is part of what I am analysing in my doctoral research.
The second location is in the Peruvian Amazon, in the department of Loreto, where there is a farming community called Puerto Miguel. To arrive there, I travelled by plane to Iquitos, then by boat for 3 hours to arrive in Puerto Miguel. Unlike Miraflores, there is no project here, but what interested me was that the community manages its forest sustainably even without a project or external assistance. This is particularly relevant to my doctoral thesis, to understand why public goods can remain sustainable. Therefore, I wanted to find out what factors motivated the people of Puerto Miguel to take strict measures to protect the forest.
During this visit, I interviewed another eight people from the local community, the board of directors and tourism companies in the region to obtain this empirical data. I am still analysing the data, but the information gathered suggests that people value tourism more than hunting, which aligns to local priorities of income generation. Combined with strong aspects of governance, this has enabled Puerto Miguel to preserve its forest so far. However, while Puerto Miguel is committed to nature conservation, the surrounding communities are not. This particular example is gaining significance as Puerto Miguel's success story is uncommon in Peru. Furthermore, the area is located in the Amazon, and the importance of this part extends not only to its fauna and flora, but also to its capacity to store carbon, as this area is considered a peatland.
By examining the circumstances and consequences of Puerto Miguel's excellent example, this data can contribute to the discussion about why communities fail or succeed in conserving nature. For example, if I relate this to the example of Miraflores, it is because the priorities of both communities are consistent with conservation goals. In other communities, however, the goals are more at odds with conservation.
Ein Bericht von Diego Portugal Del Pino