Andes

Canahua deserves to come back

In the harsh and unpredictable upland plains (altiplanos) of Peru and Bolivia, cañahua (Chenopodium pallidicaule) has flourished and diversified where few other crops can grow. The grain grows well between 3500 - 4100 m and is highly resistant to frost, drought, salty soil and pests. Cañahua requires little care in the field, but harvesting and processing is laborious...

Restoring dense vegetation can slow mountain erosion to near natural benchmark levels
Tropical mountain areas may undergo rapid land degradation as demographic growth and intensified agriculture cause more people to migrate to fragile ecosystems. To assess the extent of the resulting damage, an erosion rate benchmark against which changes in erosion can be evaluated is required. Benchmarks reflecting natural erosion rates are usually not provided by conventional sediment fluxes,...
Runoff generation in a degraded Andean ecosystem: Interaction of vegetation cover and land use

Tropical mountain regions are affected by rapid land use/-cover change, which may threaten their (eco-) hydrological functions. Although there is a growing interest in evaluating the effect of land use/-cover change on mountain hydrology, quantitative assessments of the impact of land use/- cover on hydrological processes are hampered by the lack of field measurements characterizing runoff...

Environmental factors controlling spatial variation in sediment yield in a central Andean mountain area

A large spatial variability in sediment yield was observed from small streams in the Ecuadorian Andes. The objective of this study was to analyze the environmental factors controlling these variations in sediment yield in the Paute basin, Ecuador. Sediment yield data were calculated based on sediment volumes accumulated behind checkdams for 37 small catchments. Mean annual specific sediment...

River channel response to short-term human-induced change in landscape connectivity in Andean ecosystems
The drainage basin of the Deleg River (88 km2), located in the southern Ecuadorian Andes, was studied to assess the geomorphic and hydrologic response of a fluvial system to human-induced environmental change in its contributing area.

Historical data on land use, channel morphology and sedimentology were collected, based on a spatial analysis of aerial photographs (1963...

Spatial variation of suspended sediment concentrations in a tropical Andean river system: The Paute River, southern Ecuador
Tropical mountain ecosystems are sensitive to environmental change brought about by natural and anthropogenic processes. The steep topography, shallow soils and unsustainable land use practices following forest conversion often lead to enhanced rates of geomorphic activity including soil erosion, landsliding and fluvial activity. Rapid demographic growth and socio-economic development have...
Swiss-style mountain cheese

In the mountainous Andean region of northern Peru, Practical Action has recently begun working to develop the market-chain for Swiss-style matured cheese produced by many widely dispersed small-scale herders.

This is relatively new product with a potentially good market in the regional city of Cajamarca and coastal towns such as Chiclayo.  However, the local market fair is...

Threats to water supplies in the tropical Andes
Climate models predict that greenhouse warming will cause temperatures to rise faster at higher than at lower altitudes. In the tropical Andes, glaciers may soon disappear, with potentially grave consequences for water supplies. According to general circulation models of future climate in a world with double the pre-industrial carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations, the rate of warming in the lower...
Mountain voices

Since 1994, Panos Institute has been working with local community and development organizations to collect personal testimonies in highland areas, predominantly in Africa and Asia. The aim is to help people like Vimla Devi make their voices heard beyond their homeland in the Himalayan hills and valleys. This collection of oral testimony was designed in response to a growing concern that...

Copper mining processes in Chile: Learning from past impacts
This short presentation shows how copper mining is one of the most important economic activities in Chile. Copper production has increased from ca. 700.000 metric tones in 1970 to more than 3 500 000 metric tones in 1996. Copper mining is based mainly in 10 open or underground mines, spread along the Andes Mountains on the Atacama Desert. The presentation looks at problems with copper mining...

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