|
The
interactions between environmental, agro-ecological and socio-political factors
in determining vicuña distribution and appropriate management systems
The research
evaluates the advantages and disadvantages of sustainable wildlife use as a tool
for involving community participation in wildlife conservation. The case of the
vicuña (Vicugna vicugna) is used to identify how attitudes (and actions)
of rural communities and government initiatives for conservation and rural
development interact to influence the population and distribution of the
species.
The main
objectives of the work are:
- to
establish how patterns of vicuña distribution evolved following the
introduction of protection measures in the 1970s and 1980s.
- to
evaluate the commercial and non-commercial benefits and costs of vicuña
management by rural communities, and the expectations that communities have
of this activity.
- to
assess the extent to which involvement in vicuña fibre harvesting results in
communities changing land management practices to encourage more vicuña?
Current
developments in policy towards managing the vicuña make this an excellent
example with which to study the interactions between
opportunities for commercial exploitation, resource management by campesinos and
the ecology of the vicuña.
It is important that the
evaluation of human impacts on vicuña distribution and population density is
based on a sound ecological footing. Likewise, projections of future growth
potential for wild vicunas and potential future harvests require a detailed
understanding of the natural and anthropogenic factors regulating population
growth.
Literature
related to those objectives
At the end of the 1960s
the vicuña was in serious threat of extinction, having experienced a population
crash after many years of overhunting. The high rate of recovery following the
introduction of protection measures, in particular the regulation of
international trade, suggests that overexploitation, as opposed to other
potential processes (competition with livestock, habitat modification, disease),
that was the most important population regulating factor acting on populations
throughout the vicuña’s range.
Through the
establishment of 2 international agreements to protect the vicuña – the Vicuña
Convention, an agreement between the governments of Peru Bolivia, Argentina,
Chile, and later Equador, and CITES (Convention on Trade in Endangered Species
of Flora and Fauna) – established a strong state-level commitment to vicuña
conservation. This commitment manifested itself in the establishment of
protected areas, and also in the recording of vicuña numbers and distribution,
and in sponsorship of research.
The censuses of vicunas
were undertaken to monitor the success of the conservation effort, and latterly
to evaluate the value of wild stocks of vicuña as a resource for exploitation by
local communities. This data is mostly unpublished, grey literature, but it is
extensive, involving the evaluation of vicuña numbers over some 150,000 km² of
altiplano in successive years by direct observation.
The intensity of
sampling has not been uniform, and there are a small number of sites where data
quality is regular enough to undertake a detailed study of the population
ecology of the species. Datasets are available in Pampa Galeras, in the Peruvian
department of Ayacucho, Parinacota in the Chilean I region (Tarapaca), Ulla
Ulla to the north of Lago Titicaca in Bolivia, and Mauri Desaguadero to the
south of Lago Titicaca. These datasets are sufficient to allow a comparative
study of the spatial and population dynamics of the vicuña to be made, including
the relation between abundance and the distribution of vegetation types.
Plan
of Action
The data that will be
used to make this assessment of vicuña ecology and use is derived from three
primary sources:
Direct
observations: The results of
censuses undertaken during the period 1965 to present throughout the altiplano.
These have been undertaken primarily by government agencies. Most censuses are
published in summary form, and are contained within documents presented to the
Vicuña Convention. Details of the censuses are maintained by the specific
departments involved, and are generally available for use for research purposes
by formal agreement with those departments. Livestock population and
distribution data is available from the relevant agricultural ministries and
statistical offices.
Remote sensing:
Resources such as The Global Land Cover Facility provide detailed 5m resolution
imagery of the study area that can be used to develop Land Cover and NDVI maps
of the study areas. This will be used for assessing habitat quality and the
extent of bofedal cover in study areas.
Stakeholder
Interviews: Socio-economic
data will be assessed by semi-structured interviews with campesinos in and
around areas where vicuña management is now practiced. The objective of such
interviews is to assess any discrepancies between expected and realised benefits
from vicuña management, and to evaluate the extent to which vicuña are regarded
ad integral or antagonistic to primary activities of those campesinos.
Further information
Literature review
(PDF)
Presentation
|
 |
This research is supervised by Dr David Preston, Dr Steve Carver, and Dr
Oliver Phillips at the School of Geography, University of Leeds, and by Prof
Iain Gordon at the Macaulay Land Use Research Institute, Aberdeen.
The project began in November 2002, and will finish in October 2005. |
