Peru is home to the world’s largest number of alpacas. The country has approximately 4 million alpacas, which is roughly 88% of the global total.
Alpacas are reared in high-altitude regions in Peru, generally above 3,000 mt. The animals play a critical role in communities along the high Andean plateau where crops cannot be grown and the only economic activity, besides mining, is alpaca herding. More than 1 million people, in a country of 33 million people, depend exclusively on alpacas for their livelihoods.
Climate change poses a growing risk to alpacas and the communities they sustain. The Andes are experiencing shorter, but more intense, rainy seasons, and longer periods of drought. Frosts and hail storms have become more common. Changing weather patterns are shrinking natural pastures and reducing the quality of grasses, forcing alpaca herds to compete for food.
A looming impact is the loss of glacier coverage. Glacier runoff helps regulate water during the dry season, so the loss of glaciers means less water during the dry season.
According to the National Institute for Research on Glaciers and Mountain Ecosystems (Inaigem), Peru already has lost 53.5 % of its glacier coverage and could be without glaciers by 2100. Peru has the world’s highest percentage in the world of what are known as tropical glaciers.
Sixto Flores, a technical advisor to alpaca communities in Puno, said if pastures disappear, alpacas and alpaca-herding communities disappear with them. This project aims to investigate how climate change in Peru affects Alpaca breeders by creating “climate migrants” who are forced to move to higher and higher altitudes or abandon their lifestyle and move to low-lying cities, changing their lives forever threatening the loss of high Andean cultural identity. It also aims to show the scientific efforts that seek to contribute to combat the effects of climate change on alpacas and to breed more resilience in the genes of the animals.
At an altitude of more than 5000 mt, in the Andes of southern Peru, Alina Surquislla Gomez, a third-generation Alpaquera, cradles a baby alpaca on her way to the pastures where her family’s herd of more than 300 animals will graze in summer. Shrinking glaciers and increased drought have dried pastures in the Andes, forcing the herders—many of whom are women—to search for new grazing grounds, often in difficult terrain. Prized for their wool, alpacas are important to Peruvian culture and a major source of income in this region, which is home to several million of them. In the interview, Surquislla Gomez says: ” When I was little, my grandfather used to tell me how beautiful it was to graze in these valleys, due to climate change the situation has changed, we can no longer live like before and I am forced to make many sacrifices, but this is my life and my work and thanks to this I am able to support my children.”
Peru is on the list of countries most susceptible to the impacts of climate change, the negative effects of which are currently perceived in traditional alpaca breeding. The central and southern highlands are currently enduring an extremely aggressive climate with unpredictable extreme variations in the high mountains (-20 C), unusual winds, hailstorms, sudden rains, droughts, and prolonged summers. Since the 1970s, Peru has lost more than 40% of its glaciers, causing wetlands to shrink and leading pastoralists to overexploit their remaining pastures, resulting in numerous natural disasters that have cost more than 15 thousand lives. The most famous one goes by the name of El Niño.
The harmonious alternation of the two main seasons, dry and rainy, was broken: the sudden arrival of freezing temperatures and the unexpected and violent outbreak of thunderstorms followed by long periods of drought made the alpacas sick and die.
Peru has 88% of the world’s alpacas.
This animal is considered one of the country’s main natural resources. Alpacas have a great ability to adapt to high altitudes, making them the economic livelihood of high-altitude Andean communities settled above 3,000 meters in the southern and central highlands. They generate the meat and fiber essential to the economy of these communities.
Alpaca breeders (Alpaqueros) are one of the poorest groups in the country and due to their economic situation, many cannot afford to build a roof to protect the alpacas at night. This exposes them to harsh climatic conditions found above 4000m, such as frost.
Margaret Pilsen is a small artisan who makes handmade crafts from Alpaca fiber. In recent years, alpaca breeding – and thus the production of related textiles for international high fashion and meat for the local market – has declined significantly. The severe consequences of climate change are devastating the often marginalized and impoverished Andean communities, which are struggling to adapt to the new climate conditions.
About 250,000 families live directly and indirectly from alpaca breeding. Their lives are affected by retreating glaciers and the recurrence of extreme microclimates (snowfall, frost, hail, winds, and cold spells), which increase the incidence of alpaca morbidity and mortality, as well as affecting natural resources such as pastures and wetlands.
An alpaca is sacrificed the day before transhumance.
Alpaca breeding families organize transhumance four times a year, when they move to higher or lower altitudes depending on the climate and the season. Before the migration, some Alpaqueros do a ritual to Pachamama (Mother Earth), locally known as a payment to Pachamama, to ensure a good omen for the moving of the herd.
During the transhumance, which is done on foot or with mules, the whole family moves. The social consequences of this displacement are visible as life becomes more isolated and children’s education is affected due to the absence of schools at high altitudes. There are also problems with the family’s access to water and electricity as these services often do not arrive.
A family from Alpaqueros performs a ritual for Pachamama.
In the high Andean zones, local traditions are gradually fading away. Between the dry and rainy seasons, the whole community would thank Mother Earth (Pachamama), the mountain (Apus), and the sun (Inti Raymi) for the year’s harvest and grazing, sacrificing a small alpaca as a sign of gratitude.
Today, these traditions are disappearing because the number of alpacas is decreasing as a consequence of climate change and the abandonment of young people from the countryside. Also, the increase of poverty prevents Alpaqueros from devoting time and resources to traditional festivities. Difficult living conditions mean that some rural people no longer feel grateful for the land.
A researcher at the Quimsachata Research and Production Center, in southern Peru, installs a plastic vagina in an Alpaca dummy. This will be used to collect semen from a male alpaca that will then be used for insemination in the laboratory. Researchers select only the best males and females for breeding so that the next generation will have finer wool and greater resistance to climate change, according to Oscar Efrain Cardenas, national coordinator of the Quinsachata center’s camelid program. This public center, located in Puno, aims to improve the production and productivity of alpacas and reduce the effects of climate change on the species.
A medical team prepares an alpaca for surgery.
Peru’s Quimsachata Research and Production Center is home to the largest genetic reserve of alpaca breeds in the world. With state-of-the-art technology, the center is attempting to combat the effects of climate change on alpacas, which are indigenous to Peru and integral to everyday life. Changes in weather patterns have impacted their reproduction and survival.
Through in-vitro insemination, the center is attempting to breed more resilience in the genes of the animals and improve their reproductive capacity. They’re also targeting the prevention and treatment of diseases that adversely affect the productivity of camelids. This female alpaca is being prepared for a laparotomy, which allows researchers to explore the reproductive organs and do a molecular aspiration.
An alpaca fetus is analyzed under a microscope at the Quimsachata Research and Production Center in Peru.
The center aims to genetically improve the breed by creating so-called “improved alpacas”, a process that consists of crossing two individuals with good genetic backgrounds and good fiber quality. Indigenous communities often raise money to buy one of these “improved” specimens, which are much more expensive than normal alpacas but more resilient, to incorporate them into their livestock.
A researcher at the Quimsachata Research and Production Center in Peru with a Pacovicuña specimen.
The Pacovicuña is a hybrid breed of alpaca created by mating an alpaca and a vicuña. At this center, researchers were able to create 100 specimens of Pacovicuña that were put on an island to avoid the alteration of other species. This breed has high resistance to cold and to the effects of climate change and has more valuable wool, according to Oscar Efrain Cardenas, national coordinator of the Quinsachata center’s camelid program.
The crosses between alpaca and vicuña can also occur accidentally in remote places in the mountain range, when male vicuña are crossed with female alpacas. Pacovicuña’s fiber is more valued than alpaca’s since it has the fineness and silkiness of the vicuña and a longer length.
Lima is the second city in the world built in a desert after Cairo. In recent years, migration from Peru’s rural areas to Lima has increased significantly. Today Peru counts about 33 Million people and about 33% of the people live in the capital.
The reasons for the internal migration are connected to the country’s centralism, the progressive commercial and industrial development of the city, and the improvement of urban health and educational services.
People usually manage to get to Lima through so-called “Invasions” (Settlement). People rely on land traffickers who locate a vacant area of the Capital that they divide into parcels and organize an invasion with tents to occupy it illegally. Houses, which are often made of wood, are built without any foundations and have no sewerage system. The main problem is the lack of water, so people are forced to buy it from private companies that bring water to the neighborhood through tanker trucks unlike rich and middle-class neighborhoods, where people have cheaper water on tap.
People in the invasions are looking for alternative solutions to not buy water and save on the high price of the supply, and one such solution is fog nets.
According to Abel Cruz, an engineer and the founder of the project, today there are about 140 fog nets installed in Lima.
The embryo of the fog nets project was born more than 20 years ago when Cruz left his native Cusco region and came to Lima to live in a settlement (Invasion) where water was a luxury.
There he got the idea to apply this “totally practical and simple method” that, without resorting to high technology, captures gaseous water from dew, condenses it, and, once liquid, flows it through gutters to be stored in large tanks.
Each fog net uses two poles that support a 20-square-meter nylon net with small holes. These nets, which can be purchased at a hardware store, collect between 200 and 400 liters of water per day, Cruz said.
This project aims to focus on telling how this artisanal method could work as an alternative to fight the lack of water.
A fog net is pictured. The advantages of this method, according to Abel Cruz, the project’s founding engineer, are numerous: the system does not require large financial outlays, it lasts up to five years, and it works immediately because, unlike other projects, there is no need to wait years and years for its construction. Each fog net captures gaseous water from dew, condenses it, and, once liquid, flows it through gutters to be stored in large tanks for domestic use.
Lima is the second city in the world built in a desert after Cairo. Because of the country’s high internal migration, many people living in the Andes and Amazon decide to move to the capital. This creates very big new and poor neighborhoods where water often does not reach homes. To combat the lack of water, engineer Abel Cruz installs plastic nets that convert fog into water for people’s home use.
Portrait of Abel Cruz.
Mr. Cruz is originally from Cusco and himself migrated from the Andes to Lima. When he was young, he says, water was the luxury he most desired. For this reason, he founded the NGO Movimiento Peruanos Sin Agua. Each time he arrives at a new place to install the fog nets, he seeks outside funds to buy materials and organizes trainings for locals to put the fog nets in place and to maintain them.
A group of barrio residents installs fog nets. On the day of installation, the whole barrio is present and everyone helps with the work. This day is experienced as a celebration and a communal lunch is often organized to share time together.
A woman carrying a net to be installed by her fellow barrio members. For many people, these nets are a hope for financial savings.
View of the Barrio.
All of the houses in the photo have no sewerage system so people are forced to buy water from a private company that sells it at a very high price compared to the tap water that middle and wealthy neighborhoods have in their homes in other parts of Lima. Many of these people do not even have property titles since their houses are the result of illegal invasions.
In winter, fog is present daily in the deserted hills of Lima. The presence of fog is essential to the success of the fog net system. That is why it works better between April and September. During the summer, the fog nets are uninstalled and stored in the community to avoid deterioration in sunlight.
During the pandemic for Covid-19, the Peruvian government gave away water to families in these neighborhoods. From March 2023, people will have to re-start paying for water supplied by trucks, and with fog nets they will be able to save some money, according to local people.
A woman uses water from fog nets. Thanks to this system, Mercedes Huamani was able to make an urban garden in her home, where she produces fruits and vegetables. This greatly helps her household economy. “Where there is water, there is life,” she says.
View of the barrio after the fog nets have been installed. Villa Maria del Triunfo has a population of approximately 430,000 inhabitants. About 21.5% of its population lives in poverty and extreme poverty, according to the latest official data from the Peruvian government.
The water produced by the fog nets is collected and delivered to tanks. In the photo, the tanks had not yet been connected, and the water coming down from the nets made flowers grow exactly where the water touched the ground.
Peru has immense mineral wealth in its striking Andes mountains. It’s the world’s No. 2 producer of copper and silver and a key producer of gold. But under its scorching sun, metallic opulence coexists with abject poverty. Mining is more than twice as important as tourism to Peru’s economy. But the Andes remain home to some of the country’s poorest indigenous communities, Quechua-speakers whose mineral wealth was once sacked by the Spaniards and is now exploited by multinational corporations.
Peru: A Toxic State is a 6-year journey covering 20,000 thousand kilometers and 35 mining communities chronicling the neocolonialism of today’s mining industry. In 2021, Peru celebrated its 200th anniversary of independence, but the Andean mineral wealth is just as foreign to indigenous communities today as it was under colonial rule. Between 2021 and 2022, a wave of protests swept
Peru, whose geography is defined by mining. Spaniards operated a mine in Santa Barbara as early as 1566. Later, they moved to Cerro de Pasco, where the pursuit of wealth was so brazen the pit almost swallowed the city. To this day, Peru’s colonial mining towns exist in poverty. Mining plundered their wealth and local water sources, creating dead fields and killing livestock, the engine of the economy for the local population.
The end of colonial rule set up the scene for a new problem: neoliberalism. Multinationals scouted the Andes for metals. Anglo-Swiss Glencore settled in Espinar in 2011. China’s MMG opened Las Bambas in 2016. Tensions with indigenous communities have risen recently, with a historic wave of protests between disrupting key mines, buoyed by the presidency of Pedro Castillo, Peru’s first Campesino head of state. Many in the Andes identified strongly with Castillo, even after he got himself ousted after trying to dissolve Congress illegally. A key complaint is that mining wealth has not trickled down to the local population.
The price to pay under neoliberalism has been the health of indigenous Peruvians, whose water sources were either diverted to mining or polluted by it. Scores have toxic metals in their blood that can cause anemia, respiratory and cardiovascular disease, cancer, and congenital malformations. Their human rights have not been respected by companies or governments.
The project shows the impact of neoliberalism in Peru, through the lens of new and old mining. Peru may be mineral-rich, but its ancient indigenous communities are still poor.
Mining companies always make big promises before they begin operating in Peru’s Andes. Companies say they will bring development and that the mining taxes they pay will help lift everyone in towns that have lived in poverty for centuries. But more often than not, residents face huge disappointment. Peru’s Andes remain among the most impoverished regions in all of Peru. Poverty levels in copper-rich regions like Cuzco and Apurimac, home to Glencore’s Antapaccay mine and MMG’s Las Bambas, have fallen in recent years but remain high. People remain poor, as they see with resentment how the mineral wealth just passes by.
May 25, 2021
Drone view of the Tintaya mine, Espinar, Peru.
Glencore, a powerful multinational company, has bought large tracts of land to create the massive mining complexes of Tintaya, Antapaccay, and, in the future, Coroccohuaycco. More than 40% of the district’s territory has been granted by the government to mining companies, causing a sharp impact on the indigenous population and creating a huge imbalance between the lifestyles of those who work in the mines and those who do not. The major problems that afflict the territories and populations of the Espinar area are the pollution of water with heavy metals and the lack of water, problems that the local population attributes to mining activity.
May 21, 2021
Before the mining company Arasi arrived in Ayaviri, Puno, people lived on cheese and milk. Ayaviri’s cheese was exported all over Peru, reaching as far as Lima and Cuzco. Due to water pollution and drought, cows began to produce less milk and milk of lower quality. As a result, the economic conditions of the breeders dropped significantly. Cheese producers now have difficulty selling their products outside the city. People in nearby markets do not want to buy what may be “contaminated cheese”. In the picture, the level of the drought of the land is clear.
May 21, 2021
The residents of Ayaviri do not drink the water of their own rivers and lakes because they say it is polluted with mining waste. The pollution has created a cottage industry for water trucks, which charge 25 times the price of water in Lima. Other neighborhoods only have access to water for 6 hours a week. Water is scarce for the population, while the mining company has access to large amounts of it. As a result, the fields are barren and the few crops that grow are toxic or not enough to sustain families, locals say. Peru’s government has found heavy metals in Ayaviri’s rivers.
March 23, 2021.
Silvia Chilo Choque, 40, bathes her son, 13, with cerebral palsy in Espinar. Water is scarce, so many people collect rainwater during the rainy season to use in baths and other tasks. In the dry season they have no other option but to use contaminated water from the river, boiling it first and then putting chlorine in it. Because this is a long process, often people are only able to shower once a week.
April 28, 2021.
Tailings dam in the rural community of Mimosa, Huancavelica. Mining often generates toxic, liquid waste that needs to be stored and secured with a dam. If the dam breaks or leaks, it can pollute crops and make the water unusable. The indigenous community of Mimosa now lives on the side of the tailings dam, which worries local residents that it could break. Dam tailings leaks are not uncommon in Latin America. The community uses the water from the nearby rivers for drinking, cooking, washing themselves and their clothes, feeding their animals, and irrigating their fields.
May 21, 2021
A woman shows her potato harvest in Ayaviri, where mining has affected agricultural output. Potatoes are part of the tradition and folklore of Peru. There are more than 3,000 native potatoes in the country. It is the main source of carbohydrates and almost every family in the Peruvian Andes grows them. In mining cities, unlike tourist cities, locals are concerned that the cultivation of potatoes is put at great risk by pollution.
21 de maio de 2021
Uma mulher mostra a sua colheita de batatas em Ayaviri, onde a exploração mineira afectou a produção agrícola. As batatas fazem parte da tradição e do folclore do Peru. Existem mais de 3.000 batatas nativas no país. É a principal fonte de hidratos de carbono e quase todas as famílias dos Andes peruanos as cultivam. Nas cidades mineiras, ao contrário das cidades turísticas, os habitantes locais estão preocupados com o facto de a cultura da batata ser posta em grande risco pela poluição.
21 de mayo de 2021
Una mujer muestra su cosecha de patatas en Ayaviri, donde la minería ha afectado a la producción agricola. La papa forma parte de la tradición y el folclore de Perú. Existen más de 3.000 papas nativas en el país. Es la principal fuente de hidratos de carbono y casi todas las familias de los Andes peruanos las cultivan. En las ciudades mineras, a diferencia de las ciudades turísticas, a los lugareños les preocupa que el cultivo de la patata corra grandes riesgos por la contaminación.
August 1, 2022
Reporting on the reality of living in a mining town in Peru is difficult. Vidal Merma was born to an indigenous family in Espinar and has chronicled how Glencore’s Antapaccay has disrupted life for locals, including during historic protests in 2012 that left several residents in Espinar dead. As a result, Glencore filed criminal libel charges against Merma in a process that was eventually dismissed. Merma denies he has libeled Glencore, while the company says its reputation has been negatively affected. Despite the legal fights with Glencore, Merma has achieved international recognition and been a recipient of a Pulitzer Center grant.
April 24, 2022
The village of Nueva Fuerabamba near MMG’s Las Bambas copper mine. The village was built in 2014 by the mine in order to resettle the indigenous Fuerabamba community of about 660, who lived for centuries on top of what is now a huge copper mine. Mining executives have compared the village to a Swiss town. But Gregorio Rojas, a community leader, said about 20 people have died from depression since moving to Nueva Fuerabamba because they have not adapted to the new urban lifestyle. Residents have tried to keep livestock in their three-story houses and sheep can be seen walking on the streets of the town.
April 24, 2022
Discontent toward the new urban lifestyle in Nueva Fuerabamba reached a boiling point in 2022, when dozens of residents entered MMG’s Las Bambas mine and resettled in their ancestral lands in Old Fuerabamba. They built tents and brought their animals to graze near the huge open pit, like they used to for generations, forcing Las Bambas to halt operations. Two weeks later, the mine hired private security officials and violently evicted the Nueva Fuerabamba residents, a move that is legal under Peruvian law.
April 27, 2021
The Santa Barbara mine is the oldest mine in Peru. Under Spanish colonial rule, indigenous Peruvians were enslaved to work there. The mine was in operation from 1566 to 1975. Today, the mine has been submitted to UNESCO as a property of historical interest. In the photo, Miguel Sarapia Quispe poses inside the mine with the clothes his grandfather was wearing on the day he died from an accident while working in the mine.
May 21, 2021
Mrs. Angelica shows the photo of her husband who died of Covid-19 in front of her house in Ayaviri. Due to the absence of water from the tap and high contamination of the river, many people are unable to comply with World Health Organization regulations against Covid-19. Her husband during her lifetime worked for about 15 years in the local mine.
April 24, 2021
A group of funeral home workers wait until the end of a burial service in a cemetery in Huancavelica, Peru, during the Covid-19 pandemic. The lungs of mining workers are sometimes at added risk of developing a serious case of Covid-19 if they have been previously exposed to silicosis, a lung condition known as the “miner’s disease.” Mining was one of the first industries allowed to restart operations during the pandemic and at least tens of thousands of workers were infected, according to nonprofit Cooperaccion. Peru currently has the worst per capita Covid-19 death toll in the world. In the mining town of Espinar, the first cases of Covid-19 were brought by miners, a local health official said. According to local hospitals, the percentage of miners and former miners who have been affected by Covid-19 is much higher than people doing other jobs.
August 3, 2022
Children play soccer in the Peruvian town of Espinar, where a Glencore mine operates, next to a cloud of dust. Pollution is a long-standing problem for Peru’s mining towns, especially those with many decades of exposure to the industry. In 2005, the School of Public Health at St. Louis University, Missouri, conducted a study in La Oroya, a city that was the site of a smelter operated by the U.S. company Doe Run. The research, led by Ph.D. Fernando Serrano, found children with blood lead levels three to four times higher than those accepted by the U.S. at the time.
April 27, 2021
Mernardo Sarabia Flores, 60, president of the Torata Alta Irrigation Commission. Southern Copper operates its Cuajone copper mine near its community in Moquegua, which used to live on agriculture and livestock, especially from the high quality of its avocados, which require a lot of water. In recent years, avocado trees have been dying, affecting the local population’s source of income. Moquegua and much of Peru’s copper-rich Southern region overwhelmingly voted for Pedro Castillo in 2021, who became the country’s first campesino president. But Castillo was impeached and ousted in late 2022 after trying to illegally close Congress. While Castillo’s move was illegal, many in Peru’s South approved of his decision and took to the streets to protest. The country’s military response to the protests left over 55 civilians dead.
