DEVELOPMENT: Indigenous Knowledge Advances Science

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Zoraida Portillo

LIMA, Sep 9 1997 (IPS) - Indigenous knowledge is providing a new path for scientists in their efforts to preserve natural resources and develop sustainable agriculture that does not harm the environment in the Andean region.

The area, which extends from the south of Venezuela to the north of Argentina and Chile, is one of the most fragile ecosystems in the world and is home to some 135 million people, most of whom live in poverty.

Five years ago, a group of scientists and development specialists came together to form the Consortium for the Sustainable Development of the Andean Eco-Region (CONDESAN). Originally made up of experts in environmental, agricultural and social sciences, it now has incorporated the perspectives of local farmers and indigenous peoples.

“In the past, there have been some excellent scientific studies in the region, but many of those studies did not take into account the agriculture of peasant families”, says Roberto Quiroz, a specialist in production systems with CONDESAN.

“Even today, many research projects conducted by specialized institutions focus more on the product, and they forget that the peasants orient their labor more in terms of a system, and not an isolated crop”, he explained.

CONDESAN has proposed to reverse that tendency, by taking into account in its studies the agricultural systems and the influence of national policies on local farmers. “The farmer always takes into account government policies in deciding what will be planted and how it will be done. Because one of CONDESAN’s objectives is to transmit information from popular organizations to those who are responsible for formulating policies, the members of the consortium have decided to transform things from the bottom up,” Qiroz says.

The decision meant a change in traditional ways of conducting research, however it has gradually gaining supporters among international and national organizations, and among the peasants themselves.

CONDESAN’s fieldwork is currently being carried out in six designated areas of the Andes: La Miel in Colombia; Carchi in Ecuador); Cajamarca and Puno in Peru and Cochabamba and Patacamaya in Bolivia. In those places, both local farming communities and specialists from international centers of the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Development (GCIAI) participate in the project.

The GCIAI is a volunteer organization of 45 public and private donors who provide the funds to finance the 16 international agricultural centers throughout the world. Experts and peasants are in charge of introducing and evaluating new production technologies aimed at increasing productivity and promoting the protection of the environment. As results are obtained, they are combined in other areas of the region in order to measure their impact on larger extensions.

The centers of the GCIAI that participate in the CONDESAN project are the International Potato Center (CIP), of Peru, which conducts research on indigenous root crops, and the Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), based in Colombia, which does studies on the agro-ecology of the lower mountain slopes. Others participating the project include the International Institute for the Study of Livestock (ILRI), based in Kenya and which was responsible for the creation of the special program for the Andes, and the International Institute for Research in Plant Genetics (IPGRI), with headquarters in Rome, which coordinates aspects of biodiversity.

The large-scale effort to save the Andean eco-region from catastrophe involves more than 250 experts from about a hundred institutions from 17 countries. The greatest threats to the ecosystem are soil erosion, deforestation, overgrazing, the contamination of the valleys and rivers by mining waste, and the inadequate management of water, according to agro-ecologist Mario Tapia, a member of CONDESAN.

In Peru alone, 58 percent of all arable land of the Andes is threatened by erosion, and natural resources are disappearing due to intense demographic growth. “There are species that are disappearing without us even knowing about their existence”, says Tapia.

But the collaborating agencies are satisfied with the project’s progress.

“In CONDESAN, we share information and coordinate efforts, we eliminate problems of the lengthy and expensive negotiation of projects, dispersed planning, and delays in the programs and reports to the consultants”, says Paul Egger, a Swiss member of the Board of Directors.

Currently, CONDESAN is evaluating the long-term environmental sustainability of the current systems of land use, and developing alternative approaches. The work includes analysis of the soil and water, studies on socio-economic and political aspects, and biodiversity.

The study includes nine Andean root crops – oca, ulluco, mashua, maca, yacon, arracacha, achira, mauka or chago, and ahipa – to utilize their nutritional value, as well as their industrial and pharmaceutical uses.