DEVELOPMENT-PERU: Breeding Alpacas and Vicuñas to Fight Poverty

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Abraham Lama

LIMA, Jun 14 2002 (IPS) - Experts in Peru suggest that a greater focus be put on raising domestic alpacas and wild vicuñas – members of the Camelidae family – for the export of their wool, as a means of improving the living standards of impoverished indigenous herders who live in the cold, arid Andean highlands.

Peru should be working harder to develop this export sector, says a Peruvian adviser to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Antonio Brack.

Alpacas are already bred for their wool in Australia, Canada, China, New Zealand and the United States, and countries like Britain, France, Israel and Japan are working on establishing herds of their own.

Since Lima banned the export of live camelids, other countries have acquired genetic material for their selective breeding and genetic improvement programmes.

Australia, China and New Zealand together already “have around 300,000 alpacas, which have been subjected to genetic improvement to obtain higher quality wool. In 10 years, they will have between 10 and 12 million animals, two to three times the number of alpacas in Peru,” warned Brack.

The UN expert recently presented a proposal to the Peruvian Institute of the Alpaca and Camelids and the Peruvian Society of Registered Alpaca Breeders. If the two organisations accept the initiative, they will seek assistance from the state for implementing the programme, which would involve highland herding communities.

Peru produces between 3,000 and 4,000 tonnes a year of wool from alpacas and vicuñas, 80 percent of which is exported, bringing in total revenues of around 20 million dollars.

Brack’s proposal is not only focused on defending Peru’s share of the global market and improving the camelid fibre it exports. It also aims to improve the living standards of the native people living in the altiplano region, one of the most destitute segments of the Peruvian population.

Around 95 percent of Peru’s alpacas are owned by 167,000 families of herders, according to the Peruvian Institute of the Alpaca and Camelids. The families, most of whom have herds of less than 70 animals, earn around 600 dollars a year selling wool.

Above 4,000 metres, there is only sparse, tough vegetation, and farming is impossible. The only livestock that thrive in the harsh altiplano environment are the South American camelids.

The Andes highlands in Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Chile and Argentina are home to the wild guanacos and vicuñas and their domesticated cousins, alpacas and llamas, all of which are related to the camels that inhabit the deserts of Africa and Asia. All members of the Camelidae family are able to subsist on little food and water.

In pre-Columbian times and during the Spanish colonial era, South America’s camelids lived in wild or semi-domesticated herds, and were rounded up once a year by indigenous communities for shearing.

Peru, which is home to nearly four million alpacas, is the world’s biggest breeder of that species and of the vicuña, while Bolivia has the largest number of llamas, and the biggest herds of guanacos live in Chile and northern Argentina.

In the second half of the 20th century, Peru’s vicuñas were in danger of disappearing because they were shot by poachers – sometimes even from small airplanes – who harvested the wool from the dead animals.

Alpacas are domesticated animals that live in captivity, while vicuñas live on state protected reserves. In the early 1990s, the Peruvian government assigned indigenous communities in the Andean highlands the task of managing the wild herds, authorising them to shear, but not hunt, the animals.

However, the state has not promoted the adoption of more advanced livestock raising techniques, nor the direct exportation of the wool by the herding communities, which must sell the alpaca and vicuña fibre to private companies that act as middlemen.

Some communities have received assistance from non-governmental organisations to improve the dying and preparation of the wool.

Experts like Brack say that what is needed in Peru’s poorest region is intensive breeding of alpacas and well-organised management of the wild vicuñas living in protected areas, as well as genetic selection to preserve and improve the quality of the wool.

Thirteen million of Peru’s 25 million people live in poverty, with incomes that fail to cover their minimum dietary and housing needs, or services like water and sewerage. Some 4.7 million live in extreme poverty, including the large majority of altiplano herders.

Some experts argue that a third category should be created in the official statistics, even below that of extreme poverty, to adequately classify the living standards of the highland herding communities.

“The peasant population living in areas located over 4,000 metres above sea level live in almost indescribable conditions of deprivation,” says sociologist Víctor Carrera.

“With what they earn selling wool, herding families can afford to buy three essential items: matches, salt and potatoes. Noodles are a luxury reserved for holidays, and due to the remoteness of the areas where they live, they receive no social assistance from the state,” says Carrera.

“That population is practically off the map of poverty drawn up by the National Institute of Statistics, because their living conditions are more wretched than even the segment classified as living in extreme poverty,” according to the expert.

The Peruvian Institute of the Alpaca and Camelids expressed its concern that the lack of genetic improvement techniques in Peru has led to a deterioration in the quality of the animals’ fibre, and to a growing number of animals being born with piebald coats, whose wool commands a lower price on the international market.

“The countries that have established alpaca herds selectively breed the animals to obtain finer fleeces and, in consequence, higher prices,” said the representative of the Peruvian Society of Registered Alpaca Breeders in Lima, Miguel Luis Bustinza.