Vicuña management in Andean countries: Use of indigenous and local knowledge

LICHTENSTEIN. G

Tokyo

Workshop; IPBES Expert Meeting report; 2013

United Nations University/UNESCO

Vicuña management by Andean communities provides a wonderful opportunity for the integration of scientific and traditional/local knowldege. Vicuña conservation is considered a success story by CITES. The vicuña recovered from a population of only 10,000 to about 421,500 individuals during the period 1965-2010 (Lichtenstein 2010a). CITES and the Vicuña Convention, signed by Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Peru and Ecuador played a key role in halting the population decline. In Article I of the Vicuña Convention (1979), and in the signatory states?subsequent submissions to CITES meetings, Andean people that had been bearing the burden of vicuña conservation were named as the main beneficiaries of vicuña use. Vicuña management projects follow the logic of community-based conservation. The rationale for seeking to conserve vicuñas through sustainable use is that commercial utilization of the fibre obtained from live-shorn animals will generate sufficient economic benefits to outweigh the costs of conservation, and contribute to community development and poverty alleviation. The capture and release system in place in Andean countries evolved from the Inca chaku tradition, whereby large numbers of community members holding colourful flags chase vicuñas into a funnel from where vicuñas are taken to be shorn. Modern chakus incorporate animal welfare considerations, and the use of more modern technology to support the vicuña roundup and monitor vicuña populations. The participation of indigenous representatives at the Vicuña Convention and a fuller participation of local communities in the design and different levels of implementation of management plans at the national level still remain as a challenge as well as a more equitable distribution of benefits.