Translator: James Haslam Reviewer: Jaime Mogollón Michilot
This year will be the 50th year I have spent travelling throughout the country.
Covering every region,
as well as other countries;
studying, examining, asking questions, making notes.
Learning a great deal.
Because out there — in the rainforest, the fields, the grasslands —
there are Ph.D.s who have nothing but who are exceptional at what they do.
When I almost decided to quit my German Ph.D.
I was at the Potato Park in Cusco,
where the communities of Amaru Grande and Amaru Chico
cultivate 972 varieties of potato;
and they know potatos.
One thing that has always fascinated me
and worried me when thinking about the future,
is the Peruvian Andes.
The Andes — the backbone of Peru —
considered as a barrier or impediment by some,
embraced by others;
we still don't fully understand it.
And yet, if we don't resolve the problems affecting the Andes,
we will never be a more developed country.
The Andes is a strategic region.
Peru's coastline, where 65% of the population lives,
has no water sources.
The water gets used, dirtied, and then discarded.
It comes from the Andes.
And for the water that we use in Lima today,
can we afford to pay an extra
10 cents per cubic metre of drinking water
to maintain a source in the upper basin in Rímac,
where there are 30,000 hectares of forest plantations?
Secondly, human presence in the Andes dates back to over 15,000 years;
it is one of the places where farming and cattle raising originated.
The Andes contain 83 species of domesticated plants,
9 species of potato, a variety of corn, pumpkin, quinoa,
amaranth, cañihua, tubers, roots, papayas etc.
It has the world's largest wealth
of genetic resources that are essential
in feeding Peru and the rest of the world: potato and corn.
It's also the world's genetic centre
for South American camelids,
because we have 1% of the world's sheep population here in Peru
and 67% of the camelid population.
In other words, Peru is a bank of genetic resources.
It's also a bank of traditional knowledge.
Biotechnology has existed here in the Andes for over 10,000 years —
to this day it provides a foundation for modern biotechnology.
Through domesticating potatoes,
2321 varieties have been obtained and developed,
without microscopes, without computers, without a knowledge of genomes, etc.
and scientists are still trying to figure out
how they managed to cross four species and obtain a new variety of potato.
How did they do it?
We still don't know.
The Andes are a marvelous place, but it also houses serious problems
Through Palynology, Heinz Edenberg and his students
from the University of Göttingen studied the soil
of the Peruvian Andes during the 50s and 60s.
He estimated that the Andean forests
held 3 million hectares of Queñua and B. Coriacea woodland,
and today, according to the latest estimations, just 90,000 hectares remain.
We've deforested them;
with the arrival of sheep and cattle, we've over-grazed the mountains —
the well-adapted camelids have been left by the wayside —
and nowadays, when you travel to Huancavelica, to Cajamarca,
to parts of the Amazon, especially the southern mountain ranges,
you see how the backbone of the Andes has been eroded;
it's destitute.
And on top of that, the icecaps are receding.
Water becomes sparser every day.
And for those that don't believe me, visit Coropuna,
visit the communities in Pampamarca, see what they are going through
because water is so short.
Because in Coropuna, roughly 62% of the ice caps have disappeared.
In addition, we have overgrazed the land;
ground cover in the Andes has been wiped out
and 60% of the land suffers from erosion.
We've come to the situation advocated by Pablo Sánchez, a genius from Cajamarca,
who said the Andes must go back to greenbelt status
and must produce the water needed to create this greenbelt.
Reforesting the Andes,
reestablishing woodland so that more water can be stored —
because woodland and water go together —
is an important issue.
For each two hectares that we reforest,
we create one rural job.
And when that woodland comes to be used, we create one job for each hectare.
Has anyone managed to demonstrate this? Yes.
One day, if you have the chance, and I know some here already have,
go to Granja Porcón, 30 km outside of Cajamarca,
to the Atahualpa-Jerusalén cooperative.
I saw it from the start; in the 70s when there was no woodland.
It was a feather grass wasteland, there was no firewood;
people cooked using animal manure. With the feather grass, there was no trout farming.
Then, with the help of the Belgians, people started to say,
'We're going to create a model farm here, are you on board?'
And the people replied 'Do you think we'll start to eat trees?'
Because either they cultivated potatoes or cassava or they were cattle farmers.
But they did it, they were persuaded.
Today, the cooperative has reforested 8,500 hectares,
its primary source of income is the sale of wood.
But they also farm cattle and grow mushrooms,
the water is better and cleaner; they have trout farming, etc.
They are close to Yanacocha,
just down the river Rejo, which is also much cleaner.
They've created this marvellous model, which is profitable too.
And the lesson is, you have to wait 10, 15, perhaps 20 years.
I was present when the Belgians began reforesting. I said,
'When will you harvest?'
'Within 21 years time', replied the Belgian expert.
Whether we harvest or not,
time will pass all the same.
So you'll see it's better to harvest.
Secondly, there are 12,000 lakes and lagoons in the Andean grasslands.
12,000 lakes and lagoons, filled with fresh, oxygenated water,
and they're right here.
In the feather grass pastures of the High Andes,
rearing sheep can produce 50 kilos of meat per hectare per year.
Yet in the lagoons, as has been done in Arapa and elsewhere,
trout can be raised in floating containers —
not released, but keep in the containers —
enough to produce 100,000 to 150,000 kilos of meat
per hectare of trout farms.
The lagoons are there,
the people are there,
with their sheep, their alpacas and their lamas,
and no one's told them that the lagoon is an opportunity;
that the lagoon is capable of producing proteins.
And some of the problems specific to this region
are poverty and malnutrition.
What can we do?
In Puno, at a lagoon covering 22,000 hectares
near to lake Titicaca, the community of Arapa,
led by a local priest — a Swiss, I believe —
has started to breed trout in containers;
organic trout
that is then exported to Norway.
Imagine, exporting fish to Norway,
a major fishing nation,
that's brave, right?
But the community exports to Norway and Germany, and it makes a profit.
In Huancavelica, the sale of trout farmed in containers
generates 1 million Nuevo Sol per hectare per year.
In Cajamarca too, and on the river Chonta and the river Señor.
It's profitable, and it can be done.
So then, where will the money needed to do this come from?
'There's no money, loans aren't enough.'
Well, not true.
Reforestation can be financed in large part
by the carbon credit programme;
several Peruvians in Pucallpa and elsewhere
have done this, and have had their reforestation financed.
Why?
Because trees capture CO2 from the atmosphere as they grow
and convert it into biomass.
Because 45% of wood's mass is carbon captured from the atmosphere.
Secondly,
each year we invest 600-650 million Nuevo Sol
in the Juntos programme — which isn't bad —
in order to give 100 Nuevo Sol a month
to the poorest people in the Andes, so that they can have proper healthcare,
look after their children and give them an education.
Couldn't we take some of this
and invest in these projects that will go on to create rural jobs?
Rather than have our young adults migrate to the cities and become motorcycle taxi drivers.
The money exists.
In addition, the mining companies
pay into a 'close the mines' fund,
which is permitted to invest 4% of its capital
in reforestation programmes and forest plantations.
So why don't we do it?
Because people are not convinced, or they're not aware.
But certain people in Peru are involved.
In Pucallpa, in Amazon rainforest belonging to Mr. Cantuarias,
18,000 hectares of degraded land is being reforested,
with carbon credits then being sold to Great Britain.
They reforest one thousand acres, receive the funding, and so on.
So as you can see, it is profitable.
If we come together,
if we stop competing with ourselves and clashing with one another,
we can channel this competitive energy
into a joint project whereby we build a brighter future together.
I think it's worth the effort.
Peru's dusty coastline will thank us for it
because the basins will start to yield more water once again.
There are at least 30,000 hectares
of forest plantations in the basin of the river Rímac alone.
In Porcón, natural springs will flow once again.
The climate will change
and we will have the basin in Rímac guaranteeing our water supply.
Think about it.
I think it's worth the effort.
Thank you.
(Applause)