The Vicuna: The Theory and Practice of Community Based Wildlife Management

The Vicuña

Iain J. Gordon Editor

The Vicuña The Theory and Practice of Community Based Wildlife Management

Editor Iain J. Gordon CSIRO, Sustainable Ecosystems Townsville, Australia

ISBN: 978-0-387-09475-5 DOI: 10.1007/978-0-387-09476-2

e-ISBN: 978-0-387-09476-2

Library of Congress Control Number: 2008935084 © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2009 All rights reserved. This work may not be translated or copied in whole or in part without the written permission of the publisher (Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, 233 Spring Street, New York, NY 10013, USA), except for brief excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly analysis. Use in connection with any form of information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed is forbidden. The use in this publication of trade names, trademarks, service marks, and similar terms, even if they are not identified as such, is not to be taken as an expression of opinion as to whether or not they are subject to proprietary rights. While the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of going to press, neither the authors nor the editors nor the publisher can accept any legal responsibility for any errors or omissions that may be made. The publisher makes no warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein. Printed on acid-free paper springer.com

Foreword

Things have changed. In 1969 when the Convention for the Conservation of the Vicuña was drafted, in an attempt to save the vicuña from its tumbling decline towards extinction, both the science and the philosophy of wildlife conservation were radically different. It is thus a tribute to the prescience of those involved at the time that the rescue plan had, even through the harsh lens of hindsight, a distinctly Twenty First Century flavour. After all, it was predicated on the expectation that if vicuña could be saved, they would one day become a valued asset, generating revenue for the human communities that fostered their survival. Embodied in this aspiration are the main structures of modern biodiversity conservation – not only is it to be underpinned by science, but that science should be of both the natural and the social genres, woven into inter-disciplinarity, and thereby taking heed of economics, governance, ownership and the like, alongside biology. In addition, it should include, as a major strut, the human dimension, taking account of the affected constituencies with their varied stakes in alternative outcomes. This contemporary framework for thinking about biodiversity conservation is inseparable from such wider, and inherently political, notions as community-based conservation and ultimately sustainable use. This book, and the story of the vicuña’s complicated journey with humanity into the present – brought into focus through the splendid Manejo Sostenible de Camélidos Silvestres (MACs) project in which I have been delighted to participate – is thus much more than just another monograph about an interesting species. Rather, it presents an opportunity that is unusual – because the emphasis on sustainability and the human dimension started so unusually early in this case - to look into the future and anticipate problems and solutions that may be encountered by those trying to foster other species, elsewhere, but starting down the road much more recently. In short, this is not just a book about vicuña, it is a book holding lessons for anyone thinking about, or taking action towards, practical conservation. Some of those lessons are edifying, others threaten despair – and that too is the wider reality of practical conservation. In a recent book on biodiversity conservation, Macdonald et al. (2007) used the term ‘alignment’ to capture the notion that solutions must harness the disparate individual and institutional drivers within the conservation enterprise to a common purpose. They went on to single out eleven themes that should be aligned within conservation – every one of which is illustrated by the vicuña story as unfolded v

vi

Foreword

in this book, and first amongst these was that the aspirations of biodiversity conservation and development – particularly the alleviation of poverty – cannot be solved separately. For much of the Twentieth Century, biodiversity conservation was championed by naturalists whose love of nature and wilderness took rather little account of the human dimension. Now, and wondrously, Conservation has a seat at the high table of international affairs, and sits there next to Development. The opportunity to influence outcomes is huge, but so too is the difficulty of aligning the aspirations of conservation with development now that the opportunity for retreat to a comfortable silo has been cut off. Macdonald et al. (op. cit.) trace the history of growing enthusiasm for human well-being and livelihoods as a driver for biodiversity conservation, to the extent that it threatened to create a political correctness whereby the biodiversity element of the mix might be overwhelmed. In surveying the lessons learnt from the MACs project, Iain Gordon sagely notes that some in the social sciences may have forgotten that the delivery of community wellbeing and biodiversity were conceived as equal, synergistic, goals within the concept of community-based conservation. This pendulum may now be shifting to a better alignment, and few cases illustrate the issues more vividly than the vicuña story. Indeed, Wheeler and Laker (Chapter 3) offer a salutary, if unsettling, conclusion that the future remains uncertain. The blend of economic and regulatory conditions offers little comfort that poaching, at a level that undermines the whole venture, can be contained. This brings us to the topics of value and rights. For a community to foster vicuña they must value them, whether that community is a village of Andean farmers or the doyens of an international legislature. The MACs project has sought to expose the economic realities to determine whether that value can come reliably from the vicuña’s capacity to generate revenue, and the brutal truth is that no clear answer emerges. This is partly because of a profusion of uncertainties in the market, making it unclear just how much the harvest is likely to be worth for the producer in the Andean community. As Stolen et al. (Chapter 7) reveal, a veritable hornet’s nest of complexity emerges even from the first step of trying to define the qualifying criteria for inclusion within that community. Further down that bumpy road lie decisions on the nature of the ownership rights to the vicuña and their products, and such thorny issues as how such rights would be regulated if, for example, a given segment of the Andean community decided it was in its interest to follow a plan that was damaging or even catastrophic for the conservation of vicuña. It may have been helpful to leave the Andean community as undefined when, in 1979, they were named the beneficiaries of the Convention for the Conservation and Management of the Vicuña, but it is probably not helpful now. But all these thoughts of economic value and ownership shriek for the importance of other types of value. The prospects for vicuña, and everything else besides, are likely to be much less shaky to the extent that people, especially local people, value them beyond their usefulness. In this context, Bibi Vilá writes compellingly about the successes, within MACs, of the education programme. Money is clearly very important, but it is also sufficiently fickle that if the barometer of their value

Foreword

vii

measures only attributes that can be monetised, then vicuña have much to fear from short-term expediency. In this context, Macdonald et al. (op. cit.) also emphasise the demon of shifting baselines. While we must rejoice that from a precarious minimum of 15,000, some 250,000 vicuña are alive today, let us also remember the perspective of a natural benchmark (a measure of what has been lost, as opposed to a measure of the risk of losing more): there were more than two million of them before humans set to work. I mentioned that a feature of modern biodiversity conservation, and of the vicuña story in particular, is its inter-disciplinarity. The issues of development, economics, governance, education and regulation already make it clear that while biology is necessary it is not sufficient. Nonetheless, two very important and essentially biological points are illustrated by the vicuña. The first point is generic – that the extent of intra-specific variation in animal behaviour is so great that those formulating management policy should not be caught off guard if the species behaves differently under different circumstances. Marcelo Cassini’s team (Chapter 4) make clear that not all vicuña populations adhere to the strictly territorial model thought originally to characterise them. Furthermore, when manipulating populations it is important to appreciate the dynamics of their natural processes (Bonacic et al. (2002) reveal that such processes may be density dependent, for example, reproductive success varies with group size). The second biological point, illustrated importantly by the story of vicuña, is that animal welfare science has a role to play in biodiversity conservation. All too often, the enthusiasm for animals that unites them is squandered because a wedge separates those concerned with the conservation of populations from those concerned with the well-being of individuals. This polarisation strikes me as a bad thing, and one that is ill-founded – populations are, after all, an emergent phenomenon of individuals, and concern for both the whole and the parts is just one more dimension along which we should quest for alignment. The case of the vicuña emphasises the importance of animal welfare to conservation because, unusually, the product to be used, the fiber, can be harvested in vivo. The sustainability of the harvest hinges, therefore, not only the deaths of vicuña, but on their welfare during harvest. This has both a technical and a reputational aspect. First, it is necessary to scrutinise and measure scientifically the vicuña’s welfare, and for ethical reasons to strive to maximise it. This has necessitated moving forward the forefront of wild animal welfare science to find the necessary tools and measurements (Bonacic et al. 2006). Second, it is necessary to prioritise the vicuña’s welfare for hard-nosed commercial reasons – a luxury product for sale in affluent markets could not withstand the blight of association with cruelty. Thus, in this case, there is an important instance of alignment – the management of the crop, and of the market, both necessitate attention to welfare, and stimulate scientific inventiveness in measuring and monitoring it. So, a veritable meteor shower of issues cascade from attempts to conserve vicuña through their use, and these few introductory thoughts touch on just a handful of them. Hopefully, however, they suffice to illustrate not only the complex particularities of conserving vicuña in the Andes, but also present the vicuña as

viii

Foreword

metaphor for generalities that inform the alignment of biodiversity conservation and human development. Many uncertainties remain, but the MACs project, and this book, have done great service in exposing them. David W. Macdonald Wildlife Conservation Research Unit Oxford

References Bonacic C, Feber RE, Macdonald DW (2006) Capture of the vicuña (Vicugna vicugna) for sustainable use: Animal welfare implications. Biological Conservation 129:543–550 Bonacic C, Macdonald DW, Galaz J, Sibly RM (2002) Density dependence in the camelid Vicugna vicugna: the recovery of a protected population in Chile. Oryx 36:118–125 Macdonald DW, Collins NM, Wrangham R (2007) Principles, practice and priorities: the quest for ‘alignment’. In: Macdonald DW, Service K (eds), Key topics in conservation biology. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing p 273–292

Contents

1

The Philosophy of Sustainable Wildlife Use .......................................... Iain Gordon

1

2

The Historical Relationship Between People and the Vicuña ............. Hugo Yacobaccio

7

3

The Vicuña in the Andean Altiplano ...................................................... Jane C. Wheeler and Jerry Laker

21

4

Sociality, Foraging and Habitat Use by Vicuña.................................... Marcelo Cassini, Mariela Borgnia, Yanina Arzamendia, Verónica Benítez, and Bibiana Vilá

35

5

Animal Welfare and the Sustainable Use of the Vicuña ....................... Cristian Bonacic, Jessica Gimpel, and Pete Goddard

49

6

International Policies and National Legislation Concerning Vicuña Conservation and Exploitation .................................................. Desmond McNeill, Gabriela Lichtenstein, and Nadine Renaudeau d’ Arc

7

Local Participation in Vicuña Management .......................................... Kristi Anne Stølen, Gabriela Lichtenstein, and Nadine Renaudeau d’Arc

8

Environmental Education as a Tool in the Sustainable Management of Vicuña in the Altiplano of South America ................. Bibiana Vilá, Javier García Gomez, and Ana Wawrzyk

9

63

81

97

Lessons for the Future of Sustainable Use of Vicuña ........................... Iain Gordon

113

Index ................................................................................................................

121 ix

Chapter 1

The Philosophy of Sustainable Wildlife Use Iain Gordon

1.1

Introduction

Throughout history, humans have used wildlife species to supply their needs, be it for clothing, meat, power or prestige (Roth and Merz, 1997). With the global growth of human populations increasing pressure has been placed upon species, either directly through exploitation or indirectly through habitat loss (OwenSmith, 1988; Wroe et al., 2004; Burney and Flannery, 2005). In the early twentieth century this led to the establishment of reserve areas or national parks in which wildlife and their habitats were protected (McNeely and Miller, 1984). While this protectionist approach has conserved many species from extinction, it has also led to severe conflict between people and wildlife, particularly where they interact, for example on the borders of the protected areas (Woodroffe et al., 2005). However, many species of wildlife still exist outside the protected areas and a number of these species will remain viable only if these populations continue to survive in harmony with the people with whom they coexist (e.g. Gratwicke, 2007). This has led to the development of a philosophy for sustainable use of wildlife outside the protected areas (the community-based conservation approach) (Hulme and Murphree, 2001). One of the tenets of the community-based conservation approach is that, because people reap an economic return for the use of wildlife species, their attitude to wildlife will improve and will lead to communities conserving those valued wildlife species (Hulme and Murphree, 2001). Clearly, for this to be the case, the community has to have rights over the use and management of that wildlife resource and individuals have to benefit, either directly or though community-based initiatives that improve quality of life (Martin, 1986). However, while the opening up of trade for a wildlife product (trophy, meat, skin or fibre) can benefit individuals, communities and wildlife, it may also mean that individuals or groups that are denied legal benefits may opt to participate in the market through supply of poached products. This may, in the end, cause over-harvesting of the wildlife resource, resulting either in extinction or a ban on trade through local, regional or international treaties. Sustainable use of any wild species often provokes controversy and opposition (Prins et al., 2000); in a global situation of rapid loss of biodiversity, cases I.J. Gordon (ed.) The Vicuña, DOI: 10.1007/978-0-387-09476-2_1, © Springer Science + Business Media, LLC 2009

1

2

I. Gordon

where wildlife species are abundant enough to be able to cope with commercial use are rare. In many cases, hunting or harvesting wild animals in the past has been one of the main factors in their numerical decline and potential extinction, which leads to conflicting philosophies between proponents of sustainable use and conservationists. Elephants and whales are iconic examples of the permanent battle waged between conservationists and promoters of wildlife use. Periodically, this issue is discussed in the CITES (Convention on Trade in Endangered Species), a global body responsible for regulating trade in wild species and their products’ commercialisation. It is against this backdrop that the consideration of the sustainable use of the vicuña takes place. The vicuña (Vicugna vicugna) (Fig. 1.1) provides an extremely interesting and enlightening case study of the political economy of wildlife management, as policy shifts from total conservation to a more complex, and contested, sustainable use approach. The first stage of total protection was extremely successful (McNeill and Lichtenstein, 2003); this policy received widespread support both nationally and internationally and the vicuña has become one of the few success stories of wildlife conservation. The next stage, that of sustainable use, has now been entered and the political consensus begins to break down; ongoing developments in international conservation policy within CITES, have established a legal basis for exploitation of both wild populations of vicuña and herds in captivity. This recent shift in emphasis from conservation to sustainable use requires that systems be developed that are economically viable, while maintaining adequate monitoring of the impact of management in individual animal welfare and population ecology. As many of the indigenous communities involved give religious importance to the vicuña, there is an extra socio-cultural dimension to this work. Increasing populations of vicuña are, however, raising new challenges for effective management. Internationally, policy development has followed the

Fig. 1.1 Northern (left) and southern subspecies of vicuña, Vicugna vicugna (V.v. mensalis and V.v. vicugna) (Photos, J. Laker)

1 The Philosophy of Sustainable Wildlife Use

3

community-based conservation paradigm, which holds that economic benefits from wildlife management practices bring greater commitment on the part of local communities to protect both the species and its habitat. However, sustainability of the species or the environment in which it lives is not guaranteed by sustainable use, and both education and regulation are required to prevent the proliferation of unsustainable practices. The debate has now shifted to a series of unresolved questions about the sustainability of different approaches to harvesting and marketing fibre should wild or captive management be adopted; how should benefits be distributed between individuals and communities; how humane is the capture, of wild animals for fibre harvesting and what policy instruments need to be put in place to prevent poaching and the development of an illegal fibre trade? The current argument for the consumptive use of vicuña is that it is based on fibre harvest from live animals and no individuals are lost as a result. Ancient traditions are invoked as one of the reasons for live animal shearing and the herding systems being adopted in several countries are an attempt to emulate those old methods. The objective is to deliver a financial return to local communities that have protected the species on their land for decades and have potentially foregone other income because of the presence of the vicuña. Community wildlife management does not replace conservation, but it does fundamentally alter the nature of the task that conservation agencies face by requiring much stronger engagement with local communities. The vicuña roams the high-altitude steppes of the Andes. It is a highly social species with males defending small family groups of females and their young (cria) all year round. The vicuña’s highly-prized fleece has been both its greatest asset and its biggest downfall. Four centuries of over-exploitation since the arrival of the Spanish led to the species’ near extinction in the 1960s. As a consequence of effective conservation measures by both international and national legislation over the past 40 years, the vicuña has recovered to population levels that have allowed some regional populations to be moved from CITES Appendix I to Appendix II, allowing local communities to exploit the fibre from live-shorn animals. The different countries in the main range of the vicuña (Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, and Peru) have adopted different approaches to the exploitation of the species, ranging from captive management under farm conditions in Argentina, ranching systems in fenced areas in Peru and Chile and the capture and release of wild populations in Bolivia, Peru and Chile. These different management systems reflect local limitations and aspirations, but each has a different outcome both in the degree to which local communities benefit from the exploitation of the fibre, and in the contribution that such management makes to conservation of the vicuña and its habitat. The recovery of vicuña populations in the wild provides the European and USA quality textile industry with a unique opportunity to develop new top-of-the-range products based on environmentally sound wildlife management and fair trade with developing countries. This opportunity presents many challenges for the development of appropriate management systems, animal welfare and distribution of benefits among producers.

4

1.2

I. Gordon

The MACS Project

The chapters in this book are based upon research conducted under the Proyecto Manejo Sostenible de Camélidos Silvestres (MACS; http://www.macs.puc.cl) that was initiated in order to establish standards of best practice in management of vicuña. The MACS project aimed to increase the productive base of pastoral communities in the high mountain and steppe ecosystems in the Andes of Latin America by providing the research necessary to develop systems for the production of high value, high-quality textile fibres from the vicuña, while securing the interests of conservation and animal welfare and equitable distribution of benefits. The MACS project took a systems-based approach (Fig. 1.2) focusing on the primary issues which were ecological, economic, ethical and social in nature. The multiple approaches combined to make the most ambitious study yet undertaken on wild camelid management and the results are already making a significant contribution to policy for integrated conservation and commercial use. It is clear that the use of the fibre from this iconic species can make a genuinely positive contribution to sustainable rural development, including indigenous peoples, as well as providing an economic incentive for wildlife, and indeed ecosystem,

Vegetation resources

Primary productivity

Offtake

Offtake / Diet selection

Animal resources Wild camelids

Sustainable use

Competition

Domestic livestock

Income from

Grazing management

Food/fibre/ cash

Human resources Pastoral communities

Pastoral family

Infrastructural/ community benefits

Fig. 1.2 A holistic integrated approach to the development of community based sustainable use of the vicuña in the South American Andes

1 The Philosophy of Sustainable Wildlife Use

5

conservation. It is also clear that changing the management paradigm from protection to commercial use opens up many opportunities for over-exploitation, poaching and inappropriate management practices that could jeopardise this initiative. This book explores these issues in the context of developing a dialogue between producers, the textile industry and wildlife conservation organizations that facilitates the integration of market forces and appropriate resource management practice. Contributors from both Latin America and Europe present the results of their research on production systems and the implications for conservation and animal welfare; camelid fibre quality, processing and trade; the vicuña as agent of Andean rural development and the outlook for the coming years in international conservation policy.

References Burney DA, Flannery TF (2005) Fifty millennia of catastrophic extinctions after human contact. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 20:395–401 Gratwicke B (2007) Poaching laws are useless without solid enforcement. Nature 445:147 Hulme D, Murphree M (2001) African wildlife and livelihoods. The promise and performance of community conservation. James Currey, Oxford Martin RB (1986) Communal areas management program for indigenous resources. (CAMPFIRE). Department of National Parks and Wildlife Management, Harare, Zimbabwe McNeely JA, Miller K (1984) National parks, conservation and development. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC McNeill D, Lichtenstein G (2003) The sustainable use of vicuña in Argentina: Local and international interests. Presented by D. McNeill at the Fourth Bioecon Workshop on the Economics of Biodiversity Conservation, Venice Owen-Smith NR (1988) Megaherbivores. The influence of very large body size on ecology. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge Prins HHT, Geu Grootenhuis J, Dolan TT (2000) Conservation of wildlife by sustainable use. Kluwer, Dordrecht Roth HH, Merz G (1997) Wildlife resources: A global account of economic use. Springer, Berlin Woodroffe R, Thirgood S, Rabinowitz A (2005) People and wildlife. Conflict or coexistence? Cambridge University Press, Cambridge Wroe S, Field J, Fullagar R, Jermin LS (2004) Megafaunal extinction in the late Quaternary and the global overkill hypothesis. Alcheringa 28:291–331

Chapter 2

The Historical Relationship Between People and the Vicuña Hugo Yacobaccio

2.1

Introduction

The relationship between man and wildlife has changed over time in many ways (Woodroffe et al., 2005). Today’s hunter-gatherers have sophisticated management tools, based on detailed knowledge of successional patterns and ecological interrelationships (Nelson, 1982) and many societies have taboos, rules or traditions that prevent overhunting by limiting the practice to certain events or seasons of the year. Restriction of overhunting is common in certain Amazonian peoples (Chicchón, 2000), although there are cases of species driven to local extinction due to the spatial variation in limits to hunting control (Hitchcock, 1995). Conservation behaviour in hunting societies is often embedded in religious beliefs and ritual practices which act to ensure the continuity of the populations (Loring, 1997). When the process of animal domestication began at the end of the Pleistocene, the level of human intervention of animal populations increased; for example, in the southern Levant (Israel), sex-selective culling of Capra spp. eventually led to their domestication (Tchernov, 1993). The relationship between environment and social sustainability has been studied in complex societies of the Old World (e.g. the Roman Empire, Abbasid Caliphate), and sometimes the demise of these empires has been attributed to unsustainable policies of environmental management (Allen et al., 2003). In complex pre-Hispanic Andean societies, a sophisticated semiotic lexicon for describing wildlife existed; these societies recognized two kinds of animals, domesticated (uywa) and wild (sallka). The Spirit of the Mountain (Mallku) is the owner of the sallka and controls them. People had to make offerings and sacrifices to the Mallku in order to use wild resources properly. The vicuña (Vicugna vicugna) is a highly regarded member of the sallka in the Andean mythological world, and, at least during the Inca Empire, their exploitation was regulated by cultural and religious rules (Dedenbach-Salazar Sáenz, 1990). My aim in this chapter is to analyse the relationship between people and vicuña through time. As with other human/animal interactions, understanding the historical background is useful, not only for increasing our knowledge about the impact of different kinds of management on the wildlife resource, but also in informing guidelines for future management policies (Allen et al., 2003).

I.J. Gordon (ed.) The Vicuña, DOI: 10.1007/978-0-387-09476-2_2, © Springer Science + Business Media, LLC 2009

7

8

H. Yacobaccio

The data for this chapter is provided by both archaeological and historical sources. A long period of human occupation of the Andes is recorded from archaeological evidence left in the form of material artefacts and ecofacts. After the arrival of Europeans in the mid-fifteenth century, historical accounts are added as a source of knowledge about the relationship between vicuña and people. We will focus on the southern section of the Andes (South of Bolivia, Northern Chile and North-western Argentina). In analysing the exploitation of vicuña in historical times (i.e. ad 1535–1916), we will use data on exports of vicuña skins and fibres from the port of Buenos Aires.

2.2 2.2.1

Prehistoric Period (10500 bc– ad1535) Hunter-Gatherer and Agro-Pastoralist Societies (10500 BC – AD 1470)

The altiplano was first peopled by hunter-gatherer groups around 11,000 years BC1. The radiation of these hunters was rapid, and a thousand years after their arrival, human presence was widespread across the Puna environments. Remains of vicuña bones, fibres and skins are found in the archaeological record from the very beginning of human settlement in the altiplano. The establishment of a predator–prey relationship is the most likely form of co-evolution between people and vicuña during the prehistoric period. Vicuñas were hunted across the region, but with varying intensity (Table 2.1; Fig. 2.1); in some localities, especially in the Salt Puna, vicuña remains are dominant, for example in Quebrada Seca2. The vicuña remains range from 44 to 99% of all camelid bones. At this site the exploitation of vicuña continued from 8,300 to 3,225 years BC. During this period it appears that the hunters killed family groups as evidenced by the analysis of age-class profiles (Elkin, 1996). The hunts of vicuña were continuous during the occupation of the site, although they involved only a few vicuña individuals in each hunt. In the nearby Cueva Salamanca, large quantities of vicuña skins and ropes were recovered (Pintar, pers. commun., 2004). This is the first evidence in the region of the use of vicuña fibre for rope making. The evidence of these two sites is not isolated; from 7,700 years bc onward a long-term trend of intensification of camelid use, very similar to that of the Central Andes (Peru), occurred (Wheeler, 1985). This rise culminated in a process of domestication of the guanaco (Lama guanicoe) from about 4,200 years BC (Yacobaccio, 2004). The presence of vicuña is variable from site to site, but is significant (Table 2.1); the sites of Tulán 52 and Puripica 1 are both small villages in which people were 1

Radiocarbon dates calibrated in years before Christ (BC). Bone counts are number of total identified bones per taxon (NISP).

2

2 The Historical Relationship Between People and the Vicuña

9

Table 2. 1 Archaeological sites with recorded evidence of vicuña Percen tage of total came lidsa

Percentage of small camelidsb (vicuña)

Presence of vicuña fibre or skins

10900 BC 10% (1,045) 8300– 81% 7300 BC (373) 9650– 5.5% 8270 (1,976) BC 7480– 15.5% 5040 (1,909) BC 5200 BC –

Presence

X

44%

X

Elevaion (m) Dates

Site

Level

Country

IncaCueva 4 Quebrada Seca 3 Hornillos 2

2

Argentina Jujuy

Lower Argentina Catamarca 4,050 levels Lower Argentina Jujuy 4,020 levels

Hornillos 2

Middle Argentina Jujuy levels

Cueva Salamanca

2

Quebrada Seca 3

Middle Argentina Catamarca 4,050 levels

Quebrada Seca 3

Upper Argentina Catamarca 4,050 levels

Tulán 52

II–IV

Chile

Atacama

3,200

6050– 5075 BC 4185– 3225 BC 3000 BC

– Chiu Chiu Cementerio Puripica 1 II–IV

Chile

Atacama

2,300

2670 BC

Chile

Atacama

3,250

2600 BC

3,750

770 BC

Morro del Ciénego Chico

–

Location

3,650

4,020

Argentina Catamarca 4,000

Argentina Jujuy

Presence

Presence

Presence

X

92% (881)

90%

X

94% (1,393)

99%

X

86% 32% (14,264) 98% 2.5% (5,873)

X

76% (4,490) –

58% –

X

HuirunE2 Argentina Jujuy 4,020 345–323 92% 50% X pure BC (340) VIII– Argentina Catamarca 3,600 175 AD 89% 20% Casa (3,632) Chavez Vc Montículos Real II Argentina Catamarca 4,050 1230 AD 92% 95% Grande (438) Sara– Argentina Jujuy 2,600 1340 AD 96% 35% huaico La PS1 Argentina Jujuy 2,600 1415 AD 99% 11% Huerta (1,888) Alero – Argentina Jujuy 3,700 1475 AD 100% 90% Atuya (390) a Percentage of camelid bones in total faunal assemblage. Total number of bones in parenthesis b Percentage of small camelid (vicuña) bones in camelid assemblage

10

H. Yacobaccio

Bolivia

1 8 Chile

7

2 3

6

4 5

9 10

11 12 14

13

Argentina

Fig. 2.1 Map of the archaeological sites mentioned in the chapter. Contexts and chronology in Table 2.1. References: (1) Chiu Chiu Cementerio; (2) Puripica 1; (3) Tulán 52; (4) Huirunpure; (5) Morro del Ciénego Chico; (6) Hornillos 2; (7) alero Atuya; (8) Inca Cueva 4 and 7; (9) La Huerta; (10) Sarahuaico; (11) Real Grande; (12) Quebrada Seca 3; (13) Cueva Salamanca and (14) Casa Chávez Montículos. Highlighted areas above 2,000 m a.s.l

domesticating camelids and also hunting vicuñas (32% and 58% of the camelid bones were identified as vicuña in the two sites, respectively). The emergence of camelid pastoralism in the high Andes (around 1800 bc) and of intensive agriculture in temperate valleys did not mean that hunting was not occurring at this time. On the contrary, hunting was evidently an activity for obtaining meat supplies from the wild, acting as a buffer in periods of shortage that allowed people to maintain the size of their domestic herds. The social organization of human societies became more complex during this period, and this included the appearance of labour specialization (metal-working, pottery-making, etc.). Economic regionalization was present by about ad 100 (Núñez, 2005); from ad 1300, urban settlements started to appear as a consequence of the intensification in agricultural production and of population aggregation (Nielsen, 1996). Vicuña fibre was used during this period (Fig. 2.2a, b), and vicuñas were highly regarded in the ideology of these herders. The depiction of vicuña in rock-art was different from the other domestic camelids (Fig. 2.2c) (Gallardo and Yacobaccio, 2005); this could be the origin of the symbolism of the vicuña as “herds of the Gods”, as is still the case in certain parts of the Andes today. Furthermore, bone

2 The Historical Relationship Between People and the Vicuña

11

Fig. 2.2 Cloth made with vicuña fibre. a A fragment of a bag from Morro del Ciénego Chico site (Susques, Argentina) dated at 770 years BC; b A rope from Huirunpure (Susques, Argentina), dated from around 345–323 years bc; c A depiction of a vicuña, Confluencia style, Northern Chile, from around 1400–500 BC

remains of vicuña were found not only in urban centres such as Sarahuaico or La Huerta, but also in hunting spots like Real Grande (Table 2.1).

2.2.2

Vicuña Exploitation During Inca Times (AD 1470–1535)

The Incas constructed the largest empire in pre-Hispanic America ranging from Ecuador to south-central Chile and Argentina (D’Altroy, 2003), known as the Tahuantinsuyu (“the land of the four places”). This empire was a centralized state. The economic activities were planned by the Inca elite, at least at the core of the empire, and included the management of wild animals, especially the vicuña, through the royal hunts organized by the Inca himself (Cieza de León, 1959/1553). The vicuñas were property of the Inca, who regulated the capture activities in the core of the empire. There were two types of collective hunting during this time (1) the chaku made by the Inca himself (Royal Hunts) and (2) regional qayqus carried out by curacas (local indigenous authorities). Cieza de León (op. cit.: 104) provides a detailed description of the royal hunt (see also Garcilaso de la Vega, 1980/1609): When the Lord-Inca (sic) decided to organize a royal hunt, the number killed and taken was amazing; these were days when over thirty thousand head were taken (…). There fifty or sixty thousand people having gathered (…) they encircled the thickets and fields and with the noise of their shouts and cries the animals came down from the hills to the level ground, where, little by little the men closed ranks until they could join hands, and in the circle formed by their bodies the game was brought together and penned in…

Although the mechanics of the hunt are well described, there are differences in the descriptions of the number of people involved, and the number of animals captured in different written sources (Dedenbach-Salazar Sáenz, 1990). The people involved varied from 4,000/5,000 to 50,000 or even 100,000 in a circle around a wide area (from 40 to 100 km), and the animals captured ranged from 300/400 to

12

H. Yacobaccio

30,000/40,000. A certain proportion of these animals were killed, while the remainder were sheared and released. The royal hunts had a ceremonial significance and occurred every 4 years. The fibre obtained from the vicuña in these hunts was used to make clothes for the Inca. This shows that the vicuña fibre was highly regarded as a raw material and was only to be used to make prestige textiles for the elite (Morris and von Hagen, 1993; Murra, 1978). As the chakus were regulated by political, religious, social and cultural mechanisms (Acosta, 1962/1590; Custred, 1979), they can be seen as a highly organised, sustainable use of vicuña. The qayqus also were collective hunts, but, in contrast to the chaku, were outside the control of the Inca. They were carried out by professional hunters (huaricatur), or directed by curacas in special game preserves, such as in Hatuncolla, west of Lake Titicaca (Bolivia) (Millones and Schaedel, 1980). The qayqu is similar to other types of hunt called lipi in aymara (Bertonio, 1984/1612) which involved the construction of enclosures or corrals between hills and gorges to catch vicuña as they were driven by humans. As we shall see, this form of hunt was employed until the 1930s.

2.3 2.3.1

Historic Period Colonial Society (AD 1535–1810)

After the arrival of Spanish conquistadores, the exploitation of vicuña grew in a way never seen before. The cause of this expansion was related to the demands of the world market for vicuña fibres and skins; the slaughter was maintained at a high level for over 270 years. In the 1500s, the colonial government in the Andes developed an agrarian economy to feed the urban and mining centres, particularly the silver mines of Potosí. Silver and, to a lesser extent, vicuña fibre were exported to Europe, while European goods were imported (Palomeque, 1989; Rock, 1985). In this society, the indigenous peoples were obliged to provide a regular supply to the European community, both in labour and in kind (Spalding, 1982). Vicuñas were abundant in a number of areas of the southern Andes, defined politically from the second half of the seventeenth century as the Viceroyalty of Río de la Plata (Fig. 2.3). A report on livestock production issued in 1797 at Jujuy highlighted the existence of places in which vicuñas were present in large numbers and useful to man (Noticias del Correo Mercantil, 1977/1797). An average of 20,410 vicuña skins per year was exported from the port of Buenos Aires (now in Argentina) in the eighteenth century (Fig. 2.4).3 The vicuñas were obtained not only from north-western Argentina, but also from the then Alto Perú (Bolivia). This fibre would have had been from two origins (1) the chakus conducted by encomenderos or other Spaniards and (2) the skins obtained from indigenous communi-

3 The number of vicuña wereas obtained by converting fibre and skin weights into animal units; 250 g of fibre per animal and 400 g of each skin were taken as parameters.

2 The Historical Relationship Between People and the Vicuña

13

Fig. 2.3 Map of the Viceroyalty of Rio de la Plata. Squares are the zones where vicuña skins and fibres were obtained following written records: (1) Alto Perú and (2) Puna of Jujuy, Salta and Catamarca

14

H. Yacobaccio 60000

Number of Individuals

50000

40000

30000

20000

10000

0 1663 1671 1681 1779 1780 1781 1782 1783 1784 1803 1804 1806 1809

Year Fig. 2.4 Exports of vicuña fibre between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries

ties in the Puna to pay taxes to the colonial authorities. These two sources were supplemented by the day-to-day hunts by Puna inhabitants carried out for obtaining meat (Acosta, 1962/1590). These combined activities for collecting fibre resulted in the killing of vicuña at a rate which worried the colonial authorities; by the end of the sixteenth century Father Joseph de Acosta stated that: “Some complain that after the Spaniards entered, too much license has been granted to the chacos or vicuña hunts, and that they have diminished” (Acosta, 1962/1590: 209).

This early reference was made only 60 years after the first arrival of Europeans in the Andes, highlighting the declining numbers of vicuña in the region. Even earlier, in 1557, the Spanish government of Peru forbade the hunting of vicuña and guanaco for 5 years, because the frequency of chakus was so high (Millones, 1975). Acarette, a French trader, made a journey from Buenos Aires to Potosí in 1657. In the town of Humahuaca (today in the Province of Jujuy, Argentina), he met some priests working for Don Pedro de Obando, owner of the Humahauca valley, and other lands in which there were a great number of vicuña (Acarette, 1943/1672). Obando organized periodic chakus in the Puna of Bolivia (Lipez) and Argentina (Casabindo). In these hunts: “They seize these animals with much ease, by means of their subjects, the Indians, who have no more toil than to make a great enclosure with nets” (Acarette, 1943/1672: 65). Much of this fibre was exported (or smuggled – see Villalobos, 1981), from Buenos Aires (Argentina), Lima (Peru) or Copiapó (Chile) to Europe. The qayqus were the main source for collecting vicuña fibre for trade.

2 The Historical Relationship Between People and the Vicuña

15

The taxes paid by indigenous people to the colonial authorities became an important source of vicuña fibres and skins; the records of vicuña fibre sent from Tucumán (Argentina) to Buenos Aires state that the fibre was bought from the indigenous taxpayers of Atacama (Palomeque, 1989: 168). This situation was also recorded in 1712 in Yavi (Jujuy, Argentina) where the indigenous community paid part of their tributes in vicuña and guanaco skins (Palomeque, 1994). Although it is very difficult to know the exact quantity of vicuña skins involved in these payments, it is possible to make an estimate – the Province’s Libros Mayores recorded that the inhabitants of the Puna, the “atacames”, who paid taxes in Salta, Catamarca and Jujuy (Argentina) were forced to tribute 9,815 pesos every year, which were most likely to have been obtained from selling vicuña and guanaco fibre (Palomeque, 1989: 169). If we assume that 70% of this figure was the product of selling vicuña fibre (the other 30% would be of guanaco fibre, as shown by the exportation figures of the Province of Jujuy, Palomeque, 1989), the amount in vicuña fibre paid by the indigenous people of the Puna was nearly 6,870 pesos. The value of vicuña fibre in the Buenos Aires port was around 1.56 pesos per kg. If it is assumed that this was the value obtained by the indigenous community – in fact, it is likely to have been much less – then a total of 4,404 kg of fibre could have been necessary to pay the annual tribute. This is equivalent to more than 17,000 vicuñas per year. The third source of vicuña fibre was day-to-day hunting from which the skins were a by-product as these hunts were primarily to obtain meat. However, for the Spaniards the meat of vicuña was no good, “the Indians eat them and make charqui (dry meat) with them” (Acosta, 1962/1590: 209). The declining vicuña population came to the attention of the Spanish crown almost a century after the initial warning by Joseph de Acosta. Concern to protect this resource resulted in a succession of Reales Ordenes (laws released by the Crown) promoting the protection of the species, but this legislation was counteracted by other laws that favoured the trade in camelid fibre, including vicuña, especially after 1778 (Rock, 1985). These latter orders advocated the use of two methods for obtaining vicuña fibre without killing them (1) capture, shearing and release the animals and (2) taming and domestication. For example, an order issued in 22 February 1768 to the corregidores of all the provinces in which vicuña occurred stated: … that the Indians kill the vicuñas to tear the wool after being killed, that they occasion two injuries of consequence, one that it may become extinct or diminish and the other that a lot of Wool is lost when torn. To avoid these inconveniences the King would desire that they not be killed, nor their Wool torn but that they be shorn and after released, as it is practiced with our livestock, if at all possible (Documentos…, 1913).

This order was supported by two Reales Cédulas issued in August 30, 1777 to the Viceroyalty of Rio de la Plata and to the Audiencia de Charcas warning that: “… for no motive allow the Indians to kill the Vicuñas at those hunts where voluntarily, or under order of their Priests, or Corregidores they regularly practice; and warn them that the sole thing that they can, and must do with the said animals is to shear them..” (Documentos…, 1913).

Also the vicuñas were made the property of the King of Spain in order to increase royal finances. Two years later, on 30 April 1779 a new order again stated that:

16

H. Yacobaccio “… all the wool that the Vicuñas have produced up to now has been at the expense of forfeiting the life of the Animals…” (AGN 13-40-3-4 al 10).

This order also advised the indigenous people of the Puna of their obligation to tame and domesticate vicuña. These Reales Ordenes failed to fulfil the goal of protecting the vicuña because the issue of domestication continued to be discussed in 1805, and again in 1811 (letter to the Semanario, 1805; Walton, 1811). The proposal was settled by crossing vicuña with llamas (Lama glama), alpacas (Lama pacos), or guanacos, and even sheep (Ovies aries) (N.B.: a cross that is biologically highly unlikely) at a range of localities in the Puna, such as Queta, Humahuaca, and Acay (Argentina) (letter to the Semanario, 1805).

2.3.2

Independence Period (AD 1810–1926)

Up until 1860 the economy of the Andean zone of Argentina was very similar to that during colonial times (Rock, 1985); again a commercial network extended across the Andes supplying urban and mining centres (Langer and Conti, 1991). Certain local economies increased, such as Tucumán (Argentina), which specialized in the transportation of goods, particularly textiles, from Alto Perú (Bolivia) to Buenos Aires. The internal market was connected with the international trading networks through urban centres (Conti, 1993), especially Buenos Aires (more than 70% of the export of goods originating in north-western Argentina went to Buenos Aires and then on to Europe). The exports in the post-independence stage are characterized by an increase in the volumes of skins, instead of fibre, meaning that there were high rates of vicuña hunting over this period (Conti, 2002) (Fig. 2.5). Between 1813 and 1823, the exports of skins and fibres averaged an equivalent of 1,374 individuals, increasing to 5,887 between 1829 and 1834, diminishing to 1,156 individuals in 1850/1851. Although these figures were lower than the exports during the eighteenth century, they continued to be very high. During the post-independence stage, the method for obtaining vicuña skins and fibres was the qayqu,4 a description of a qayqu made in 1868 in the Puna of Salta (Argentina) gives some information about the size of these hunts – more than 60 hunters participated, some with their wives. They built an enclosure 2–3 km in diameter, connected to an entrance 1-km long, with poles about 1.15-m tall and arranged at intervals of 15 m and coloured cloth was strung between the poles. After setting up the corral, the hunters drove the vicuña from kilometres away, and when enclosed in the corral the hunters killed the vicuña with slings (bolas). These hunts lasted for 4–5 days, during which hundreds of vicuñas were slaughtered (Quiroga, 1929/1895). A similar hunt occurred in the 1840s in Peru is also described – in this case, 122 vicuñas were killed in 5 days (Custred, 1979). The men were

4

Today chaku is the common name for all the techniques for capturing vicuña where herds are driven by humans.

Number of vicuñas

2 The Historical Relationship Between People and the Vicuña

17

20000 19000 18000 17000 16000 15000 14000 13000 12000 11000 10000 9000 8000 7000 6000 5000 4000 3000 2000 1000 0

51 18 0 5 18 /49 36 18 5 3 18 4 3 18 3 3 18 2 3 18 1 3 18 0 3 18 9 2 18 /28 25 18 4 2 18 3 2 18 2 2 18 1 2 18 9 1 18 8 1 18 7 1 18 6 1 18 3 1

18

Years Fig. 2.5 Fibres and skins of vicuña exported in the nineteenth century through Buenos Aires

professional hunters who conducted vicuña hunts every summer. The naturalist Holmberg (1988/1900:11) warned against the future extinction of the species. At the beginning of the twentieth century, a total of 8,000 vicuñas remained in the former Gobernación de los Andes, today the Puna of Jujuy, Salta and Catamarca in Argentina (Holmberg, 1988/1900: 48). Between 1910 and 1916, an average of 147 skins were exported from Buenos Aires (Jaeschke, 1916), an equivalent to 61 vicuñas per year, with vicuña killed in the chakus (Davel, 1910). Organised gangs of poachers (“vicuñeros”) killed significant numbers of vicuñas until the 1930s (Vitry, 1990), at which stage the Argentinian government issued a decree which temporarily forbade the hunting of vicuña. Bolivia forbade the export of vicuña skins in 1918, and Peru in 1907, based on the requirement to fulfil Simon Bolivar’s decree of 1825 prohibiting the killing of vicuña (Cardozo, 1976). These laws failed to protect vicuña and killing continued to be a common method of gathering fibre; as a consequence, the population of vicuña in the Andes diminished to around 10,000 animals by the middle of the twentieth century (Vilá, 1989).

2.4

Conclusions

Since prehistoric times, the use of the vicuña by people has been common, not only by hunter-gatherers, but also by pastoralists and agriculturalists, who killed vicuña to obtain meat and other by-products (fibres, skins, bones). In Inca times, vicuñas were

18

H. Yacobaccio

exploited using chakus or royal hunts; over this period, it appears that exploitation did not have significant impacts on the vicuña population, probably because (1) during the prehistoric period the human population density in the altiplano/Puna was low, compared with other Andean regions and (2) vicuñas were embedded within the symbolic dimension of Puna societies – the ceremonial character of vicuña hunting during the prehistoric period acted as a regulatory system preventing overexploitation. Following the arrival of the Spanish conquistadores, the opening of a world market for vicuña fibre changed the scenario; to fulfil the demands for fibre and skin, high rates of hunting led to a rapid decline in the population of vicuña. The Reales Ordenes and other documents clearly show that obtaining the fibre invariably involved the killing of animals. Initial warnings about a decline in vicuña population were issued in 1557 and 1590, only a few years after the Spanish arrival to the Andes. The export of vicuña fibres and skins from the port of Buenos Aires provides a valuable record of the exploitation of this species over time; during the period 1663– 1853, the average number of vicuñas killed per year was approximately 8,250 (Fig. 2.6). By this reckoning, over a period of 190 years the skins of approximately 1.5 million vicuña were supplied to European markets. Figure 2.6 shows a decreasing trend in vicuña export that could reflect the declining size of the vicuña population. The proposals put forward by the Spanish to restrict the killing of vicuña failed. Even at the beginning of the twentieth century, the proposals to set up breeding reserves (Davel, 1910) or the temporary cessation of hunting did not allow the population to recover. The vicuña population continued decreasing, and only imple-

12

Log-Number of vicuñas

10

8

6

4

2 1663 1780 1784 1806 1817 1822 1829 1833 1850 1681 1782 1803 1813 1819 1824 1831 1835

Year Fig. 2.6 Vicuña fibre and skin exported from the port of Buenos Aires (1663–1853). Log 8 is equal to 8,000 individuals

2 The Historical Relationship Between People and the Vicuña

19

mentation of international treaties restricting trade allowed the population to recover (see Chaps. 3 and 5). Acknowledgements I thank M. Jo Figuerero, who translated the Colonial Spanish documents.

References Acarette (1943/1663) Viaje al Río de la Plata y al Perú. Alfer and Vays Editores, Buenos Aires Acosta J (1962/1590) Historia natural y moral de las Indias. Fondo de Cultura Económica, México Allen TFH, Tainter JA, Hoekstra TW (2003) Supply-side sustainability. Columbia University Press, New York, NY. Bertonio L (1984/1612) Vocabulario de la Lengua Aymara. CERES/IFEA/MUSEF, Cochabamba. Cardozo A (1976) Legislación internacional sobre camélidos Sudamericanos. Instituto Colombiano Agropecuario, Bogotá. Chicchón A (2000) Fauna en la subsistencia de los Tsimane, Reserva de la Biosfera Estación Biológica del Beni, Bolivia. In: Herrera-MacBryde O, Dallmeier F, MacBryde B, Comiskey JA, Miranda C (eds) Biodiversity, Conservation and Management in the Region of the Beni Biological Station Biosphere Reserve, Bolivia. SI/MAB Series 4, Washington, pp. 365–383. Cieza de León P (1959/1553) In: von Hagen VW (ed) The Incas. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman. Conti VE (1993) El Norte argentino y el espacio andino en siglo XIX. In: Universidad Nacional de Jujuy (eds), Jujuy en la historia. Unju, Jujuy, pp. 63–76 Conti VE (2002) Exportaciones y Mercados. Salta 1813–1853. Paper presented at IX Jornadas Interescuelas/Departamentos de Historia, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba (nd). Custred G (1979) Hunting technologies in Andean cultures. Journal de la Société des Américanistes LXVI:7–19. D’Altroy T (2003) The Incas. Blackwell, Oxford. Davel D (1910) Vicuñas, llamas y guanacos. Boletín del Ministerio de Agricultura XII: 59–69. Dedenbach-Salazar Sáenz S (1990) Uso y crianza de los camélidos en la Época Incaica. Bonner Amerikanistiche Studien, Bonn. Documentos para la Historia del Virreynato del Río de la Plata (1913) Tomo III. Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Buenos Aires Elkin DC (1996) Arqueozoología de Quebrada Seca 3: indicadores de subsistencia humana temprana en la Puna Meridional Argentina. PhD Thesis. Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires Gallardo F, Yacobaccio H (2005) Wild or domesticated? Camelids in early formative rock art of the Atacama Desert (Northern Chile). Latin American Archaeology 16: 15–130. Garcilaso de la Vega I (1980/1609) Comentarios reales. Editorial Plus Ultra, Buenos Aires. Hitchcock RK (1995) Centralization, resource depletion, and coercive conservation among the Tyua of the Northeastern Kalahari. Human Ecology 23: 169–198. Holmberg EA (1988/1900) Viaje a la gobernación de los Andes (Puna de Atacama). Universidad Nacional de Jujuy, San Salvador de Jujuy. Jaeschke JE (1916) Llama, vicuña y guanaco. Thesis, Facultad de Ciencias Económicas, Universidad de Buenos Aires Langer ED, Conti VE (1991) Circuitos comerciales tradicionales y cambio económico en los andes centromeridionales (1830–1930). Desarrollo Económico 31: 91–111. Loring S (1997) On the trail to the Caribou House: Some reflections on INNE Caribou Hunters in Northern Ntessinan (Labrador). In:Jackson LJ, Thacker PT (eds) Caribou and Reindeer Hunters of the Northern Hemisphere. Avebury, Aldershot, pp 185–220. Millones L (1975) Economía y ritual en los Condesuyos de Arequipa: Pastores y tejedores del Siglo XIX. Allpanchis VIII: 45–66.

20

H. Yacobaccio

Millones, L. and R.P. Schaedel (1980). Plumas para el sol: comentario a un documento sobre cazadores y cotos de caza en el antiguo Peru. Boletín del Instituto Francés de Estudios Andinos, IX, 59–88. Morris C, von Hagen A. (1993) The Inca Empire and its Andean origins. Abbeville, New York, NY. Murra JV (1978) La organización económica del Estado Inca. Siglo XXI, México. Nelson RK (1982) A conservation ethic and environment: The Koyukon of Alaska. In:Williams NM, Hunn ES (eds)Resource Managers: North American and Australian Hunter-Gatherers. Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, Canberra, pp.211–228. Nielsen A (1996) Demografía y cambio social en la Quebrada de Humahuaca (Jujuy, Argentina) 700–1535 d.C. Relaciones de la Sociedad Argentina de Antropologia XXI: 307–354. Núñez L (2005) La naturaleza de la expansión Aldeana durante el formativo tardío en la cuenca de Atacama. Chungara 37: 165–193. Palomeque S (1989) La circulación mercantil en las provincias del interior, 1800–1810. Anuario del IHES IV: 131–241. Palomeque S (1994) Intercambios mercantiles y participación indígena en la “Puna de Jujuy” a fines del período colonial. Andes 6: 13–48. Quiroga A (1929/1895) La caza de vicuñas. Revista de la Universidad de Buenos Aires VI: 268–272. Rock D (1985) Argentina 1516–1987. From Spanish colonization to the Falklands War. University of California, Berkeley. Semanario de Agricultura, Industria y Comercio (1805) Number 142, pp.282–287, 311–312, 319. Kraft,Buenos Aires Spalding K (1982) Exploitation as an economic System: The state and the extraction of surplus in Colonial Peru. In:Collier GA, Rosaldo RI, Wirth JD (eds)The Inca and Aztec States 1400– 1800. Academic, New York, NY, pp321–342. Tchernov E (1993) From sedentism to domestication – a preliminary view for the southern Levant. In:Clason A, Payne S, Uerpmann H-P (eds)Skeletons in her Cupboard. Oxbow Monographs 34, Oxbow books,Oxford, pp189–217. Vilá B (1989) Paisaje con vicuña. Ciencia Hoy 1: 46–55. Villalobos S (1981) Comercio y contrabando en el Río de la Plata y Chile. Eudeba, Buenos Aires. Vitry RG (1990) Bandidos y vicuñeros de la Puna. Todo es Historia 279: 6–25. Walton W (1811) An historical and descriptive account of the four species of Peruvian sheep, called Carneros de la Tierra; to which are added, particulars respecting the domestication of the two wild species, and the experiments hitherto made by the Spaniards, to cross the respective breeds, to improve their wools, Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, London. , Wheeler JC (1985) De la Chasse a L Élevage. In:Lavallée D (ed)Telarmachay. Chasseurs et pasteurs préhistoriques des Andes I. CNRS, Paris, pp61–79. Woodroffe R, Thirgood S, Rabinowitz A (2005) People and Wildlife. Conflict or Coexistence? Cambridge University press, Cambridge. Yacobaccio HD (2004) Social dimension of camelid domestication in the southern Andes. Anthropozoologica 39: 237–247.

Chapter 3

The Vicuña in the Andean Altiplano Jane C. Wheeler and Jerry Laker

3.1

Introduction

Like its relative the Bactrian camel (Camelus bactrianus) in the deserts of Asia, the vicuña (Vicugna vicugna) thrives in an environment that is beyond the limit for other wild ungulates. In the wild, it is found only in the high elevation altiplano or Puna, an ecoregion of the Andes defined by its sparse steppe vegetation. The vicuña is found in excess at elevations of 3,700 m in a range which extends from 9°30′S in Ancash, Peru, to 29° in the III region (Atacama) of Chile (Marín et al., 2007). The rarefied air, long dry season, irregular precipitation, low temperatures with frequent frosts, rugged topography and poor soils create severe limitations for life. However, enough humidity is available to support a unique and specialized ecosystem. Evidence from research in paleoecology and vicuña population genetics indicates that this range was established during the last glacial advance of the Pleistocene and provides important information to understand the way the altiplano environment has changed and how the vicuña has responded to form the patterns that we know today. By helping us to understand the processes that have shaped vicuña evolution this ecological history provides us with a useful framework for conservation decisions. Within this one species, emblematic of a unique ecosystem, the vicuña has many genetic variants, each the product of selective pressures in different parts of the region. As vicuñas live at the limit, such selection pressures must be strong and it is interesting to start by looking at some of the extraordinary adaptations that the vicuña has developed to cope with life in the altiplano.

3.2

Adaptations to the Altiplano

The South American camelid has a stomach with three compartments. They have neither horns nor antlers and, unlike the other ungulates, do not have hard hooves, but instead tough but cushioned sole pads on two digits. These differences mean that the camelids are classified by taxonomists in their own order, the Tylopoda, to distinguish them from the other ruminants, the Pecora (Novoa and Wheeler, 1984). I.J. Gordon (ed.) The Vicuña, DOI: 10.1007/978-0-387-09476-2_3, © Springer Science + Business Media, LLC 2009

21

22

J.C. Wheeler, J. Laker

Besides these anatomic differences, their physiology works like a very efficient ruminant, capable of reproducing with relatively low energetic requirements in extreme environments, as in Patagonia and the Andean Altiplano (Bas and Bonacic, 2003). Though their digestive process is similar, the camelids evolved forestomach fermentation independently from ruminants (Rutagwenda et al., 1989); camelids have higher absorption rates of solutes and water from the forestomach than ruminants (Lechner Doll et al., 1995). The vicuña has these camelid characteristics, but in addition has several important anatomical and physiological adaptations to life at high altitudes that set it apart from the other mammalian species. Important among these adaptations is the small size of the vicuña red blood cell (Yamaguchi et al., 1987); saturation of blood with oxygen in the lung is favoured by a high blood oxygen affinity, and the blood of the vicuña has the highest blood oxygen affinity, not only among camelids, but also of all mammals. Loading, as well as unloading, of oxygen is improved by the small size of the red blood cells, which compensates the negative effect of a low hematocrit on the oxygen conductance of blood (Reynafarje, 1975). Oxygen supply to the muscles is facilitated by low diffusion distances in the muscle tissue – their heart and muscles have the highest capillary density for a mammals of similar size (3,720 cap/mm2 on average in the heart) (Jurgens et al., 1988). Finally, heart weight as a percentage of body weight is higher in the vicuña (0.7–0.9%) than in the other camelids (Monge and LeonVelarde, 1991). It is the vicuña’s protection from extreme temperature fluctuations afforded by its lightweight, insulating fleece that is its most obvious adaptive characteristic. The vicuña’s fleece has been both its salvation and its downfall, as its insulating properties have been recognized for millennia by the inhabitants of the altiplano. The fleece insulates against cold, but it also offers important protection against radiant heat and UV from the sun (Gerken, 1997).

3.3

Genetic Variation in Vicuña

Within the species, V. vicugna, there lies an evolutionary history that has left the population divided into several regional variants across its range. Two subspecies of vicuña are recognised, originally distinguished primarily by morphometric characteristics (Wheeler, 1995) and recently confirmed by DNA analysis (Marín et al., 2007); the southern subspecies, Vicugna vicugna vicugna (Molina, 1782) is found between 18° and 29°S latitude, while the northern variant, Vicugna vicugna mensalis (Thomas, 1917) is reported between 9° 30′ and 18°S latitude. However, as no clearly defined geographic separation exists between these two vicuña subspecies, many authors have ignored V. v. mensalis (Osgood, 1943; Gilmore, 1950; Dennler de la Tour, 1954; Grimwood, 1969; Koford, 1957). A third purported subspecies, V. v. elfridae (Krumbiegel, 1944) has been described based on specimens found in German zoos. V. v. mensalis is, in general, smaller than V. v. vicugna, – wither height is around 70 cm compared with 90 cm, respectively. Similarly, the length of the molars varies

3 The Vicuña in the Andean Altiplano

23

from 45 mm in V.v. mensalis to 57 mm in V.v. vicugna. However, these distinctions appear not to be as distinct as was first thought; a study of 50 male and 50 female V.v. mensalis (1.5–6.5 years old) from Pampa Galeras, Peru, reports average wither height measurements of 86.5 cm for females and 90.4 cm for males (Paucar et al., 1984). Total length measurements from the Paucar study of V.v. mensalis from Pampa Galeras (Paucar et al., 1984) are 96.3 cm for females and 110.7 cm for males, with average weights of 33.2 kg and 36.2 kg, respectively. These figures contrast with the total length measurements of 137–181 cm reported by Hofmann et al. (1983) for 19 adult vicuña from the same locale. Gilmore (1950) and Pearson (1951) also reported greater total lengths, 144–175 cm, and heavier live weights, 45–55 kg for V. v. mensalis and V. v. vicugna. The best-studied vicuña, the northern V.v. mensalis, is distinguished primarily by the long growth of hair on the chest. The head, neck, back, sides, and dorsal surface of the tail are a dark cinnamon colour, with white covering the lower portion of the face, the chest, belly, interior surface of the legs, and ventral surface of the tail. The eyes and edges of the ears are outlined in white. Average coat length is 3.28 cm in adult animals and the long chest hairs reach 18–20 cm (Hoffmann et al., 1983). Fleece fibre diameter is 12.52 ± 1.52 µm (Carpio and Solari, 1982a) and the average fleece fibre length is 3.2 cm in adult males (Carpio and Santana, 1982). Follicle density averages 78.65 per mm2 (Carpio and Solari, 1982b) and the frequency of primary hair in the fleece is 2% (Carpio and Solari, 1982a). In contrast, V.v. vicugna lacks the long chest hairs, and has a lighter, beige pelage colouration with white covering a greater portion of the body, rising halfway up the sides to mid-rib height and all the way to the ilium crest, as well as covering the anterior portion of the rear legs.

3.4

Evidence of the Origins of the Vicuña

At present vicuña distribution is limited to areas of extreme elevation between 9° 30′ and 29°S latitude in the Andes. Palaeontological remains suggest, however, that the genus Vicugna (Miller, 1924) originated in the lowlands to the east of the Andes as early as two million years ago (Webb, 1974; Harrison, 1979); although a revision of some of these materials led Menegaz et al. (1989) to conclude that the vicuña evolved from the guanaco (Lama guanicoe) at the beginning of the Holocene. Nonetheless, mitochondrial (cytochrome b and d-loop) DNA sequence data support a divergence of at least two million years between vicuña and guanaco (Stanley et al., 1994; Marin et al., 2007), and fossils from Tarija, Bolivia include vicuña remains (Hoffstetter, 1986) dated to between 97,000 and 73,000 years ago (MacFadden et al., 1983) indicating that their range had expanded westward towards the Andes by that date. Vicuña remains have also been found in archaeological deposits dated to the Pleistocene/Holocene transition approximately 13,000–10,000 years before present, at Cueva Lago Sofia 4 and Tres Arroyos in Tierra del Fuego (Prieto and Canto, 1997) and at Cueva del Medio in Patagonia (Nami and Menegaz, 1991), as well as in fluvial deposits in northern Paraguay (Ubilla, 2004).

24

J.C. Wheeler, J. Laker

It was probably only during the last Pleistocene glacial advance in the area between 18° and 22°S, 14,000–12,000 years ago (Ammann et al., 2001; Kull et al., 2002), that vicuña moved into their present high elevation habitat. At that time, rainfall levels were double those at present (Clayton and Clapperton, 1997) leading to the formation of massive palaeo-lakes (Sharma et al., 2005) and undoubtedly supporting a much richer vegetation cover than at present since temperatures remained constant, while to the south, between approximately 23° and 29°S, the extremely arid belt known as the Dry Diagonal became established (Ammann et al., 2001; Kull et al., 2002). Evidence from mitochondrial (cytochrome b and d-loop) DNA sequences (Marin et al., 2007) records a recent, rapid demographic expansion of V. v. mensalis to their present geographic distribution north of 20°S, and the survival of small, fragmented populations of V. v. vicugna within the Dry Diagonal. Additional data from nuclear DNA (microsatellite) markers (Wheeler et al., 2003; unpublished data) record the present existence of five genetically and geographically distinct vicuña populations: North Central Peruvian Andes, East Central Peruvian Andes, Central Peruvian Andes, South Peruvian and North Chilean Andes, Southern Andes (Fig. 3.2). In 1957, Koford calculated the total Andean vicuña population to be at most 400,000, including 250,000 in Peru. By 1969, Grimwood reported only 10,000 in Peru, and 2 years later Jungius (1971) estimated a total of between 5,000 and 10,000 in Peru with another 2,000 living in Bolivia, Argentina and Chile (Table 3.1). The present Andean population probably exceeds 276,000 thanks to rigorous protection programs in the area (Wheeler and Hoces 1997, Wheeler, 2006).

3.5

The Vicuña in the Altiplano

The habitat occupied by V.v. vicugna (22°–29°S) is fundamentally different to that occupied by V.v. mensalis (9° 30′–18°S). Today, no glaciers exist in the Western Cordillera of the high Andes between 19° and 27°S (Ammann et al., 2001; Kull et al., 2002). This extremely arid belt, referred to as the “Dry Diagonal”, crosses the

Table 3.1 Development of the population of vicuña between 1969 and 2001 in the five countries in which it is found (CONACS, 1997, 2000; DGB, 1997; Censo de Vicuñas and Virgili, 2000)

Peru Bolivia Argentina Chile Ecuador Total

1969

1981

1997

2001

10,000 3,000 1,000 500 0 14,500

61,900 4,500 8,200 8,000 0 82,600

102,800 33,800 22,100 19,800 1,600 180,100

118,700 56,400 33,500 16,900 2,000 227,500

3 The Vicuña in the Andean Altiplano

25

Andes from NW to SE in the transition zone between the southern hemisphere tropical and westerly wind belt circulation systems which produce summer precipitation north of 23°S and winter precipitation south of 27°S, respectively (Ammann et al., 2001; Kull et al., 2002). Although both circulation systems extend into the Dry Diagonal, and occasionally beyond it, the area receives virtually no precipitation and no glacial formation takes place even on the highest peaks. During the last Pleistocene glaciation (14,000–12,000 years ago), strongly increased convective precipitation during the austral summer months depressed snowlines by 700–1,000 m at 18°–22°S, and contributed to the formation of extensive high elevation lakes on the altiplano (Sharma et al., 2005; Ammann et al., 2001; Kull et al., 2002). South of 23°S, precipitation decreased rapidly and only weak glacial features are found in the Dry Diagonal to 27°S, where the northernmost glaciers under westerly influence occur (Ammann et al., 2001; Kull et al., 2002). Pleistocene glacial records indicate a steeper gradient between the southern glaciers and the Dry Diagonal than exists at present, and glacial advances to the south suggest at least an intensification of the Westerlies, although dating of these events remains problematic (Ammann et al., 2001; Kull et al., 2002). It is clear then that increased precipitation during the last glacial advance in the Andes at 18°–22°S (14,000–12,000 years ago) modified the environment (Ammann et al., 2001; Kull et al., 2002; Clayton and Clapperton, 1997). Glacial advances, north of the Dry Diagonal, were not the product of decreased temperatures, but rather were due to increased precipitation (Grosjean et al., 2001), which would have resulted in an increase in available pasture for camelids. Today, the vicuña can be divided into those larger populations inhabiting wet Puna at high elevations, north of the Dry Diagonal, which loosely conform to the taxon described as V. v. mensalis and smaller, relatively isolated populations inhabiting dryer lower elevation Puna within the Dry Diagonal (Ammann et al., 2001; Kull et al., 2002) which loosely conform to V. v. vicugna. However, the genetic structure of the vicuña along the Andean chain, including the effect of the Dry Diagonal and correlation with the currently described subspecies, has yet to be tested.

3.6

Current Distribution

Yacobaccio (Chap. 2) charts the course of exploitation and, later, near extermination, during the 500 years following European colonisation. The pattern of distribution seen today is the result of 30 years of recovery since the international trade in skins was finally halted and national conservation strategies established (Chap. 5). In protected areas, this recovery was rapid and sustained; for example, in Chile’s Lauca National Park the vicuña population increased tenfold from c. 2,000 to >20,000 during the 17 years after censuses were begun in 1975 (Bonacic and Macdonald, 2002). An increase of 21% was registered shortly after the first reserve was established at Pampa Galeras, Peru, largely as a response to ending hunting (Sánchez, 1984). In terms of population recovery, the conservation programme was

26

J.C. Wheeler, J. Laker

a great success on a wide scale. Table 3.1 shows how vicuña recovered rapidly across their range. It should be noted that over half of the total population of vicuña is in Peru. The small population in Ecuador was established on the basis of introduction of breeding vicuña from Peru and Chile in the late 1980s. Figure 3.1 is a density plot of vicuña based on census estimates in 2003. The density of the dots represents the population of vicuña per available habitat per administrative region (comuna). Protected areas appear to have acted as important refuges for the vicuña during their recovery. Notable among these are Pampa Galeras National Reserve and Salinas and Aguada Blanca National Reserve in Peru; Lauca National Park and Salar de Surire National Monument in Chile; Ulla

Fig. 3.1 Density plot of vicuña population in 2003 (Convenio de la Vicuña, 2003). Dotted line marks the approximate divide between the two subspecies, V.v. mensalis and V.v. vicugna. National Parks and National Reserves where vicuñas are found are shaded (UNDP-WCMC)

3 The Vicuña in the Andean Altiplano

27

Ulla, National Reserve, and Sajama National Park in Bolivia; and Laguna de los Pozuelos National Monument, Laguna Blanca National Park, and San Guillermo in Argentina. It is not clear the extent to which the introduction of fibre harvesting in the mid-1990s has affected populations and distribution. Where populations have been studied, such as in Pampa Galeras (Sánchez, 1984) and Salinas and Aguada Blanca (Sahley et al., 2007), capture–shearing–release does not appear to have negatively impacted on populations. It has been suggested that harvesting reduces the pressure for illegal hunting by providing communities that benefit from vicuña management with incentives to protect the animals over which they have rights. The indications are, however, mixed, and there is mounting evidence that the incidence of poaching is currently at a level sufficient to cause concern (Convenio de la Vicuña, 2004).

3.7 3.7.1

Vicuña Genetics Nuclear DNA-Microsatellites

To date, knowledge of vicuña genetics is limited to a few studies, documenting phylogenetic relationships and domestication using mtDNA and microsatellite markers (Stanley et al., 1994; Palma et al., 2001; Kadwell et al., 2001; Wheeler et al., 2003; Marín, 2004; Marín et al., 2006, 2007), molecular evolution studies (Lin et al., 2001; Maté et al., 2004), one study of population variability using isoenzymes (Norambuena and Paredes, 2003) and another on the phylogeography and population genetics of wild populations using mtDNA and microsatellites across part of the species range (Chile and Bolivia; Sarno et al., 2004). The paper by Marín et al. (2007) represents the first comprehensive assessment of the molecular diversity of the species, concentrating on mtDNA control region sequence analysis. Previous research on genetic variability in 11 Peruvian vicuña populations, utilizing 11 microsatellite markers (Stanley et al., 1994; Kadwell et al., 2001; Wheeler et al., 2003; Dodd et al., 2006), revealed the existence of four geographically and genetically distinct populations characterized by relatively low levels of genetic diversity within populations, but high levels of genetic differentiation between populations. Such patterns are commonly observed in threatened species with formerly large ranges that have become isolated from each and have suffered drastic demographic contraction in recent generations (for example South African buffalo (Syncerus caffer) – O’Ryan et al., 1998; red squirrels (Sciurus vulgaris) – Barratt et al., 1999). The four distinct vicuña populations were located in northwest Junín, southern Junín, the central Andes and Puno, but the limited sample size made it impossible to determine the geographic extent of each population and the location of boundaries between them. New data have permitted more precise determination of the geographic distribution of the vicuña populations at an Andean level. Analysis of the same microsatellite

28

J.C. Wheeler, J. Laker

markers in the extended data set, plus the application of additional statistical tests, revealed the existence of five geographically and genetically distinct populations (Fig. 3.2). The northernmost group, now referred to as North Central Peruvian Andes, extends from 9° 30′S to approximately 11°S along the Cordilleras Blanca, Huayhuash and Huaytapallana. This region is poorly known, with no vicuña census data available for the Huayhuash region, and apparently represents both the most genetically unique and smallest vicuña population of the Andes. The second group, now referred to as East Central Peruvian Andes, is located across the Meseta de Bombón

Fig. 3.2 Distribution of five genetically and geographically distinct vicuña populations, as determined by DNA testing. 1. North Central Peruvian Andes, 2. East Central Peruvian Andes, 3. Central Peruvian Andes, 4. South Peruvian and North Chilean Andes and 5. Southern Andes. Groups 1–4 correspond to Vicugna vicugna mensalis and group 5 to Vicugna vicugna vicugna

3 The Vicuña in the Andean Altiplano

29

on the eastern cordillera between approximately 11° and 12°S. Structural analysis has shown that the Villa Junín population, located at 75°52′W, 11°05′S, is intermediate between the first two groups and may represent a boundary marker. The third group, now referred to as the Central Peruvian Andes, extends from approximately 12°50′S to 16°S, while the fourth group, now referred to as the South Peruvian and North Chilean Andes, may extend from approximately 14°S in Cusco and Arequipa, and 15°S in Puno to approximately 20°S at the boundary of Regions I and II in northern Chile. The exact position of the Cusco and Arequipa populations remains to be precisely determined. Although preliminary analysis suggests that they belong with group four, additional tests are required before this can be conclusively demonstrated. Group four also should include part of the Bolivian vicuña population, but no samples were available in this study. The fifth group, referred to as the Southern Andes, extends from approximately 22°S–29°S in Chile and Argentina. It also should include part of the Bolivian vicuña population, but no samples were available in this study. This group corresponds to the subspecies V.v. vicugna, while the four previous groups are comprised of V.v. mensalis.

3.7.2

Mitochondrial DNA

In their analysis of 261 vicuña samples from 24 populations currently designated as V. v. mensalis in Peru (n = 18) and Chile (n = 6) and 5 Argentine populations currently designated as V. v. vicugna, Marín et al. (2007) studied both cytochrome b and d-loop sequences. Their results revealed overall, high haplotype diversity, relatively low nucleotide diversity, negative Fu’s Fs values and positive g statistics indicating that the species has undergone a rapid demographic expansion. The shallow phylogenetic tree, haplotype network and mismatch distribution data make it clear that the northern vicuña expanded to a greater extent than those in the south. At the haplotype level, the small, fragmented southern populations are more diverse relative to those in the north where a predominant, widespread haplotype (V3) reflects reduced genetic diversity associated with a recent population expansion. These results suggest that the northern and southern vicuña are evolutionary significant units (ESU) pertaining to two taxa, V.v. mensalis and V.v. vicugna, respectively. Further analyses at nuclear loci microsatellites will provide increased resolution of genetic differentiation among populations. AMOVA analyses also strongly support this division, in contrast to the results of Sarno et al. (2004) who reported no significant differentiation between subspecies for a small sample of vicuña from Bolivia and Argentina.

3.8

Conclusions

The effects of climatic oscillations and their influence on the distribution of the premontane and montane grasslands utilised by vicuña are likely to have had a significant effect on the distribution of vicuña populations and patterns of genetic

30

J.C. Wheeler, J. Laker

diversity. In South America Pleistocene glaciation was restricted to the high Andes. In the area between 18° and 22°S the last event occurred between 14,000 and 12,000 years ago, and is associated with a period of greatly increased summer precipitation (perhaps double present volumes) but not with decreased temperatures (Clayton and Clapperton, 1997; Ammann et al., 2001; Kull et al., 2002). South of 23° S, rainfall levels decreased rapidly and the absence of clear glacial features between 25° and 27°S reflects extreme aridity. From 27°S, well-preserved moraines record an increase in westerly influenced winter precipitation and temperatures colder than at present, but the last glacial maximum may have occurred earlier than in the north (Kull et al., 2002). The increased precipitation levels associated with the last Pleistocene glacial greatly modified the environment north of the Dry Diagonal, lowering snowlines by 700–1,000 m, forming massive lakes and undoubtedly increasing vegetation cover since there was no associated lowering of temperatures (Clayton and Clapperton, 1997; Ammann et al., 2001; Kull et al., 2002; Shaman et al., 2005). To the south, the Dry Diagonal existed and was as dry as today, with the near total absence of precipitation representing an important limiting factor for plant and animal life and a likely barrier in regard to species distributions. During the Late Pleistocene, suitable habitat for vicuña expanded to the north of the Dry Diagonal and vicuña DNA records evidence of an extensive recent expansion of the vicuña range to the north. To the south, small, fragmented vicuña populations are found, living within the Dry Diagonal, apparently unable to expand beyond its limits. Regional genetic variation has survived the population bottleneck of the middle twentieth century. The north–south divide is apparent, and this genetic research indicates the persistence of more subtle variation within each subspecies. This variation reflects the vicuña’s genetic inheritance, and could be the key to the long-term adaptability of the species to environmental change. It is certainly the legacy of the vicuña’s extraordinary powers of evolutionary adaptation that have made it the archetypal high-altitude herbivore, and allowed it to live and thrive beyond the limit for most other species.

References Ammann C, Jenny B, Kammer K, Messerli B (2001) Late Quaternary Glacier response to humidity changes in the arid Andes of Chile (18–29°S). Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 172:313–326. Barratt EM, Gurnell J, Malarky G, Deaville R, Bruford MW (1999)Genetic structure of fragmented populations of red squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris) in Britain. Molecular Ecology 12:55–65. Bas F, Bonacic C (2003) Adaptive strategies of South American camelids. In: Proceedings of the VI International Symposium on the Nutrition of Herbivores Merida Yucatan, Mexico, pp. 23–33. Bonacic C, Macdonald DW, Galaz J, Sibly RM (2002) Density dependence in the camelid Vicugna vicugna: the recovery of a protected population in Chile. Oryx 2:118–125. Carpio M, Santana P (1982) Estudio preliminar de la longitud y análisis cuticular en la fibra de vicuña. In: Informes de trabajos de investigación en vicuña I. Universidad Nacional Agraria La MolinaLima, pp. 2–53.

3 The Vicuña in the Andean Altiplano

31

Carpio M, Solari Z (1982a) Diámetro de la fibra en el vellón de la vicuña. In: Informes de trabajos de investigación en vicuña I. Universidad Nacional Agraria La MolinaLima, pp. 54–102. Carpio M, Solari Z (1982b) Estudios preliminares sobre folículos pilosos en la piel de la vicuña. In: Informes de trabajos de investigación en vicuña I. Universidad Nacional Agraria La MolinaLima, pp. 103–136. ~as (2000) Censo de vicuñas – Final report. Consejo Federal de Inversiones – Censo de vicun Provincia de Catamarca Argentina. Clayton JD, Clapperton CM (1997) Broad synchrony of a late glacial glacier advance and the highstrand of paleolake Tauca in the Bolivian altiplano. Journal of Quaternary Science 12:159–182. CONACS (1997) Censo nacional de vicuña, 1997. Ministerio de Agricultura, Peru. CONACS (2000) Evaluación poblacional de picuña. Ministerio de AgriculturaPeru. Convenio de la Vicuña (2003) Population figures for 2003 presented in national reports to the XXIII meeting of the Vicuna Convention, Lima, Peru. 2004. Convenio de la Vicuña (2004) Informe a la XXIII Reunion ordinaria del Convenio de la Vicuna. República Argentina, Ministerio de Salud y Ambiente. Secretaria de Ambiente y Desarrollo Sustentable. Direccion de Fauna Silvestre. Lima, Peru 2004. Dennler de la Tour G (1954) The vicuña. Oryx 2:347–352. DGB (1997) Censo nacional de la vicuña en Bolivia. Dirección Nacional de Conservación de la Biodiversidad. Unidad de Vida SilvestreLa Paz, Bolivia. Dodd CS, Rodriguez J, Hoces D, Rosadio R, Wheeler JC, Bruford MW (2006) Genetic diversity and management implications for vicuña populations in Peru. In: Gerkin M, Renieri C (eds), South American camelid research, Vol. I. Wageningen Academic Wageningen, pp. 87–96. GerkenM (1997) Application of infra-red thermography to evaluate the influence of the fibre on body surface temperature in llamas. In: Laker J, Milne J (eds), Future perspectives on European speciality fibre research, European fine fibre network, occasional publication no. 6. Macaulay Institute, Aberdeen, Scotland, pp. 65–71. Gilmore R (1950) Fauna and ethnozoology of South America. In: Handbook of South American Indians 6, Bureau of American Ethnography Bulletin 143. Smithsonian Institution Washington, DC, pp. 345–464. Grimwood IR (1969) Notes on the distribution and status of some Peruvian mammals 1968. American Committee for International Wildlife Protection, New York Zoological Society Special Publication No. 21. New York Zoological Society New York, NY. Grosjean M, van Leeuwen JFN, van der Knaap WO, Geyh MA, Ammann B, Tanner W, Messerli B, Veit H (2001) A 22,000 14C Yr BP sediment and pollen record of climate change from Laguna Miscanti 23°S, Northern Chile. Global and Planetary Change 28:35–51. Harrison JA (1979) Revision of the Camelinae (Artiodactyla Tylopoda) and description of the new genus Alforjas. Paleontological Contributions, University of Kansas 95:1–20. Hoffmann RK, Otte KC, Ponce del Prado CF, Rios MA (1983) El manejo de la vicuña silvestre. GTZ, Eschborn. Hoffstetter R (1986) High Andean mammalian faunas during the Plio-Pleistocene. In: Vulleumier F, Monasterio M (eds), High altitude tropical biogeography. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 218–245. Jungius H (1971) The vicuña in Bolivia: the status of an endangered species and recommendations for its conservation. Zeitschrift für Säugetierkunde 36:129–146. Jurgens KD, Pietschmann M, Yamaguchi K, Kleinschmidt T (1988) Oxygen binding properties, capillary densities and heart weights in high altitude camelids. Journal of Comparative Physiology [B] 158:469–77. Kadwell M, Fernández M, Stanley HF, Baldi R, Wheeler JC, Rosadio R, Bruford MW (2001) Genetic analysis reveals the wild ancestors of the llama and alpaca. Proceedings of the Royal Society London [B] 268:2575–2584. Koford CB (1957) The vicuña and the puna. Ecological Monographs 27:153–219. Krumbiegel I (1944) Die neuveltlichen tylopoden. Zoologischer Anzeiger 145:45–70. Kull C, Grosjean M, Veit H (2002) Modeling modern and late Pleistocene glacio-climatological conditions in the North Chilean Andes (29–30°S). Climatic Change 52:359–381.

32

J.C. Wheeler, J. Laker

Lechner Doll M, Engelhardt WV, Abbas AM, Mousa HM, Luciano L, Reale E (1995) Particularities in forestomach anatomy, physiology and biochemistry of camelids compared to ruminants. In: TisserandJ-L (ed), Elevage et alimentation du dromadaire. Options Méditerranéennes: Série B. Etudes et Recherches no. 13. CIHEAM-IAM, Zaragoza. pp. 19–32. MacFadden BJ, Siles O, Zeitler P, Johnson NM, Campbell KE (1983) Magnetic polarity stratigraphy of the Middle Pleistocene (Ensenadan) Tarija Formation of Southern Bolivia. Quaternary Research 19:172–187. Marín JC (2004) Filogenia molecular, filogeografía y domesticación de camelidos sudamericanos (ARTIODACTYLA: CAMELIDAE). Tesis para optar al grado de Doctor en Ciencias Biomédicas, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Chile, Santiago. Marín JC, Sportorno A, Wheeler JC (2006) Sistematica molecular y filogeografica de camelidos sudamericanos: Implicancias para su conservacion y manejo. In: ViláB (ed), Investigacion, conservacion y manejo de la vicuna. Proyecto MACS, Talleres Graficos Leograf, Valentin Alsina Argentina, pp. 85–100. Marín JC, Casey CS, Kadwell M, Yaya K, Rodriguez J, Hoces D, Olazabal J, Rosadio R, Wheeler JC, Sportono A, Bruford MW (2007) Mitochondrial phylogeography and demographic history of the vicuña: implications for conservation. Heredity 99:70–80. Menegaz AN, Goin F J, Ortiz Jaureguizar E (1989) Analisis morfologico y morfometrico multivariado de los representantes follies y viventes del genero Lama (Artiodactyla, Camelidae). Sus implicancias sistematicas, biogeograficas, ecologicas y biocronologicas. Ameghiniana 26:153–172. Miller GS Jr (1924) A second instance of the development of ro-dent-like incisors in an artiodactyl. Proceedings of the United States National Museum 66 no. 2545:1–4. Molina JI (1782) Saggio sulle storia naturale del Chile. Bologna. Monge C, Leon-Velarde F (1991) Physiological adaptation to high altitude: oxygen transport in mammals and birds. Physiological Review 71:1135–1172. Nami HG, Menegaz AN (1991) Cueva del Medio: aportes para el conocimiento de la diversidad faunística hacia el Pleistoceno-Holoceno en la Patagonia austral. Anales Instituto Patagónico Serie Ciencias Humanas 20:117–132. Norambuena MC, Paredes M (2003) Variabilidad y estructura genetica en dos poblaciones de Vicugna vicugna (Camelidae) from northern Chile. Revista Chilena de Historia Natural 76:99–104. Novoa C and JC Wheeler (1984) Llama and Alpaca. In: I.L. Mason, Editor, Evolution of Domesticated Animals. Longman, London, pages 116–128 between Norambuena and ORyan. O’Ryan C, Harley EH, Bruford MW, Beaumont NA, Wayne RK, Cherry MI (1998) Microsatellite analysis of genetic diversity in fragmented South African buffalo populations. Animal Conservation 1:124–131. Osgood WH (1943) The mammals of Chile. Field museum of natural history zoological series 30. Field Museum of Natural History Chicago, IL. Palma RE, Marín JC, Spotorno AE, Galaz JL (2001) Phylogenetic relationships among South American subspecies of camelids based on sequences of cytochrome b mitochondrial genes. In: Raunelli MGA (ed), Progress in South American camelids research, EEAP Publication N°105. Wageningen Göttingen, pp. 44–52. Paucar A, Tellez J, Neyra L, Rodriguez J (1984) Estudio tecnologico del beneficio de vicuña. In: Villiger F (ed), La vicuña. Editorial Los PinosLima, pp. 33–48. Pearson OP (1951) Mammals in the highlands of Southern Peru. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology 106:117–174. Prieto A, Canto J (1997) Presencia de un lamoide atipico en Cueva Lago Sofia 4 (Ultima Esperanza) y Tres Arroyos (Tierra del Fuego) Region de Magallanes, Chile. Annals Instituto Patagonico, Serie Ciencias Humanas (Chile) 25:147–150. Reynafarje C, Faura J, Villavicencio D, Curaca A, Reynafarje B, Oyola L, Contreras L, Vallenas E, Faura A (1975) Oxygen transport of hemoglobin in high-altitude animals (Camelidae). Journal of Applied Physiology 38:806–810. Rutagwenda T, Lechner Doll M, Kaske M, Engelhardt WV, Schultka W, Schwartz HJ (1989) Adaptation strategies of camels on a thornbush savannah pasture: comparison with other

3 The Vicuña in the Andean Altiplano

33

domestic animals. In: TisserandJ-L (ed), Séminaire sur la digestion, la nutrition et l’alimentation du dromadaire, Options Méditerranéennes: Série A, Séminaires Méditerranéens, no. 2. CIHEAMIAMZ, Zaragoza, pp. 69–73. ~a in Peru. Sahley C, Vargas J, et al. (2007) Biological Sustainability of Live Shearing of Vicun Conservation Biology 21(1): 98–105. Sánchez E (1984) Sobrepoblación y necesidad de extracción de vicuña en Pampa Galeras. In: Villiger F (ed), La vicuña. Editorial Los Pinos, Lima, pp. 12–18. Sarno RJ, Villalba L, Bonacic C, Gonzalez B, Zapata B, MacDonald DW, O’Brien SJ, Johnson WE (2004) Phylogeography and subspecies assessment of vicuña in Chile and Bolivia utilizing mtDNA and microsatellite markers: implications for vicuña conservation and management. Conservation Genetics 5:89–102. Sharma P, Elmore D, Dunne A, DeSilva SL, Vogt S (2005) Appli-cation of 35Cl surface exposure age dating to Central Andean glaciology and volcanology. American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2005, Abstracts. Stanley HF, Kadwell M, Wheeler JC (1994) Molecular evolution and genetic diversity of the Camelidae. Proceedings of the Royal Society [B] 256:1–6. Ubilla M (2004) Mammalian biostratigraphy of Pleistocene fluvial deposits in northern Uruguay, South America. Proceedings of the Geologists’ Association 115:347–357. Webb SD (1974) Pleistocene llamas of Florida, with a brief review of the Lamini. In: Webb SD (ed), Pleistocene mammals of Florida. The University Presses of Florida, Gainesville, pp. 170–213. Wheeler JC (1995) Evolution and present situation of the South American Camelidae. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 54:271–295. Wheeler JC (2006) Historia natural de la vicuña. In: Vilá B (ed), Investigación, conservación y manejo de vicuña. Proyecto MACS, Talleres Graficos Leograf, Valentin Alsina, Argentina, pp. 25–36. Wheeler JC, Hoces Roque D (1997) Community participation, sustainable use and vicuña conservation in Peru. Mountain Research and Development 17:283–287. Wheeler JC, Fernández M, Rosadio R, Hoces D, Kadwell M, Bru-ford MW (2003) Genetic diversity and management implications for vicuña populations in Peru. In: Lemons J, Victor R, Schaffer D (eds), Conserving biodiversity in arid regions. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Boston, pp. 327–344. Yamaguchi K, Jurgens KD, Bartels H, Piiper J (1987) Oxygen transfer properties and dimensions of red blood cells in high-altitude camelids, dromedary camel and goat. Journal of Comparative Physiology [B] 157:1–9.

Chapter 4

Sociality, Foraging and Habitat Use by Vicuña Marcelo Cassini, Mariela Borgnia, Yanina Arzamendia, Verónica Benítez, and Bibiana Vilá

4.1

Introduction

In this chapter, we review the information on three aspects of vicuña (Vicugna vicugna) behaviour and ecology (1) intra-specific relationships, (2) foraging behaviour and ecology and (3) habitat utilization. We will also compare some of the behaviour and ecology of the vicuña with that of other South American camelid species, the wild guanaco Lama guanicoe, and the domestic llama Llama glama and alpaca Lama pacos. We will emphasize the spatial dimension of the vicuña’s behaviour and the implications for the management of vicuña in protected areas.

4.2

Social Behaviour

We analyse three aspects of sociality of vicuñas (1) the social pattern of distribution or territoriality; (2) the differential distribution of sex and age categories between groups or group composition and (3) the distribution of individuals within groups.

4.2.1

Territorial Behaviour

Franklin (1974, 1982, 1983) conducted one of the first research projects on the social behaviour of vicuña; he concluded that they defend fixed group territories all year round. This study became a paradigm of animal behaviour studies, after being included as a main example in the famous book Sociobiology by E. O. Wilson (1980). The evolutionary argument was straightforward: In the extreme, harsh environment of the Puna desert, it was not enough for males to defend a territory only during the reproductive season to get access to females, but they must do it permanently. At the time when Wilson was writing his book, mating systems and social organizations were viewed as species-specific properties, so vicuña were seen as one of the clearest examples of a territorial mammal.

I.J. Gordon (ed.) The Vicuña, DOI: 10.1007/978-0-387-09476-2_4, © Springer Science + Business Media, LLC 2009

35

36

M. Cassini et al.

In studies that followed, it was assumed that vicuña defended permanent territories, but there were no systematic attempts to validate Franklin’s result in other populations. The main difficulty was that laws prevented vicuña from being disturbed and captured and animals do not have pelage characteristics that can be used for individual identification. The only exception was the study conducted by Vilá (1994) who described the use of communal defecating sites (dung piles) by three well-known families, in Abrapampa (Argentina). She found some overlapping and tolerance between families that were found using the border areas and sharing the use of the peripheral dung piles (Vilá, 1994), in contrast to the fixed boundaries described by Franklin (1982). Similarly, a recent study at Cieneguillas (Argentina) (Arzamendia and Vilá unpublished data), for the first time, followed a large group of marked vicuña; they found that 19 harems and 1 bachelor group (a total of 98 vicuña) used specific portions of the landscape. However, there was overlap of harem areas, tolerance of neighbours, and the range of a harem was frequently used by another harem when the “owners” were absent. This suggests that territoriality is not as common as was initially postulated by Franklin.

4.2.2

Group Composition

Vicuña show three types of groups (1) family groups or harems, (2) bachelor groups and (3) solitary individuals. Harems are stable and permanent (all year round) while bachelor groups vary in size and can change in composition over a day (Vilá, 1995). In a comparative study, Vilá (2000) found that the mean harem size and composition was one male, three or four females and two calves, irrespective of environments, geographical areas, subspecies or seasons (Table 4.1). There are some problems with the methodology used for determining harem composition – vicuña are not sexually dimorphic, so it is difficult to sex members Table 4.1 Mean harem size of different populations (sites without country refer to Argentina) Mean harem size Location

Females

Calves

Reference

Ulla-ulla (Bolivia) Pampa Galeras (Perú) Las Cuevas (Chile) Arequipa (Perú) Abrapampa (Argentina) Laguna Blanca (Argentina) Cieneguillas (Argentina)

3.1 3.0 3.1 3.7 3.5 3.6 3.4

1.6 2.0 1.6 1.6 1.8 1.9 2.0

Pozuelos (Argentina)

3.4

1.7

Laguna Blanca Reserve (Argentina) 3.2 Olaroz Cauchari Reserve (Argentina) 3.9 Lagunas de Vilama (Argentina) 3.4

1.4 1.8 2.2

Cardozo (1981) Franklin (1983) Glade and Cattan (1987) Davies 2003 Vilá (1990) Vilá and Roig (1992) Arzamendia and Vilá (2003) Renaudeau d’Arc and Vilá (1998) Borgnia et al. (2006a) Arzamendia et al. (2001) Arzamendia et al. (2001)

4 Sociality, Foraging and Habitat Use by Vicuña

37

of groups in the field, and it is normally done using behavioural responses, which can produce uncontrolled errors. Even with the methodological limitations, several questions arise from this remarkably stable pattern of social organization: • • • •

Why are harems not as large as bachelor groups? Why do females not breed alone or in pairs? Why do males remain in female groups outside the reproductive season? Why does group size not change between seasons or geographical areas?

Bonacic et al. (2002) found that female reproductive success, estimated as observed mean number of calves per female, decreased linearly with the number of females per group (Bonacic et al., 2002). Thus, from the point of view of the females, large groups represent a reproductive cost. Vilá and Cassini (1994) analysed the costs to males of group defence and they found a significant and substantial decrease in the foraging time of males when the number of females increased in their harems. In summary, there are advantages to both males and females in keeping family groups relatively small. In the same way that there is evidence of costs to both males and females from living in large harems, we would expect to find costs associated with living in small ones. Arzamendia et al. (2006) found that solitary vicuña spent more time standing up (i.e. vigilant) and less time foraging than did members of groups (Fig. 4.1). They interpreted this result with the classical hypothesis within behavioural ecology that individuals can share vigilance behaviour within groups so that each individual spends less time scanning for predators, but that when added together groups are more vigilant than solitary individuals (reviewed by Krause and Ruxton, 2002). This means that individuals within groups are less likely to be predated upon and also have less time taken up with vigilance that could be put to other, more productive, behaviours.

Percentage of vicuña

90

Family Solitary Bachelor 45

0

Forage

Walk

Social

Run

Stand

Lie

Fig. 4.1 Percentage of family and bachelor groups and solitary individuals of vicuña exhibiting different behaviours. Solitary vicuña spend more time standing (vigilant) and less time foraging than members of groups (from Arzamendia et al., 2006)

38

M. Cassini et al.

Another explanation for the lack of small groups in the wild is social constraints. In behavioural ecology theory, group size is viewed as the result of a “game” in which individuals distribute themselves between groups in a way that they maximise their reproductive fitness (Sutherland, 1996). There is a cost associated with intra-group competition for, for example, food and benefit from protection against predators, or selecting mates. A typical case is in foraging groups in which the cost of sharing food resources is compensated for by benefits of increased vigilance by the group. Under these conditions, it has been demonstrated that actual group sizes are generally larger than the predicted optimal group sizes, i.e., the sizes that maximize the benefit/cost balance (reviewed by Krause and Ruxton, 2002). In summary, the trade-off in social costs and benefits in small and large harems probably explains the size of harems and its constancy across areas and seasons. Another enigma is why all female groups contain a male, and only one male, outside the reproductive season. The “harem” structure of winter groups clearly suggests that there is some kind of reproductive investment being made by males all year round. Franklin (1983) postulated that the extreme environmental conditions promote the defence of permanent territories by males; however, as previously discussed, territoriality does not appear to be a universal phenomenon for vicuña. So, rather than the defence of a patch of resources, family males probably contribute significantly to anti-predation vigilance and, more importantly, protect females from disturbance of vicuña of other groups, especially sexual harassment from bachelor males, even outside the breeding season. The role of male harassment avoidance in the evolution of breeding systems has been addressed for artiodactyls (Clutton-Brock et al., 1992, 1993) and other mammals (Cassini, 1999; Galimberti et al., 2000). In vicuña, harem holding males exhibit a strong intolerance for members of bachelor groups (Koford, 1957; Franklin, 1974; Vilá, 1995) which represent to constant source of disturbance for females within family groups. The formation of year-round harems is a rare social organisation in mammals, however it is not exclusive to vicuña; guanaco males may also stay with female groups during the winter (although the social structure of this species is more plastic than that of vicuña, Franklin, 1982) suggesting that this behaviour is an ancestral social strategy of South American camelids.

4.2.3

Individual Distances

The spatial relationships and interaction between individuals are two important factors in describing social organization of wild mammals. Space maintenance had different interpretations of its selective advantages, including minimization of disturbance while feeding, reduction of interference while fleeing from danger and avoidance of transmission of infectious diseases (Wilson, 1980). The distance between individuals has been traditionally used in sociobiology as a measured of the degree of social tolerance (Wilson, 1980). Individual distances within groups varied substantially depending on group types and the sex and age of

4 Sociality, Foraging and Habitat Use by Vicuña

39

group members. The mean individual distance in bachelor groups (1.7 m) was smaller than between females in family groups (2.6 m) (Vilá, 1995). Harem holding males were peripheral to this group of females and the distance between the harem holding male and the closest females varied from 6 m while grazing and lying and a much greater when the male was involved in defence activities. The mean distance between a calf and its mother was related to age of the calf and occurred together with a reduction in the duration and frequency of suckling (Vilá and Roig, 1992) as predicted by the theory of parent–offspring conflict (Trivers, 1985). In family groups with more than one calf, calves tended to form “clubs” in which members played, stood and grazed together. Calves in clubs stayed further apart from their mothers than did solitary calves (Vilá, 1995).

4.3

Foraging Behaviour

Foraging behaviour is divided into four components: search for, selection of, ingestion of and digestion of food. While in carnivores, searching for food (including capturing it) is normally the most consuming component of foraging behaviour, in herbivorous mammals, the low quality of food means that ingestion and digestion requires more time than searching and selection of food (Stephens and Krebs, 1986). In this section, we describe the foraging behaviour of vicuña and other South American camelids, because some of the underlying mechanisms of foraging spatial decisions emerge from these inter-specific comparisons. Recent molecular studies of the taxonomy of South American camelids indicate that the alpaca is a domesticated form of the vicuña, while the llama derived from the guanaco (Kadwell et al., 2001); therefore, it is expected that vicuñas share more behavioural and physiological traits with alpacas than they do with llamas or guanaco.

4.3.1

Activity Budgets and Overall Foraging Time

Vicuñas vary the proportion of time invested in foraging depending on climatic conditions; Lucherini (1996) found that vicuña in Laguna Verde (Catamarca, Argentina) spent 69% of diurnal period foraging in summer, and in the same season, Vilá and Cassini (1993) obtained a similar value (71%) for a population in Abrapampa (Jujuy, Argentina). In the latter study, vicuña significantly increased foraging time in autumn, the beginning of the dry and cold season. In Laguna Blanca (Catamarca, Argentina) 78% of vicuñas were observed foraging at the end of dry season (Renaudeau d’Arc et al., 2000). Mènard (1982) estimated this proportion in 89% for a population from Pampas Galeras (Perú) in a dry year, after several years of drought. Arzamendia and Vilá (2003, 2006) and Arzamendia et al. (2006) obtained a typical annual mean figure of 70% of the time foraging in Laguna Pozuelos (Jujuy, Argentina). This adjustment of foraging time to climatic conditions

40

M. Cassini et al.

likely to result from the digestive capabilities of camelids as, in the dry season, they need to ingest more low-quality grasses meet their need for energy and nutrients. In a comparison of behaviour between the sexes, it was found that adult females spent more time foraging than did adult males (Vilá and Cassini, 1994; Arzamendia and Vilá, 2003; Arzamendia et al., 2006), probably because of the costs of gestation and lactation which increase both nutritive and energetic demands on emales. Although they had a similar total grazing time, the time that individuals spent at a feeding station (i.e. an area that a foraging animal can reach without moving its feet) is longer in llamas than alpacas but bite rate is greater in alpacas than in llamas (Pfister et al., 1989). Guanaco spent more time foraging than did vicuña (Lucherini, 1996) probably because of differences in body size, with llamas and guanaco requiring a greater absolute amount of food than alpacas and vicuña. All camelids had larger foraging time than did sheep have (Pfister et al., 1989), most likely due to the digestive differences between groups of Artiodactyls (see later).

4.3.2

Food Searching and Daily and Seasonal Movements

The movements of the herbivores in their search for food follow a route that can be described as a daily spatial pattern of activity. In vicuña, daily movements from sleeping areas on the mountain slopes to foraging and drinking areas on the plains have been described (Franklin, 1974; Vilá and Roig, 1992). This pattern was not observed in areas where water sources are abundant suggesting that daily movements are governed by the vicuña’s daily need for drinking water (Franklin, 1983). In pioneering work, Koford (1957) said that vicuñas were never found more than a mile away from water. Vilá and Cassini (1993) found a change in the daily rhythm of activity over the year: in the warm/wet season there was a peak of resting and standing at noon that disappeared in the cold/dry season. Recently, Laker and Mundsen (personal communication) have postulated the occurrence of seasonal movements or of annual migrations of vicuña in response to seasonal changes of food availability at a landscape scale.

4.3.3

Botanical Composition of Diets and Diet Selection

There are few studies of the diet of vicuña; traditionally vicuña have been described as grass feeders (Koford, 1957; Franklin, 1982; Mènard, 1984), mainly adapted for grazing on forbs and perennial grasses close to the ground. They are the only Artiodactyls with open-rooted, continuously growing incisors. In Pampa Galeras, Franklin found that vicuña avoided some tall coarse bunch grass such as Festuca dolichophyla and Stipa spp. but preferred other more nutritious plants such as Festuca rigesens and Deyeuxia vicugnarum. Aguilar et al. (1995) described an annual pattern of diet

4 Sociality, Foraging and Habitat Use by Vicuña

41

selection in Abrapampa (Jujuy, Argentina), where in the dry season (winter) vicuña consumed mainly Festuca scirpifolia, a tall grass with low quality but high biomass. In the wet season (summer), vicuña preferred short grasses as Deyeuxia nardifolia, Hordeum andicola, Distichlis humilis, Carex spp. and Eleocharis spp. Cajal (1989) studied the diet of vicuña and guanaco in San Guillermo Reserve (San Juan, Argentina). There, the diet of both species was similar but guanaco ate more tall grasses, while vicuña fed on forbs and short grasses more intensively. Cajal’s study area included some shrub steppes, and vicuña were also found to browse on them to a limited extent. Foraging on shrubs was also found in Laguna Blanca Reserve (Catamarca, Argentina) (Benítez et al., 2006) and in Laguna Pozuelos (Jujuy, Argentina) (Arzamendia, unpublished data). The genera of shrubs preferentially consumed by vicuña are Adesmia, Verbena, Acantholippia and Tetraglochin spp. During the wet season in Laguna Pozuelos, vicuñas were more likely to use the low gramineous–herbaceous stratum, with high nutritional value (FIDA, 1991) and/or high biomass annual grasses like Bouteloua simplex, Aristida spp., Adesmia spp. and Eragrostis curvula. In the dry season, they were more likely to use the vegetation units with high cover of grass and shrubs in both stratums (Arzamendia and Vilá, 2006). The differences found between vicuña and guanaco were similar to those found between their domestic relatives, alpacas and llamas. Several studies have been conducted on the diet of llamas, alpacas and sheep in the Peruvian Puna. Although the results are variable, the overall trend is that alpacas have a diet that is intermediate in competition between llamas and sheep; llamas select for tall, coarse bunch grasses, while sheep consume short grasses and forbs (San Martín and Bryant, 1989; Pfister et al., 1989). Alpacas appear to have the most catholic foraging behaviour, depending on the condition of vegetation; in the wet season, they use tall grasses as llamas do, while in dry season they move to feed on short grasses, forbs and sedges (Reiner and Bryant, 1986). In summary, vicuñas forage mainly on poaceae and ciperaceae, adding variable proportions of shrubs to their diet in steppes habitats. Vicuñas and alpacas show similar food preferences, and have a diet that is intermediate between llamas (and guanaco) and sheep.

4.3.4

Intake Rate and Digestive Capabilities

Recently, Van Saun (2006) reviewed the nutrient requirements of domestic South American camelids; there are several studies on ingestion and digestion of llamas and alpacas, but none on vicuña. These studies indicated that camelids showed several morphological and physiological differences to the other ruminants of the order Artiodactyla (Jouany, 2000), that appear to be adaptations to consuming coarse forage where nutrients are diluted by structural carbohydrates which are difficult to digest (San Martín and Bryant, 1989). The feed intake in alpacas was clearly related to forage quality, being negatively correlated with lignin content of forages and positively correlated with their digestibility (Lopez et al., 1998).

42

M. Cassini et al.

As expected, South American camelids have higher digestive efficiencies than goats (Capra hircus) when fed on C4 grass hay, but not on C3 grass hay (Sponheimer et al., 2003). C4 grasses tend to have lower nitrogen and higher cell wall concentrations than their C3 counterparts, and they concentrate protein in highly vascularised buddle sheath cells, which are more difficult to digest (review by Sponheimer et al., 2003). South American camelids have a high capacity to digest hemicellulose, which is very important under natural conditions, since they are very selective for grasses which contain high levels of hemicellulose (Lopez et al., 1998). The ability of camelids to digest fibrous forages has been attributed to several mechanisms (review by Lopez et al., 1998) (1) efficient nitrogen recycling due to a low renal excretion, and a high ruminal retention time for the solid phase, which favours cell wall degradation via a longer exposure time to microorganisms; (2) the pH of the rumen contents, which is close to neutral favouring cellulolytic digestion; this is due to bicarbonate secretion in the first two stomachs of the rumen and (3) high concentrations of volatile fatty acids in the first two stomachs, which could be explained by the high pH that neutralised these acids, keeping them as ions which are more slowly absorbed, therefore they can be used as an energy source. Although llamas and alpacas are generally considered to have identical nutritional requirements when corrected for body size (e.g. San Martín and Bryant, 1989), Sponheimer et al. (2003) demonstrated that llamas have much higher digestible dry matter intake relative to metabolic weight, suggesting that llamas perform better on low-quality forages than do alpacas (Sponheimer et al., 2003). In summary, camelids show physiological adaptations to foraging on the vegetation of dry environments, especially grasses. However, alpacas and vicuñas perform worse than llamas and guanaco, and so depend more on selecting high quality grasses and forbs.

4.4

Habitat Use

One of the key aspects of vicuña ecology is habitat use because it is well known that vicuñas use only a small proportion of their potential habitat in protected areas. This phenomenon was originally recognized in a seminal paper by Koford (1957), and subsequently described in several studies conducted in different protected areas of the vicuña’s geographical range (Cajal, 1989; Franklin, 1983; Renandeau d’Arc et al., 2000; Arzamendia and Vilá, 2003, 2006). The Puna region is characterized by three types of landscapes: the typical elevated plain that defines the region (“altiplano” or “puna”); the peaks and pronounced slopes of the mountains; and the intermediate fringe of smooth slopes (“piedemonte”). Vicuña used both the piedemonte and the plain. The most common habitats types in the Puna are (1) xerophytic shrub steppes frequently mixed with short grasses and forbs; (2) bunchgrasses steepes; (3) open rocky areas with sparse vegetation; and (4) wetlands of short plants with high ground cover (“vegas” or “bofedales”). Several studies analysed the use of these types of habitats; in Pampas Galeras (Perú) vicuña preferred foraging on three

4 Sociality, Foraging and Habitat Use by Vicuña

43

vegetation types: two grassed steppes dominated by Festuca rigesens, Calamagrostis vicunarum; and the vegas (Franklin, 1983). In the Ulla-Ulla (Bolivia), two main habitats are found: grass steppe and vegas, and vicuña preferred vegas, although the availability of this habitat depended on the presence of people and alpacas (Villalba, 2003). In the San Guillermo Reserve (Argentina) three main habitats are found (1) plains with tussock grassland; (2) gentle, grassy slopes and (3) rocky slopes (Cajal, 1989); vicuñas were more abundant in the grassland plain and there was a positive correlation between vicuña density and plant cover. In the Laguna Pozuelos (Argentina) vicuña also preferred vegetation communities dominated by grasses (“pajonal” and “esporal”), with high plant cover (located in plains and “piedemonte”) and were less frequently observed than expected in habitats with low vegetation cover dominated by shrubs (located in the peaks and pronounced slopes of the mountains) (Arzamendia et al., 2006). In the Laguna Blanca (Argentina), vicuña avoided the open rocky areas and the areas dominated by the shrub Acantholippia hastulata (Renandeau d’Arc et al., 2000). A more recent study in the same reserve, analysing a larger area, indicated that grass and mixed steppes were also intensively used by vicuña (Borgnia et al., unpublished data). This pattern of habitat selection with preferences for certain grassland steppes and vegas is consistent with results on diet composition, that found that vicuña forage mainly on poaceae and ciperaceae (Koford, 1957; Franklin, 1983; Cajal, 1989; FIDA, 1991; Aguilar et al., 1999; Borgnia et al., unpublished data). Arzamendia et al. (2006) described a change in habitat selectivity between years in Laguna Pozuelos (Argentina) (Fig. 4.2); they found that, in 2002, availability of

Frequency of vicuña group

50

Expected 2002 2003

* *

25 * *

* *

*

Colletia spinossisima

Peladar

Tetraglochin cristatum

Fabiana densa

Nardophyllum armatum

Parastrephia phylliciformis

Esporal

Baccharis boliviensis

Pajonal

Riparian

Parastrephia lepidophylla

0

Fig. 4.2 Number of groups of vicuña in different habitats, expected for the area occupied by each habitat type, and observed in 2002 and 2003. In 2002, vicuña preferred or rejected five habitats, while in 2003, only two, suggesting a decrease in selectivity between years (from Arzamendia et al., 2006)

44

M. Cassini et al.

vegetation (grossly estimated from plant cover) was higher than in 2003 (a dry year) for all habitat types. Habitat selection theory predicts that when resources are concentrated in good habitats, most individuals will use these habitats; however, when the availability of resources decreases in good habitats, the less competitive individuals will move to low-quality habitats (Sutherland, 1996). The result is a more homogeneous distribution between habitats, as it was observed in Pozuelos. This phenomenon is called “buffer effect”, and its intensity depends on the nature of intra-specific competition (Gill et al., 2001). Bonacic et al. (2002) recognized the role of competition in the population ecology of vicuña. They found evidence of density dependence in vicuña populations and suggest that long-term densitydependent relationships are modulated by between-year changes in precipitation and food availability. The buffer effect is a possible spatial mechanism that mediates density-dependency in vicuña. There is evidence of a negative relationship between the distribution of domestic ungulates and vicuña (Arzamendia and Vilá, 2003; Villalba, 2003). For example, Borgnia et al. (2006b) found a significant negative correlation between the distribution of vicuña and domestic species (including cattle, donkeys, sheep and goats, and llamas) in a 2-year study conducted in Laguna Blanca (Argentina) (Fig. 4.3). Domestic species are normally taken to vegas for grazing, and vicuñas avoid using the vegas when domestic species are present. There is no evidence of direct competition, and vicuña and domestic species can be observed foraging in the same areas without displacements or agonistic interactions. However, vicuñas are disturbed by the presence of people and dogs, which is probably one reason for vicuña’s avoidance of vegas when domestic species are present (Arzamendia and Vilá, 2003; Villalba, 2003). Overgrazing of vegas is common in the Puna (Braun

Number of domestics

700

350

0 0

600

1200

Number of vicuña Fig. 4.3 Negative correlation between the distribution of vicuña and domestic ungulates (r = −0.53, p < 0.05) (from Borgnia et al., 2006b)

4 Sociality, Foraging and Habitat Use by Vicuña

45

Wilke et al., 1999; Céspedes et al., 2003; Alzerreca et al., 2003; Bautista et al., 2003), so the use of vegas by domestic species can also substantially reduce the biomass of vegetation available for vicuña, and could be an explanation for vicuña’s avoidance. Finally, the ability of camelids to use low quality grasses (as described previously) can make them less dependent on vegas than are sheep and cattle, and can explain the spatial segregation without the occurrence of competition or interference. Future work is required to discriminate between these hypotheses. Few studies have investigated the spatial relationship between vicuña and the other wild camelid, the guanaco. In the Laguna Verde (Catamarca, Argentina) Lucherini and colleagues (Lucherini, 1996; Lucherini and Birochio, 1997; Lucherini et al., 2000) found a degree of altitudinal segregation between the species and a higher frequency of guanaco in close proximity to water than vicuña. In the San Guillermo Reserve (San Juan, Argentina), Cajal (1989) found differences in habitat use by family groups and solitary males of both species. In a recent study conducted in Laguna Pozuelos, Arzamendia and Vilá (2006) found differential use of habitat between types of groups of vicuña. Family groups were mainly associated with piedemote and paleolacoon (with smooth slopes and major vegetation cover), while bachelor groups use mainly mountains (with high slopes and low vegetation cover).

4.5

Final Comments, Including Relevance to Conservation

We described the behaviour of vicuña, without offering an extensive description of forms and functions. For example, we present new evidence that challenges the “myth of permanent territorialism” and propose a plastic spatial organization, with habitat selection and daily movements adjusted to the huge changes in resource availability in the Puna desert. Another example is the importance of digestive physiology as a foraging constraint that determines the range of food types consumed and consequently governs habitat selection in different seasons. A third example is the new evidence of spatial segregation between vicuña and other wild and domestic ungulates. There are still several traits of vicuña behaviour that require further study. It is of fundamental importance to conduct research on a population of marked individuals that offers a more definitive explanation of the social organization of this species. A study that simultaneously analyses population distribution at habitat and landscape level, food availability and quality, and diet, both of vicuña and domestic species, is also urgently required. Most vicuña populations are now classified under Appendix II of the Convention International for Trade on Endangered Species (CITES); as a consequence, many projects of exploitation of vicuña for their fibre have been initiated in the Andes, and there is a strong pressure on local authorities and communities to expand the commercial use of this species (Lichteinstein and Vilá, 2003). Most of the research conducted at present is technically orientated and has the practical objective to

46

M. Cassini et al.

improve vicuña exploitation. However, effective sustainability in the long term can only be achieved with deep knowledge on vicuña ecology. Therefore, studies on key aspects of the ecology of vicuña are urgently required to evaluate and if possible to minimise the impact and guarantee environmental sustainability of the use.

References Aguilar MG, Martin GO, Neumann R, Chagra Dib EP (1995) Estimación de la composición botánica en la dieta de la vicuña (Vicugna vicugna) en la puna jujeña. Revista Argentina de Producción Animal 15:343–346. Aguilar MG, Chagra Dib EP, Neumann R (1999) Rangeland in the diet of vicugnas. Progress in South American Camelids Research 105:329–333. Alzerreca H, Prieto G, Laura J (2003) Utilización de forraje de los bofedales y gramadales en el altiplano y altoandino de Bolivia. In: CIF, FCAyP-UMSS (eds), Memorias del III Congreso Mundial sobre Camèlidos, 1er. Taller internacioal de DECAMA, Vol I., Potosí, Bolivia, pp. 415–421. Arzamendia Y, Vilá B and Tecchi RA. (2001) Las poblaciones de vicuña (Vicugna vicugna) en la Reserva Laguna de Pozuelos y otras áreas de Jujuy. V Congreso Latioamericano de Ecología. San Salvador de Jujuy, Argentina. Arzamendia Y, Vilá B (2003) Estudios de comportamiento social de vicuñas en la RB Laguna de Pozuelos, Jujuy, Argentina, como línea de base para el manejo sostenible de la especie. In: Cif FC (ed), Memorias del III Congreso Mundial sobre Camèlidos, 1er. Taller internacioal de DECAMA, Vol I., Potosí, Bolivia, pp. 187–192. Arzamendia Y, Vilá BL (2006) Estudios etoecológicos de vicuñas en el marco de un plan de manejo sustentable: Cieneguillas, jujuy. In: Vilá B (ed), Investigacion, conservacion y manejo de la vicuna. Proyecto MACS, Talleres Graficos Leograf, Valentin Alsina, Argentina, pp. 69–83. Arzamendia Y, Cassini MH, Vilá BL (2006) Habitat use by vicuñas,Vicugna vicugna, in Laguna Pozuelos Reserve (Jujuy, Argentina). Oryx 40:1–6 Bautista J, Escalier G, Mamani P, Copa S, Marin W (2003) Productividad de bofedales según carga animal para dos èpocas en Ulla Ulla. In: CIF, FCAyP-UMSS (eds), Memorias del III Congreso Mundial sobre Camèlidos, 1er. Taller internacioal de DECAMA, Vol I., Potosí, Bolivia, pp. 457–460. Benítez V, Borgnia M, Cassini MH (2006) Ecología nutricional de la vicuña (Vicugna vicugna): un caso de estudio en la Reserva Laguna Blanca, Catamarca. Chap. 5, In: Vilá B (ed), Investigacion, conservacion y manejo de la vicuna. Proyecto MACS, Talleres Graficos Leograf, Valentin Alsina, Argentina, pp. 51–67. Bonacic C, Mcdonald DW, Galaz J, Sibly RM (2002) Density dependence in the camelid Vicugna vicugna: the recovery of a protected population in Chile. Oryx 36:118–125 Borgnia M, Vilá BL, Cassini MH (2006a) Estimación poblacional local y estructura social de vicuñas en la Reserva Laguna Blanca, Catamarca. Proceedings del IV Congreso Mundial sobre camèlidos. Eje Ecología, Conservación y Manejo. Santa María, Catamarca (Argentina) pp. 11–15. Borgnia M, Vilá BL, Cassini MH (2006b) Distribución y uso de hábitat de la vicuña en una zona de la puna catamarqueña con actividad pastoril. XXII Reunión Argentina de Ecología. Córdoba (Argentina), Asociación Argentina de Ecología, Córdoba, Argentina. Braun Wilke RH, Pichetti LPE, Villafañe BS (1999) Pasturas montanas de Jujuy. Facultad de Ciencia. Agrarias. Universidad Nacional de Jujuy, Argentina. Cajal JL (1989) Uso de hábitat por vicuñas y guanacos en la Reserva de Biósfera San Guillermo. Vida Silvestre Neotropical 2:21–31

4 Sociality, Foraging and Habitat Use by Vicuña

47

Cardozo A (1981) Evolución poblacional de vicuñas en Ulla Ulla, Bolivia, 1965–1981. Estudios especializados, EE-25. INFOL, La Paz, Bolivia. Cassini MH, (1999) The evolution of reproductive systems of pinnipeds. Behavioral Ecology 10:612–616. Céspedes J, Alzerreca H, Prieto G, Laura J (2003) Intercambio ingreso/carga animal en bofedales de Ulla Ulla. I. In: CIF, FCAyP-UMSS (eds), Memorias del III Congreso Mundial sobre Camèlidos, 1er. Taller internacioal de DECAMA, Vol I., Potosí, Bolivia, pp. 461–466. Clutton-Brock TH, Price O, MacColl A (1992) Mate retention, harassment and the evolution of ungulate leks. Behavioral Ecology 3:234–242. Clutton-Brock TH, Deutsch JC, Nefdt RJC (1993) The evolution of ungulate leks. Animal Behaviour 46:1121–1138. Davies J (2003) Population ecology of the vicuña (Vicugna vicugna) at the Salinas y Aguada Blanca National Reserve, Arequipa, Perú: baseline data for sustainable management. Masters Thesis. University of Florida. FIDA (eds) (1991) Programa Regional de apoyo al desarrollo de la crianza de camèlidos sudamericanos (Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador y Perú): la crianza de camèlidos y características de la producción. Annex. IV, Report 0334. Fondo Internacional de desarrollo agrícola (FIDA). Franklin WL (1974) The social behaviour of the vicuña. In: Geist V, Walther F (eds), The behavior of ungulates and its relation to management. IUCN, Morges, Switzerland, pp. 477–487. Franklin WL (1982) Biology, ecology and relationship to man of the South American camelids. In: Mares M, Genoways H (eds), Mammalian biology in South America, Pymatuning Laboratory of Ecology Special Publication, 6. University of Pittsburgh, Linesville, pp. 457–489. Franklin WL (1983) Contrasting sociecologies of South America`s wild camelids: the vicuña and the guanaco. In: Eisemberg JF, Kleiman DG (eds), Advances in the study of mammalian behavior, Special Publication of American Society of Mammalogists 7, Stillwater, Oklahoma, pp. 573–629. Galimberti F, Boitani L, Marzetti I (2000) The frequency and costs of harassment in southern elephant seals. Ethology, Ecology and Evolution 12:345–365. Gill JA, Norris K, Potts PM, Gunnarsson TG, Atkinson PW, Sutherland WL (2001) The buffer effect and large-scale population regulation in migratory birds. Nature 412: 436–438 Glade CA, Cattan P (1987) Aspectos conductuales y reproductivos de la vicuña. In: Torres H (ed), Técnica para el manejo de la vicuña. IUCN/CSE, PNUMA, Santiago, Chile, pp. 89–107. Jouany JP (2000) La digestion chez les camélidés; comparaison avec les ruminants. INRA Productions Animales 13:165–176. Kadwell M, Fernández M, Stanley H, Baldi R, Wheeler J, Rosadio R, Bruford M (2001) Genetic analysis reveals the wild ancestors of the llama and the alpaca. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 268:2575–2584. Koford CB (1957) The vicuña and the puna. Ecological Monographs 27:153–219. Krause J, Ruxton GD (2002) Living in groups. Oxford University Press, Oxford. Lichteinstein G, Vilá BL (2003) Vicuna use by Andean communities: an overview. Mountain Research and Development 23:198–202. Lopez A, Maiztegui J, Cabrera R (1998) Voluntary intake and digestibility of forages with different nutritional quality in alpacas (Lama pacos). Small Ruminant Research 29:95–301. Lucherini M (1996) Group size, spatial segregation and activity of wild sympatric vicuñasVicugna vicugna and guanacos Lama guanicoe. Small Ruminant Research 20:193–198. Lucherini M, Birochio DE (1997) Lack of aggression and avoidance between vicuña and guanaco herds grazing in the same Andean habitat. Studies of Neotropical Fauna and Environment 32:72–75. Lucherini M, Birochio DE, Marinelli C, Legato AM (2000) Spatial niche overlap between vicuñas and guanacos. Acta Theriologica 45: 57–70. Mènard N (1982) Quelques aspects de la socioecologie de la vicogneLama vicugna. Revue Ecologique (Terre et Vie) 36:15–35.

48

M. Cassini et al.

Ménard N (1984) Le régime alimentaire des vicognes (Lama vicugna) pendant une période de sécheresse. Mammalia 48:529–539 Pfister JA, San Martín F, Rosales L, Sisson DV, Flores E, Bryant FC (1989) Grazing behaviour of llamas, alpacas and sheep in the Andes of Peru. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 23:237–246. Reiner RJ, Bryant FC (1986) Botanical composition and nutritional quality of alpaca diets in two Andean rangeland communities. Journal of Range Management 39: 424–427. Renaudeau d’Arc N, Vilá BL (1998) Some aspects of vicuña Vicugna vicugna behaviour in Laguna Pozuelos, Jujuy, Argentina. Proceedings of the 2nd World Conference of Mountain Ungulates, St. Vincent, Italy, pp. 191–196 Renaudeau d’Arc N, Cassini MH, Vilá B (2000) Habitat use by vicuñas (Vicugna vicugna) in the Laguna Blanca Reserve (Catamarca, Argentina). Journal of Arid Environments 46:107–115. San Martín F, Bryant FC (1989) Nutrition of domesticated South American llamas and alpacas. Small Ruminant Research 2:191–216. Sponheimer M, Robinson T, Roeder B, Hammer J, Ayliffe L, Passey B, Cerling T, Dearing D, Ehleringer J (2003) Digestion and passage rates of grass hays by llamas, alpacas, goats, rabbits, and horses. Small Ruminant Research 48:149–154. Stephens DW, Krebs JR (1986) Foraging theory. Princeton University Press, New Jersey. Sutherland WJ (1996) From individual behaviour to population ecology. Oxford University Press, Oxford. Trivers RL (1985) Social evolution. Benjamin Cummings, Menlo Park, California, pp 461 Van Saun RJ (2006) Nutrient requirements of South American camelids: a factorial approach. Small Ruminant Resarch 61:165–186. Vilá BL (1990) El comportamiento de la vicuña durante la temporada reproductiva. Unpublished Doctoral Thesis, FCEyN, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina. Vilá BL (1994) Use of dung piles by neighbouring vicuñas. Zoologisch Saugetierkunde 59:126–128. Vilá BL (1995) Spacing patterns within groups in vicuñas, in relation to sex and behaviour. Studies on Neotropical and Environment 30:45–51 Vilá B (2000) Comportamiento y organización social de la vicuña. In: González B, Bas F, Tala C, Iriarte A (eds), Actas del Seminario Internacional de “Manejo sustentable de la vicuña y el guanaco”. Servicios Agrarios y Ganaderos de la Universidad C, Católica de Chile, Santiago de Chile, Chile, pp. 175–191. Vilá BL, Cassini MH (1993) Summer and autumn activity patterns in the vicuña. Studies on Neotropical and Environment 28: 251–258 Vilá BL, Cassini MH (1994) Time allocation during the reproductive season in vicuñas. Ethology 97:226–235 Vilá BL, Roig VG (1992) Diurnal movements, family groups and alertness of vicuña (Vicugna vicugna) during the late dry season in the Laguna Blanca Reserve (Catamarca, Argentina). Small Ruminant Research 7:289–297. Villalba L (2003) Uso de hábitat e interacciones entre la vicuña y la alpaca en la reserva nacional de fauna Ulla Ulla, Bolivia. In: CIF, FCAyP-UMSS (eds), Memorias del III Congreso Mundial sobre Camèlidos, 1er. Taller internacioal de DECAMA, Vol I., Potosí, Bolivia, pp. 205–210. Wilson EO (1980) Sociobiología. La nueva síntesis. Omega, Barcelona, Spain.

Chapter 5

Animal Welfare and the Sustainable Use of the Vicuña Cristian Bonacic, Jessica Gimpel, and Pete Goddard

5.1

Introduction

This chapter addresses the topics of animal welfare (which is based on the wellbeing of the individual animal) and sustainability of use (which is based on population level effects on the species in question). Sustainability in a wider context also embraces social, economic and cultural issues that influence management and conservation of a species. Vicuñas have been captured, handled and shorn since the fifteenth century, when the Inca Empire conducted the “chaku” throughout the Andes of South America (Hurtado, 1987). The chaku consisted of herding thousands of vicuñas into stone corrals for shearing. Local people surrounded vast areas and walked behind the animals, guiding them towards extensive corrals. Although large numbers of animals were shorn by this method, associated morbidity and mortality probably had little effect on the population demographics because the process was conducted only once every 4 years in any given region. When Europeans arrived in South America, the traditional chaku was replaced by indiscriminate hunting (Hoffmann et al., 1983; Cueto et al., 1985; Hurtado, 1987; CONAF, 1991). Current policies for vicuña management include practices such as capture and shearing of wild animals, farming, ranching, and translocation and reintroduction (Cueto et al., 1985; Urquieta and Rojas, 1990; Rebuffi, 1993; Urquieta et al., 1994; Wheeler and Hoces, 1997; Galaz, 1998). Despite the importance of handling in the management of vicuña populations, little is known about the response of vicuña to handling and captivity. However, it is reasonable to assume that vicuñas become stressed by human contact in a similar way to other wild ungulates (Wesson et al., 1979). The proposed sustainable use of vicuña may result in an array of effects which could impact on their welfare. These include the introduction of new morbidity or mortality factors, increasing the risk of less-efficient captures in the future, by affecting population dynamics, and the raising of concerns about the methods used to obtain the fleece, thus risking the economic viability of the programme. Currently there are estimated to be more than a quarter of a million vicuñas in five countries and more than 43 tons of fibre were sold in the market in the past 10 years. Many small enterprises are starting to capture I.J. Gordon (ed.) The Vicuña, DOI: 10.1007/978-0-387-09476-2_5, © Springer Science + Business Media, LLC 2009

49

50

C. Bonacic et al.

animals for shearing (Lichtenstein and Vilá, 2003). At present there are no animal welfare recommendations available to practitioners, and physiological and ecological findings have not been linked in previous studies (Bonacic et al., 2002). To fill this gap, this chapter addresses the potential animal welfare consequences of capturing and shearing wild vicuñas, identifying critical points of management that must be taken into consideration in any management activity plan involving these animals.

5.2

Definition of Animal welfare and Implications for Wildlife Use

There are many definitions of animal welfare and it is beyond the scope of this chapter to present a comprehensive conceptual review. Hence, it will only draw from definitions that seem helpful in relation to the use of wildlife species. Hughes (1976) defines animal welfare as a state of complete physical and mental health in which an animal is in harmony with its environment. Carpenter (1980) proposes a working definition of animal welfare asserting that it is the state of an animal when trying to adapt to an environment imposed or modified by human action. This is a very important concept but one which is not widely accepted. Adaptive capabilities are determined by natural selection and are, therefore, intimately related to the natural changes in the environment in which a species evolved. In turn, the artificial selection that creates domestic animals is partly orientated to positively select attributes that allow them to tolerate an artificial environment. In wild species, human intervention can pose challenges for which the animals may have insufficient adaptive resources. This could lead to suffering, either because the animal cannot cope with a given situation or because its adaptive capabilities are thwarted. Suffering occurs when an animal has a subjective aversive experience that is too acute or too prolonged for it to easily cope with (Dawkins, 1980). A simple example may help. Vicuñas have two main ways of coping with the cold environment in which they live: their fleece and their mobility (Wilson, 1989). If a vicuña is shorn and kept in a pen, it loses both adaptive responses: it no longer has the insulation of the fleece and its ability to look for shelter is thwarted unless shelter is provided in the pen. This may cause suffering and, in extreme cases, death (Bonacic and Gimpel, 2001; Bonacic et al., 2003). In the United Kingdom, the concept of the Five Freedoms was developed to set the minimum standards that must be considered when managing farmed animals (Webster, 1995). The five freedoms are: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Freedom from hunger and thirst Freedom from discomfort Freedom from pain, injury or disease Freedom to express normal behaviour Freedom from fear and distress

5 Animal Welfare and the Sustainable Use of the Vicuña

51

These standards involve aspects such as housing, feeding, husbandry, disease prevention and control, management, slaughter, etc. Although the concepts were developed through thinking about domestic animals, the principles have sometimes been used as the starting point to design the management guidelines for laboratory animals, pets and sport animals; in other words, for all animals that are under the care of humans. We believe that it is also valid to use them to set appropriate standards for wildlife management given the human intervention involved, and providing the particularities of this kind of animal exploitation are considered. When applying the five freedoms to wild animal management, what problems may arise? 1. Freedom from hunger and thirst. Welfare could be compromised as a consequence of human action interfering with prey or food density or ecological niche resource availability, preventing access to watering points; or by limiting the access of the animals to those resources to which they are adapted. 2. Freedom from discomfort and pain. Discomfort and pain could be caused directly by humans due to the capture system, manipulation or captivity of a wild animal. 3. Freedom from injury and disease. Injury and disease could be directly attributable to humans as a consequence of hunting practices; due to an animal’s exposure to an inadequate infrastructure, or an inappropriate management system; or by exposure, directly or indirectly, to contaminants or pathogens derived from domestic animals or humans. In addition, the close contact with conspecifics caused by confinement could also increase the risk of disease transmission and inter-animal aggression. 4. Freedom to express their normal behaviour. Animals should have adequate space and ecological niche resources that allow them to perform normal behaviours such as territorial defence, use of vantage points, sleeping and feeding sites, etc. 5. Freedom from fear and distress. For a wild animal, this freedom implies that human contact must be kept to a minimum. There should be a protocol to assess any changes in the animal’s behavioural and/or physiological expression as an indirect measure of potential suffering due to aversion, fear or anxiety during capture or captivity. Animal welfare science commonly studies the effect of different management practices or anthropogenic changes on animals and aims to generate solutions to the welfare problems identified. It does this by implementing action protocols that are designed to improve the way in which animals are kept and managed, and thus reduce the impact of these systems on the animals concerned.

5.3

The Relationship Between Animal Welfare, Conservation and Sustainable use

The rescue of the vicuña from near extinction has been a notable success story of wildlife conservation. One key aim of any sustainable management protocol for the vicuña is to produce an economic return to the local communities that have protected the species

52

C. Bonacic et al.

on their land for decades. Increasing populations are, however, raising new challenges for effective management as emphasis shifts from protection to sustainable use. Internationally, policy development has followed the community-based conservation paradigm, which holds that economic benefits from wildlife management practices bring greater commitment on the part of local communities to protect both the species and its habitat. However, sustainability is not guaranteed by indiscriminate use, and both education and regulation are required to prevent the proliferation of unsustainable practices. Community wildlife management does not replace conservation, but it does fundamentally alter the nature of the task that conservation agencies face (Laker et al., 2003, Laker et al., 2006). Traditionally, animal conservation and animal welfare are considered as separate issues, and sometimes even seem to be in opposition to one another (Bonacic and Gimpel, 1995) (see Fig. 5.1). Conservation and wildlife management are focused mainly at the population level (Caughley and Gunn, 1996). Their aim is to try and understand the causes of wild species’ decline and how the human factor might affect that (Caughley and Sinclair, 1994). Animal welfare, on the other hand, concentrates on how human actions affect individuals (Broom and Johnson, 1993). Thus, under these conditions, animal welfare is not usually considered an important issue unless the whole population of a species is so small that the welfare of a particular individual or group is key to that species’ survival. Therefore, there is not much information about (nor has there been much interest in) the study of animal welfare in wild species subject to human intervention, such as vicuña, given that they are now relatively abundant in the wild. Notwithstanding this, in countries where there is more awareness about animal welfare, the use of wildlife with an economic purpose has raised great scientific and public interest. Therefore, there is a growing concern about topics related to the ethics and acceptability of these utilisation systems (Nassar-Montoya and Crane, 2000). Conservation Activities / W ildlife Management Animal welfare

Conservation

? Population

Individual

Sustainability

Fig. 5.1 Representation of the potential dilemma between conservation effects on populations and animal welfare concerns which focus on the individual. An appropriate balance needs to be struck to deliver a sustainable wildlife management system.

5 Animal Welfare and the Sustainable Use of the Vicuña

53

In the case of the vicuña, sustainable use as a paradigm seems to be a noncontroversial outcome following 30 years of protection. Sustainable use is linked to the recovery of the formerly endangered vicuña in vast areas of the altiplano of Argentina, Bolivia, Chile and Peru. This is also a rather unique experience of wildlife use, in that animals are not killed, but captured and released back into the wild. However, little attention has been paid to any potential animal welfare problems related to capture, fencing in wild vicuñas or translocating and raising vicuñas in captivity. There is no evident link between sustainable use and animal welfare because most of the current political discussion is now driven by consideration of potential direct economic benefits and ways of increasing fibre production from more herds, either from animals captured, shorn and released back into the wild or through captive farming. If the animal welfare concern is raised at all in any technical discussion, there seems to be little awareness by animal production professionals and government authorities that poor welfare standards can compromise population viability and key production factors in the long term (birth rate, mortality, low fertility). The challenge will be to demonstrate that acceptable animal welfare standards are an asset that supports the production process, rather than a drawback. For example, they could be linked to product value. Sustainable use a wild species requires that the animals maintain their productive capabilities in conditions compatible with genetic diversity and long-term viability, both of the species itself and the ecosystem that supports it. The concept also implies the equitable distribution of financial profits and that monetary return is of a sufficient magnitude to justify the use of the species (Lichtenstein et al., 2001). Various factors may lead to conflict between stakeholders and the risk of a lack of engagement with important conservation and animal welfare lobby groups. These include unclear regional regulations with no common strategy against poaching and little influence from the consumer on how benefits are distributed and how the species is conserved. The classic definition of sustainable use embodies three core ideas: ecological, economic and social sustainability. However, as society evolves, new challenges arise and many concepts need to be refined in order to incorporate new paradigms. Our belief is that sustainable use should also include an ethical component (see Fig. 5.2). Ethical sustainability implies that the process of (in this case) vicuña exploitation should be ethically acceptable both to the society closely related to the origin of the product and to the ultimate consumer. In relation to the former, it is essential to consider ancestral traditions of the local community when conducting an utilisation programme of a wild species and to include these people at certain levels of decision making regarding the activity plan. At the other end of the production chain, it is also important to examine the perception and attitudes towards the product by the society that consumes it, since failure to appreciate this aspect could jeopardise commercialisation and ultimately the success of the whole venture. Ethical sustainability adds new dimensions to ecological and, in this particular case, vicuña population sustainability. It recognises the multiple values and roles of the species and its environment. Ethical sustainability implies, in practical terms, that vicuña should be protected, used wisely and maintained as the main component

54

C. Bonacic et al. Ecological sustainability

Social sustainability

Sustainable use

Ethical sustainability

Economic sustainability

Fig. 5.2 Recognising the importance of the ethical dimension in a more complete definition of sustainable use.

of a unique ecosystem. Vicuñas play more than one single role (i.e. fibre production); indeed, cultural, aesthetic and ecological roles should also be considered when policy makers and governments decide the fate of the species and the role that vicuña may play for local communities.

5.4

Animal Welfare in the Particular Case of the Vicuña Management Programme

The current sustainable use programme, as described elsewhere in this book, is intended to provide economic benefits to local indigenous communities, thereby fostering the species’ conservation. The sustainability of this programme is being criticised (Lichtenstein and Vilá, 2003) despite the fact that it seems capture, shearing and release back to the wild are not detrimental to the species as is the case with sustainable use in some other South American ungulates (see Altrichter, 2005). However, several aspects of the effects of capture for shearing on wild vicuña are still unknown. In general, capturing wild animals and placing them in captivity (either briefly in the case of wild harvesting or permanently when setting up a farm) exposes them to a variety of stressors grouped in three categories: physical, physiological and psychological (Bonacic et al., 2006). These stressors can result from the effects of capture, manipulation, restraint, drug immobilisation, extreme temperatures, novel odours and noises, etc. They might increase the risk of shock, capture myopathy and immunosuppression, among others. It is very important to consider the current state of knowledge when a new species is going to be managed, for example nutritional and habitat requirements, social organisation, territorial behaviour, etc. Neglecting these could cause high incidences of mortality during capture, disease post capture and suffering during the process (Gimpel and Bonacic 2006).

5 Animal Welfare and the Sustainable Use of the Vicuña

55

The impact of capture and restraint on animal welfare is influenced, to some extent, by the degree of adaptation that animals can achieve in human-designed environments, without experiencing any suffering. Since wild vicuñas are driven into human-made facilities, restrained, handled and shorn, it is reasonable to expect that animal welfare problems may occur (Bonacic et al., 2006). Even when an animal has its basic needs fulfilled, such as food provision, and is physically healthy, the difficulty in adapting to (temporary) captivity may be detrimental to its welfare and possibly affect aspects like reproduction, leading to a long-term impairment. The opposite phenomenon also deserves attention: animals that adapt easily to the captive environment might not be able to cope in the wild again when released (Vilá, 2002). Vicuña management, both in the wild and in captivity, can produce immediate animal welfare problems including pain, injury, behavioural aversion and other behavioural changes due to the effects of capture and manipulation (Bonacic, 2000; Bonacic et al., 2006). In captivity, there is the possibility of not having adequate access to food and water (remember these are altiplano conditions, i.e. very marginal environments in terms of vegetation cover and food availability, Bonacic et al., 2002; Borgnia et al., 2004). There is also an increased risk of disease transmission from possible contact with domestic cattle and also through increased conspecific contact (Marcoppido et al., 2004; Parreño et al., 2006). Movement restrictions, limited ability to select habitat and changes in group composition due to human intervention also have the potential to impair welfare (Gimpel and Bonacic, 2006). In practice, management decisions taken either for wildlife use or for farming may trigger a physiological endocrine response in the animal. This is evoked to allow the animal to cope with the new stimuli and is termed the “stress response”. Stress in wild ungulates is being increasingly recognised as it is in wild carnivores and birds (Bailey et al., 1996; DeNicola and Swihart, 1997; Grigor et al., 1998; Little et al., 1998). In ungulates, such as red deer (Cervus elaphus) and white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), capture and immobilisation are known to result in a stress response, as indicated by changes in haematological and biochemical constituents (Wesson et al., 1979; Vassart et al., 1992; Beringer et al., 1996; DeNicola and Swihart, 1997; Marco et al., 1998). Changes in biological and haematological parameters vary according to the capture method, species and previous capture experience of the animals (Morton et al., 1995). Several physiological variables are affected by capture stress in a manner similar to stress induced by exercise. In a variety of species, it has been recorded that the variables that change immediately are core body temperature (as reflected by rectal temperature), cathecholamine concentrations, heart rate, respiratory rate and packed cell volume (PCV) (Eckert and Randall, 1983; Radostits et al., 1994; Schmidt-Nielsen, 1997; Harris et al., 1999). A less acute response (i.e. from minutes to hours) is observed in blood glucose, plasma cortisol concentrations and creatine kinase (CK) activity (Coles, 1980; Kaneko et al., 1997; Bateson and Wise, 1998; Harris et al., 1999). Finally, some parameters may change within hours to days, such as aspartate aminotransferase (AST), total protein and blood urea nitrogen (Kaneko et al., 1997; Harris et al., 1999).

56

C. Bonacic et al.

A key factor, regardless the chosen system of use (shearing wild animals or farming them), implies that the animals must be captured at some point. Studies with vicuña, conducted since 1995, have shown that five variables were affected by capture when compared with baseline values from captive animals (Bonacic and Macdonald, 2003; Bonacic et al., 2003). Rectal temperature, heart rate, respiratory rate, CK activity and plasma cortisol concentrations all increased as a result of capture, beyond the normal range described for vicuñas and other South American camelids (Bonacic and Macdonald, 2003). For example, plasma cortisol was 41% higher than baseline values after capture, suggesting an active response to capture. In contrast, blood glucose concentration, PCV, AST activity, plasma protein, blood urea nitrogen, blood cell count, differential white blood cell counts and the neutrophil/lymphocyte (N:L) ratio were within normal ranges suggested for the species (Bonacic et al., 2006). Several independent experiments and measurements during actual capture events for vicuña in Chile, Bolivia and Argentina showed restraining time to be a key factor affecting major changes in physiological variables. According to Bonacic et al. (2006), animals that were restrained in the enclosures had significantly higher CK activity, increased N:L ratio and higher PCV and blood glucose concentrations (see Table 5.1) compared with unrestrained animals. Longer restraint times also caused significant changes in the blood parameters, suggesting excessive exertion. Longer restraint time was positively correlated with an increase in blood enzyme values (CK and AST) and blood parameters (PCV, N:L ratio). Animals with higher CK activities also showed greater concentrations of blood glucose and higher rectal temperatures. The N:L ratio tripled in animals restrained for longer periods and CK activity rose ten times above values recorded from unrestrained animals. Studies on white-tailed deer have shown that PCV and glucose concentration were higher in animals that were manually restrained compared with those that were anaesthetised or killed by shooting (Wesson et al., 1979) and similar results have been reported for other species. In our studies, capture by herding over long distances (more than 4 km), or keeping the animals restrained for periods of more than 15 min, caused more profound changes in physical and blood parameters than did shorter chases and a period of brief restraint (Bonacic et al., 2006). The duration of restraint seemed to be the main factor causing stress and the subsequent risk of exertion myopathy (Harris et al., 1999). Longer restraint times were associated with significantly greater CK activity, PCV and glucose concentrations as has been found in other ungulate species, for example after a prolonged chase (Bradshaw and Bateson, 2000). In addition, animals subjected to longer and faster periods of herding had significantly higher concentrations of cortisol. Thus it is concluded that in a sustainable harvest programme of vicuña fibre, the duration of both herding and restraint should be minimised. It is crucial to understand that these data provide only one point of view of the animal’s state. Physiological markers alone cannot provide adequate evidence on which to assess the welfare status of an animal. For example, raised cortisol concentrations have been recorded following a race, food delivery or mating in a variety of species (e.g. horses and cattle, Bloom et al., 1975; Colborn et al., 1991), and in these cases indicate little about the welfare status of an individual (Moberg, 1985; Møller et al., 1998).

5 Animal Welfare and the Sustainable Use of the Vicuña

57

Table 5.1 Comparison of some blood parameters from vicuñas restrained or free standing when they were captured and enclosed in a corral (modified from Bonacic et al., 2006) Reference values (Bonacic et al. 2003)

Treatment Unrestrained Restrained mean ± SE mean ± SE

Observations Clinical interpretation (Fowler, 1994)

Creatine-kinase 1–4.9 (CK) (IU L ± 1) Neutrophil/lym0.58 phocyte ratio Packed cell 15.6–26.7 volume (%)

4.8 ± 0.1

6.1 ± 0.2

1.5 ± 0.5

3.4 ± 0.5

36.6 ± 0.2

37.7 ± 0.4

Blood glucose (mg dL ± 1)

117.7 ± 3.2

223.5 ± 6.8

A blood marker associated with muscle damage A rough indication of blood cell response to a non-specific stress Indicates an increased number of red blood cells circulating possibly due to splenic release of cells. Also associated with dehydration Glucose levels increase as a non-specific stress response. South American camelids show a glucose response to stress closer to that of a carnivore, than that of a ruminant, and concentrations increase quickly due to cathecholamine action

Blood parameter

102 ± 6.5

Ref: (Bonacic et al., 2003)

Likewise, increased heart rate and core body temperature cannot always be correlated with fear or stress, since animals can significantly increase these parameters during normal behavioural display without a direct indication that this is detrimental in any way. Therefore, physiological data should be complemented with behavioural observations in order to look for signs of aversion, fear, social disruption, etc. As reported by Bonacic and Galaz (2001), 14 groups of vicuña released back into the wild were observed during the three months following capture. Pronounced and lasting variations in group composition were detected. These changes have to be contrasted with natural group variations such as those observed by Vilá and Cassini (1993) and Arzamendia and Vilá (2003) in order to determine if the group resilience is affected by capture and management (Gimpel and Bonacic, 2006). More particular behavioural aspects, such as fear and aversion signs, have been described in transport studies of guanacos and combined with physiological indicators of stress by Zapata et al. (2004). Simple animal welfare recommendations based, not only on the physiological data available, but also on our experience and judgement of the whole capture practice, should help to build up a new paradigm of sustainability where ethical sustainability would also play a role via adherence to animal welfare principles. Experience and judgement as elements of animal welfare recommendations should not be seen as a weakness of the argument; on the contrary this is not particularly different from

58

C. Bonacic et al.

any other discipline within conservation science (McLaren et al., 2007). Conservation recommendations are based on solid data, past experience and sensible judgement while animal welfare science is based on physiological, behavioural and ethical standpoints (Bateson and Wise, 1998; Bonacic et al., 2006).

5.5

Animal Welfare Recommendations for the Sustainable Use of the Vicuña

These recommendations are based on the studies conducted to measure the effect of shearing on the vicuña stress response (Bonacic and Macdonald, 2003) and the experience of the MACS project in Cieneguillas, Argentina (Arzamendia et al., 2004). Our aim is to suggest explicit animal welfare recommendations, even though it is not possible to set exact limits for each activity, because animal welfare consequences of human interventions affect individuals to different degrees rather than populations as a whole (Bonacic et al., 2006), and because, as discussed in Mendl (1991), it is not judicious to use cutoff points in this discipline. A sustainable use programme, based on capture and release of small groups of vicuña with minimal interference with the natural populations and little impact on the welfare of each individual, should be considered the method of choice (Goddard et al., 2003). Strict poaching control and fair distribution of benefits as described elsewhere in this book should also be a priority to reach the so-called sustainability position (Fig. 5.1). The capture and shearing of vicuña is logistically complex and many factors (especially human factors) are involved. Capturing for shearing triggers an acute stress response in the vicuña directly related to the capture method, but if this state is not prolonged, animal welfare issues may not arise. However, undesirable consequences of poor attention to animal welfare standards are given in Bonacic et al. (2006) and Gimpel and Bonacic (2006); i.e.: 1. Injuries and death. 2. Separation of crias (young) from their mothers because of human disturbance (also see Birtles et al., 1998). 3. Muscle damage and body trauma that may subsequently impede escape from predators or proper movement in the wild (e.g. in order to find food or shelter). 4. Crushing and stress of pregnant females predisposing to abortion. 5. Inability to cope with extremes of temperature once shorn. Captures preferably should focus on groups of males and, if family groups are captured, crias and young animals should be handled first and separated immediately into an adjacent corral to avoid crushing during handling. Crias should be released back to the wild with the whole group and should not be sheared. Clearly, rounding up hundreds of animals from different groups may be commercially ideal but is likely to cause stress, injuries and death, particularly in young animals. Blindfolding animals for handling during the shearing process seems to have a

5 Animal Welfare and the Sustainable Use of the Vicuña

59

positive effect in terms of reducing stress and thus should be part of standard practice (see Bonacic and Macdonald, 2003). When chasing the animals into a corral, speed should be limited to 40 km h-1 or less and the distance of motor vehicle chases should be less than 3 km (Bonacic et al., 2006). Minimising the use of restraint (no more than 15 min per animal) should always be attempted.

5.6

Conclusion

Western societies are increasingly concerned about biodiversity and particularly about animal welfare but rarely are these two issues considered concomitantly. An inadequate management system for vicuña in a sustainable use programme could result in problems with animal welfare, population stability and marketing since the products are offered as coming from “sustainable sheared and released back to the wild vicuña”. The textile industry trades in products from vicuña in Europe and markets them as acceptable to an ethical market (J Sudgen, pers. commun., 2005). Indeed, if not adequately addressed, animal welfare concerns could become a negative factor instead of a useful tool for encouraging better practice. In the long run, sustainability might be questioned if local authorities do not implement some basic welfare standards and prevent the escalation of poaching in the region, since this has the potential to undermine legitimate markets for high-quality products.

References Altrichter M (2005) The sustainability of subsistence hunting of peccaries in the Argentine Chaco. Biological Conservation 126:351–362 Arzamendia Y, Vilá B (2003) Vicuñas wild management in the altiplano of Cieneguillas, Jujuy, Argentina. Proceedings of the Third International Wildlife Management Congress. Christchurch, New Zealand. 1–5 December. pp. 132–136 Arzamendia Y, Maidana R, Vilá B, Bonacic C (2004) Wild vicuñas management in Cieneguillas, Jujuy (Argentina). Libro de actas de 4to Seminario Internacional de Camélidos Sudamericanos y 2do Seminario Internacional del Proyecto DECAMA. Universidad Católica de Córdoba, Córdoba Bailey TA, Samour JH, Naldo J, Howlett JC, Tarik T (1996) Causes of morbidity in bustards in the United Arab Emirates. Avian Diseases 40:121–129 Bateson P, Wise D (1998) Welfare of hunted red deer. Veterinary Record 142:95 Beringer J, Hansen LP, Wilding W, Fischer J, Sheriff SL (1996) Factors affecting capture myopathy in white-tailed deer. Journal of Wildlife Management 60:373–380 Birtles T, Goldspink CR, Gibson S, Holland RK (1998) Calf site selection by red deer (Cervus elaphus) from three contrasting habitats in north-west England: implications for welfare and management. Animal Welfare 7:427–443 Bloom SR, Edwards AV, Hardy RM, Malinowska K, Silver M (1975) Cardiovascular and endocrine response to feeding in young calves. Journal of Physiology 253:135–155 Bonacic C (2000) Manejo sostenible de la vicuña: es posible conciliar la explotación de la especie y el bienestar animal? In: González B, Bas F, Tala C, Iriarte A (eds), Manejo sustentable de la vicuña y el guanaco. Servicio Agrícola y Ganadero, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Fundación para la Innovación Agraria, Santiago, Chile, pp. 193–205

60

C. Bonacic et al.

Bonacic C, Galaz JL (2001) Conservación y manejo de la vicuña en Chile. Conservación y manejo de vicuñas en Sudamérica. In: Galaz JL, Gonzalez G (eds), Actas I Seminario Internacional de aprovechamiento de la fibra. CONAF, Arica, Peru, pp. 121–133 Bonacic C, Gimpel J (1995) Sustainable use of South American wild camelids: theory and practice. Newsletter of the European Fine Fibre Network 5:23–26 Bonacic C, Gimpel J (2001) The response to productive management in the wild vicuña and its animal welfare consequences. In: Garcia F, Cretton P (eds), International Symposium in Animal Production and the Environment and XXVI Meeting of the Society for Animal Production. Sociedad Chiena de Producción Animal, Santiago, pp. 67–76 Bonacic C, Macdonald DW (2003) The physiological impact of wool-harvesting procedures in vicuñas (Vicugna vicugna). Animal Welfare 12:387–402 Bonacic C, Macdonald DW, Galaz J, Sibly RM (2002) Density dependence in the camelid Vicugna vicugna: the recovery of a protected population in Chile. Oryx 36:118–125 Bonacic C, Macdonald DW, Villouta G (2003) Adenocorticotrophin-induced stress response in captive vicuñas (Vicugna vicugna) in the Andes of Chile. Animal Welfare 12:369–385 Bonacic C, Feber R, Macdonald DW (2006) The vicuña (Vicugna vicugna) capture for sustainable use: animal welfare implications. Biological Conservation 129:543–550 Borgnia M, Maggi A, Arriaga M, Vilá BL, Aued B, Cassini MH (2004) Caracterización de la vegetación en la Reserva de la Biósfera Laguna Blanca (Catamarca, Argentina). II Reunión Binacional de Ecología, Sociedad de Ecología Argentina Mendoza, pp. 57–60 Bradshaw EL, Bateson P (2000) Welfare implications of culling red deer (Cervus elaphus). Animal Welfare 9: 3–24 Broom DM, Johnson KG (1993) Stress and Animal Welfare. Animal Behaviour Series. Chapman and Hall, London Carpenter E (1980) Animals and Ethics. Watkins, London Caughley G, Gunn A (1996) Conservation Biology in Theory and Practice. Blackwell, Cambridge, MA Caughley G, Sinclair ARE (1994) Wildlife Ecology and Management. Blackwell, Cambridge, MA Colborn DR, Thompson DL, Jr, Roth TL, Capehart JS, White KL (1991) Responses of cortisol and prolactin to sexual excitement and stress in stallions and geldings. Journal of Animal Science 69:2556–2562 Coles EH (1980) Veterinary clinical pathology. Saunders, Philadelphia, PA CONAF (1991) Estudio de factibilidad técnico-económica para el manejo y aprovechamiento de la vicuña en Chile. Corporacion Nacional Forestal, Ministerio de Agricultura, Santiago Cueto L, Ponce C, Cardich E, Rios M (1985) Management of vicuña: its contribution to rural development in the High Andes of Peru. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome Dawkins M (1980) Animal Suffering. The Science of Animal Welfare. Chapman Hall, London DeNicola A, Swihart R (1997) Capture-induced stress in white-tailed deer. Wildlife Society Bulletin 25:500–503 Eckert R, Randall DJ (1983) Animal Physiology: Mechanisms and Adaptations. Freeman, San Francisco, CA Fowler ME (1994) Physical examination and restraint and handling. Update on llama medicine. Food Animal Practice, The Veterinary Clinics of North America. Saunders, Philadelphia, PA, pp. 309–317 Galaz J (1998) El manejo de la vicuña en Chile. In: Valverde V (ed), La Conservacion de la fauna nativa Chilena: Logros y perspectivas. Corporacion Nacional Forestal, Santiago, p. 178 Gimpel J, Bonacic C (2006) Manejo sostenible de la vicuña bajo estándares de bienestar animal. In: Vilá B (ed), Investigación, conservación y manejo de vicuñas. Proyecto MACS — Universidad Nacional de Lujan, Buenos Aires, Argentina, pp. 113–132 Goddard PJ, Bonacic C, Schuler G, Gimpel J (2003) Animal welfare assessment in managed wildlife: establishing stress indicators for the Andean vicuña. Proceedings of the Third International Wildlife Management Congress. Christchurch, New Zealand, p. 195

5 Animal Welfare and the Sustainable Use of the Vicuña

61

Grigor PN, Goddard PJ, Littlewood CA (1998) The behavioural and physiological reactions of farmed red deer to transport: effects of sex, group size, space allowance and vehicular motion. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 56:281–295 Harris RC, Halliwell TR, Shingleton W, Stickland N, Naylor JRJ (1999) The Physiological Response of Red Deer (Cervus elaphus) to Prolonged Exercise Undertaken During Hunting. R & W Publications (Newmarket), UK Hoffmann RK, Otte KC, Prado CFP, Rios MA (1983) El manejo de la vicuña silvestre. GTZ, Eschborn Hughes BO (1976) Behaviour as an index of welfare. Proceedings of the fifth European Poultry Conference. Poulty Science Association, Malta, pp. 1005–1018 Hurtado L (1987) Notas arqueologicas y etnohistoricas acerca de la vicuña en el antiguo Peru. In: Torres H (ed), Tecnicas para el manejo de la vicuña. IUCN-PNUMA, Santiago, pp. 13–32 Kaneko JJ, Harvey JW, Bruss M (1997) Clinical Biochemistry of Domestic Animals. Academic, London Laker J, Renaudeau d′Arc N, Vilá B (2003) Involving communities in wildlife management in the Andean altiplano through sustainable use of vicuña. Proceedings of the Third International Wildlife Management Congress. Christchurch, New Zealand, p. 35 Laker J, Baldo J, Arzamendia Y, Yacobaccio HD (2006) La vicuña en los Andes. In: Vilá BL (ed), Investigación, conservación y manejo de vicuñas. Proyecto MACS — Universidad Nacional de Lujan, Buenos Aires, Argentina, pp. 37–50 Lichtenstein G, Vilá BL (2003) Vicuna use by Andean communities: an overview. Mountain Research and Development 23:198–202 Lichtenstein G, Oribe F, Grieg-Gran M, Mazzucchelli S (2001) Community management of vicunas in Peru. In: Field R, Warren RJ, Okarma H, Sievert PR (eds), Wildlife, land, and people: priorities for the 21st Century. Proceedings of the Second International Wildlife Management Congress. The Wildlife Society, Bethesda, MD, pp. 213–216 Little SE, Davidson WR, Howerth EW, Rakich PM, Nettles VF (1998) Diseases diagnosed in red foxes from the south-eastern United States. Journal of Wildlife Diseases 34:620–624 Marco I, Vinas L, Velarde R, Pastor J, Lavin S (1998) The stress response to repeated capture in mouflon (Ovis ammon): physiological, haematological and biochemical parameters. Journal of Veterinary Medicine (Series a) Physiology Pathology Clinical Medicine 45:243–253 Marcoppido G, Parreño V, Romero S, D’Amico N, Duro S, Pacienza N, Lager I, Lamas H, Bonacic C, Vilá B (2004) Seroprevalencia de anticuerpos en vicuñas (Vicugna vicugna) silvestres de la Puna Argentina. 4to Seminario Internacional de Camélidos Sudamericanos y 2do Seminario Internacional del Proyecto DECAMA. Publisher Universidad Católica de Córdoba, Córdoba, pp. 80–91 McLaren G, Bonacic C, Rowan A (2007) Animal welfare and conservation: measuring stress in the wild. In: Macdonald DW, Service K (eds), Key Topics in Conservation Biology. Blackwell, Oxford, pp. 120–133 Mendl M (1991) Some problems with the concept of a cut-off point for determining when an animal’s welfare is at risk. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 31:139–146 Moberg GP (1985) Biological response to stress: key to assessment of animal well-being? In: Moberg GP (ed), Animal Stress. American Physiological Society, Bethesda, MD, pp. 27–49 Møller AP, Milinski M, Slater PJB (1998) Stress and Behaviour. Academic, London Morton DJ, Anderson E, Foggin CM, Kock MD, Tiran EP (1995) Plasma cortisol as an indicator of stress due to capture and translocation in wildlife species. Veterinary Record 136:60–63 Nassar-Montoya F, Crane R (2000) Actitudes hacia la fauna en Latinoamérica. Humane Society Press, Washington, DC Parreño V, Marcoppido G, Vilá B (2006) Estudio de la sanidad en camélidos: Avances a partir de la obtención de muestras de camélidos silvestres. In: Vilá BL (ed), Investigación, conservación y manejo de vicuñas. Proyecto MACS — Universidad Nacional de Lujan, Buenos Aires, Argentina, pp. 147–164 Radostits OM, Blood DC, Gay CC (1994) Veterinary Medicine: A Textbook of the Diseases of Cattle, Sheep, Pigs, Goats and Horses. Baillière Tindall, London

62

C. Bonacic et al.

Rebuffi G (1993) Captura de vicuñas en semicautiverio. In: Eaton S (ed), Simposio Internacional Camelidos Sudamericanos. Organización de Estados Americanos, La Paz, pp. 23–27 Schmidt-Nielsen K (1997) Animal Physiology Adaptation and Environment. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge Urquieta B, Cepeda R, Caceres JE, Raggi LA, Rojas JR (1994) Seasonal-variation in some reproductive parameters of male vicuña in the high Andes of northern Chile. Journal of Arid Environments 26:79–87 Urquieta B, Rojas R (1990) Studies on the reproductive physiology of the vicuña (Vicugna vicugna). In: Russell J (ed), Livestock Reproduction in Latin America. International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna, pp. 407–428 Vassart M, Greth A, Anagariyah S, Mollet F (1992) Biochemical parameters following capture myopathy in one Arabian oryx (Oryx leucoryx). Journal of Veterinary Medical Science 54:1233–1235 Vilá BL (2002) La silvestría de las vicuñas: Una característica esencial para su conservación y manejo. Ecología Austral 12:79–82 Vilá BL,Cassini MH (1993) Summer and autumn activity patterns in the vicuña. Studies on Neotropical Fauna and Environment 28:251–258 Webster AJF (1995) Animal Welfare: A Cool Eye Towards Eden. Blackwell, Oxford Wesson J, Scanlon P, Kirkpatrick R, Mosby H (1979) Influence of chemical immobilization and physical restraint on packed cell volume, total protein, glucose, and blood urea nitrogen in blood of white-tailed deer. Canadian Journal of Zoology 57:756–767 Wheeler J, Hoces D (1997) Community participation, sustainable use, and vicuña conservation in Peru. Mountain Research and Development 17:283–287 Wilson RT (1989) Ecophysiology of the Camelidae and Desert Ruminants. Springer, Berlin Zapata B, Gimpel J, Bonacic C, González BA, Riveros JL, Ramírez AM, Bas F, Macdonald DW (2004) The effect of transport on cortisol, glucose, heart rate, leukocytes and body weight in captive-reared guanacos (Lama guanicoe). Animal Welfare 13:439–444

Chapter 6

International Policies and National Legislation Concerning Vicuña Conservation and Exploitation Desmond McNeill, Gabriela Lichtenstein, and Nadine Renaudeau d’ Arc

6.1

From Conservation to Sustainable use

The management of vicuña (Vicugna vicugna) in the Andes is one of the few success stories of international wildlife conservation. The vicuña population recovered from about 10,000 to about 250,000 animals in the period 1965–2005.1 This recovery was achieved through an effective policy framework, which mirrored the development of international conservation regimes, shifting during the period from strict protection to conservation through sustainable use involving local people. It is estimated that in Inca times there were over 2 million vicuñas (see Chap. 3), but this number fell – most dramatically from the 1950s, when there were still an estimated 400,000. The largest numbers have always been found in Peru. Here the rapidly deteriorating situation was brought to the public attention in the mid-1960s. As a result, a reserve was established in Pampa Galeras in 1967, located in the Ayacucho region, with an area of 6,500 ha. Concerns spread also to neighbouring Andean countries, and in 1969 the five countries with vicuña – Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador and Peru – entered into the Convention for the Conservation of the Vicuña, (La Paz, August 16, 1969). The convention not only prohibited international trade in the vicuña, but also prohibited domestic exploitation and mandated the creation of reserves and breeding centres. A network of protected areas for vicuña was created across the different countries and each government developed an Action Plan for their conservation. A year later, on 2 June 1970, the vicuña was listed as endangered under the USA Endangered Species Act (ESA). “Among other things, that listing prohibited US interstate and international commerce in vicuña products” (The United States Fish and Wildlife Service, FWS, 2002, 37696) The 1960s was a period when international concern for wildlife conservation was growing rapidly. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) was drafted following a resolution adopted in

1 Lichtenstein and Renaudeau d’Arc, (in press). The quality of the data varies somewhat by country, and estimates do not always agree. For example, US FWS, citing Nowak, (1991), give a figure of 6,000 in 1965. For more information, see Chapter 3 in this volume.

I.J. Gordon (ed.) The Vicuña, DOI: 10.1007/978-0-387-09476-2_6, © Springer Science + Business Media, LLC 2009

63

64

D. McNeill et al.

1963 at a meeting of members of IUCN (The World Conservation Union). The text was finally agreed in March 1973, and on 1 July 1975 CITES entered in force (see Table 6.1). The vicuña was included in Appendix I of CITES which thereby prohibited all primarily commercial, international trade in vicuña products. CITES is implemented by different countries and regions according to their own legislation (e.g. the European Union, see later). The 1969 Convention for the Conservation of the Vicuña was modified in 1979 (in Lima, 20 December – by four countries, excluding Argentina2), becoming the Convention for the Conservation and Management of the Vicuña (emphasis added). This marked the beginning of a gradual shift away from the total ban on use. To quote the Convention: • Article 1 The Signatory Governments agree that conservation of the vicuña provides an economic production alternative for the benefit of the Andean population and commit themselves to its gradual use under strict State control, applying such technical methods for the management of wildlife as the competent official authorities may determine. Table 6.1 CITES transfers to Appendix I and II at various Conference of the Parties (COP) meetings CITES Argentina Bolivia Chile Peru Ecuador Conference Appendix I implementation (1975) COP6 (1987) Ottawa COP9 (1994) Fort Lauderdale COP10 (1997) Vicuña from Jujuy Geneva Province and captive populations to Appendix II COP12 (2002) Vicuña from Santiago Catamarca Province to Appendix II

Appendix I

Appendix I

Appendix I

Certain populations Appendix II

Certain populations Appendix II All Peruvian populations Appendix II

Appendix I

Certain populations Appendix II

All populations, Populations from Appendix II I Region, Appendix II

Note: CITES Appendix I includes species threatened with extinction. Trade in specimens of these species is permitted only in exceptional circumstances. Appendix II includes species not necessarily threatened with extinction, but in which trade must be controlled in order to avoid utilisation incompatible with their survival

2

Argentina joined in 1981

6 International Policies and National Legislation

65

• Article 2 The Signatory Governments prohibit the hunting and illegal trade of the vicuña, its products and derivatives within the territory of their respective countries. • Article 3 The Signatory Governments prohibit internal and external trade of the vicuña, its products in their natural state and those manufactured therefrom up to December 31, 1989. In case any of the Parties hereto reaches a vicuña population level, which in terms of management would allow the production of meat, viscera and bones, as well as the processing of skins and wool into cloth, it may proceed to their trade under strict State control. Trade in processed skins and in cloth may be carried out using marks and wefts which are internationally recognisable, registered and/or patented, after coordination with the Parties through the TechnicalAdministrative Commission of the present Convention and in coordination with the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (Washington, 1973). In summary, during the 1970s, trade in vicuña fibre was controlled by Andean legislation, international legislation (CITES) and legislation by the world’s most powerful economies (USA and EU). The combination of these measures was extremely successful, resulting in a substantial growth in the total vicuña population. In the 1980s, there was a paradigm shift – in conservation policy in general – away from costly state-centred control towards approaches in which local people played a much more active role (Wells and Brandon, 1992). Over the years a strong consensus developed that local people should be involved in management decisions and that they must derive economic benefits. Community participation forms the core of this new paradigm (Chambers, 1997). Participation of community members was assumed to enable communities to regain control over natural resources while at the same time strengthening their decision-making capabilities, advancing their involvement in project activities and improving their economic welfare (Wainwright and Wehrmeyer, 1998). The same approach was favoured also for vicuña. There were also practical reasons related to the involvement of local people. The area of the Puna, where the vicuñas are to be found, covers 20.5 million ha (Federal Register, 1999). Government authorities realised that the armed park-guard model was inadequate for providing extensive protection from poaching in such a vast area; and that the communities on whose land the vicuña lived had to receive benefits if they were to have an interest in vicuña conservation. Considering that the Puna is a resource-poor area with very few economic alternatives for local people, the possibility of generating income from the proceeds of the sale of vicuña fibre created great economic expectations among local people and National Governments. As in similar projects, it was hoped that this approach would correct the failings of the pure conservation approach and offer pathways to community development. As the vicuña population gradually increased, the shift to a policy of “sustainable use”, with the involvement of local people, became enshrined in legislation. At the Conference of the Parties (COP) in 1987, certain populations in Chile and Peru were transferred from Appendix I to Appendix II, i.e. reclassified from “endangered” to “threatened” (see Table 6.1). At subsequent COPs further transfers were made:

66

D. McNeill et al.

• The remaining populations in Peru in 1994 • Certain populations in Argentina and Bolivia in 1997 • All of the vicuña in Bolivia and certain populations in Argentina, and Chile in April 2002 These policy changes allowed the resumption of trade, under carefully controlled conditions. Early in this period, the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) also entered into force (June 1992, at the UN Conference on Environment and Development, Rio de Janeiro). This had some implications for policy formulation at national level. For example, following the signature of the CBD, Bolivia passed its first Environmental Law. Towards the end of the period (1999) the United States Department of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) also reconsidered its rule. The USA is both a major potential market for vicuña products and an influential force in international wildlife policy, and the Endangered Species Act (ESA) imposed more stringent requirements than CITES. A separate decision had, therefore, to be made by the United States. In September 1999, the FWS proposed for consideration a reclassification of certain vicuña populations from endangered to threatened. In May 2002, having obtained evidence from a number of sources, they concluded that such a reclassification should indeed be made – for Bolivia, Chile, Peru and some populations in Argentina.3 A central issue in this debate was the choice between captive and wild management for the exploitation of the vicuña, rather than for continued conservation; the case of Argentina was particularly controversial. The decision to reclassify vicuña as threatened became effective on 1 July 2002. The European Union (EU) implements CITES via Council regulations (EC) N0 338/97 and Commission Regulation (EC) No 1808/2001. Under these regulations, import permits are required prior to import of all CITES Appendix II species. This “stronger domestic measure” allows EU Member States to check and make an initial decision on whether to accept a shipment before it has been exported. EU Member States can also suspend imports in cases where a determination has been made by the Scientific Review Group of the EU Member States that such imports might be detrimental to a species’ wild population. The Scientific Review Group, which considers information on trade levels, status and biology includes representatives from each EU CITES Scientific Authority. The EU has thus developed an independent and frequent “significant trade review process”. The legislation of powerful importing countries (USA, EU) is in fact probably the most stringent with regard to the exploitation of the vicuña.4

3 Ecuador was excluded. There is at present only a very small population of vicuña in this country. They reported 2,455 vicuña at the XXIII Annual Meeting of the Vicuña Convention. 4 As commentators have noted, with increasing globalization and trade liberalization, arguments regarding the role of and right to impose stronger domestic measures are being heard with greater frequency. These stricter domestic measures effectively over-ride what has been internationally agreed, and can nullify the purpose for which states come together to form conventions.

6 International Policies and National Legislation

67

In summary, this is a story of national and international legislation which was mutually supportive and which very successfully conserved the vicuña population, and rebuilt it to a level where the fibre could once again be harvested without jeopardising the conservation status of the species. The effectiveness of these measures is indicated by the figures in Chap. 3, showing the increase in vicuña numbers over time. Although experience varied somewhat between countries, all show the same pattern – of effective rebuilding of the vicuña population. But at the beginning of the twenty-first century, with the shift from a total ban on trade in vicuña fibre to a policy of “sustainable use”, differences in policy and practice began to emerge more clearly. Broadly, one may say that both in the first stage, of conservation, and in the subsequent stage of sustainable use, Peru has been the leader, followed by Chile, Bolivia and Argentina. But in the new sustainable use stage, some differences began to emerge within and between the four countries. And as controls become relaxed even more one may anticipate that further differences – and even conflicts – may emerge, reflecting the interests, and relative strengths, of the different actors. The current situation may be summarised by comparing legislation in the four countries.

6.2

Comparative Analysis of National Legislation

The Vicuña Convention was implemented in each country in accordance with its own National Legislation. The ownership status of the vicuña varies somewhat; as a wild species, it is the property of the State in Peru and Bolivia, and res nullius (without owner) in Chile and Argentina (see Table 6.2). Although all the conservation aspects of the Vicuña Convention are embodied in National Laws and Decrees in all four countries, this is not always the case as regards granting benefits to local people (another of the stated aims of the Convention, Article I).5 See Tables 6.3 and 6.4 for an overview of relevant laws in the four countries.

Table 6.2 Overview of relevant laws Argentina Wildlife ownership Benefits to Andean communities Conservation

Chile

Bolivia

Res nullius No special laws

Peru State ownership

No

-------------

Custodianship National laws

Custodianship Ownership -------------

5 We are informed that in the case of Chile, it is against the National Constitution to assign special rights to a particular group of people.

68

D. McNeill et al.

Table 6.3 Legal instruments used to ratify international conventions Legal instrument Argentina Bolivia Chile

Peru

Convenio para la conservación de la vicuña Convenio para la conservación y Manejo de la Vicuña CITES

Law 19.282/71

SD 8992 and 58/69

SD No 63, 1973

RS 0679–79, 1969

Law 23.582/88

SD 17625/808

SD. N0 3.530 1980

DL No 22984

Law 22.344/80

SD 16464/79

Law 21080

Convention on Biological Diversity Convention for Migratory Species

Law 24.375/94

Law 1580/94

D.L. N0 873/75 1975 SD No 1963/95

Law 24375/94

Law 23.918/91

Law 2357/02

SD. N0 868/81

SD 002–97-RE

SD Supreme decree, DL Decree law

Table 6.4 National laws pertaining to vicuña use and conservation Issue

Argentina

Bolivia

Chile

Perua

Resource ownership

Article 124 National Constitution Law 22421, Decree 666/97

SD 24529/97

Res nullius Civil code

Law 26496 SD 007–96-AG

Civil code 1888 Law 4601/29, Decree 4844 Law 19.473/96

Law 26496 SD 007–96-AG

Law 4601/29, Decree 4844

SD 034– 2004-AG

Law 19.473/96

Law 26821

Law 4601/29, Decree 4844

Law 26496

Law 12301/75 SD 24529/97 SD 22641/90 (ban) SD 25468/99 (lift of ban) Movement of live Law 22421, SD 24529/97 animals/ Decree SD 22641/90 products 666/97, 62/86 (ban) SD 25468/99 (lift of ban) Sustainable use Article 41 Law 1715/1996 National SD 24529/97 Constitution SD 22641/90 (ban) SD 25468/99 (lift of ban) AR 027/2001 Commercialisation Law 22421, SD 24529/97 Decree 666/97

Hunting

(continued)

6 International Policies and National Legislation Table 6.4 (continued) Issue Argentina

Bolivia

69

Chile

Perua SD 007–96-AG SD 0532000-AG SD 008– 2004-AG SD N° 0062005-AG

Exports

Law 22421, Decree 666/97

SD 24529/97 SD 22641/90 (ban) SD 25468/99 (lift of ban)

Law 19.473/96 Livestock protection law

Benefits of use

National Constitution

National Constitution

National Constitution

Law 26496 SD 007—96AG SD 053— 2000-AG

Forest Law, 4363/31

Law 26834

(Article 171/94) SD 24529/97 Reserve creation

Law 12301/75 SD 24781/97

Conservation

Law 22421, SD 24529/97 Law 19.473/96 SD 034Decree 666/97 Law 1333/92 Environment 2004-AG Resolución Law 144/83 a Source: Hoces (2005). Legislación actual sobre camélidos sudamericanos silvestres vicuña y guanaco. CONOPA. CONACS 2005. Informe XXIV Reunión Ordinaria del Convenio de la vicuña

There are numerous laws in each country which impinge, directly or indirectly, on the use of vicuña. Most of these fall under the heading of ownership and use of resources – either the vicuña themselves or the land which they graze. These may be summarised as follows.

6.2.1

Argentina

The legal framework for vicuña conservation in Argentina consists of laws and regulations at international, national and provincial level. The Constitution of Argentina, reformed in 1994, ensures the rights of the provinces over their respective natural resources, and the rights of indigenous people to use these natural resources in traditional ways, and embraces the principles of conservation of biological diversity and the sustainable use of natural resources. The National Law for the Conservation of Fauna declares wildlife res nullius i.e. without owner. This law classifies vicuña as a vulnerable species, and also regulates, at national level, commerce, hunting, inter-provincial movement of animals and exports and imports of wild species. However, this law has limited application since Argentina is a federal country. The five provinces in Argentina where vicuñas live

70

D. McNeill et al.

(Jujuy, Salta, Catarmaca, La Rioja and San Juan) have autonomous authority over vicuña conservation and management decisions. Several laws and decrees within these provinces list the vicuña as a protected species, prohibiting hunting, commercialisation and transportation or manufacturing of parts or products from hunted animals, regardless of origin. But the federal nature of the country makes it difficult to carry out joint programmes between the State and the provinces. As a result, there is no Vicuña National Management Plan. The first national vicuña census ever organised in Argentina took place in 2006–7. There are no special laws concerning property rights over the vicuña, nor specific laws that grant benefits to Andean people. This, therefore, enables local inhabitants who are neither “indigenous” nor from a “low income family” to take part in the projects (McNeill and Lichtenstein, 2003; see also Chap. 7). The main beneficiaries of vicuña use are the CEA INTA Abrapampa, fifteen breeding ranch owners and a few local inhabitants of the provinces with on-going vicuña management operations (e.g. the Cooperative Los Pioneros in Jujuy). These groups have rights over the fibre produced from live-shorn animals, but not property rights over the live animals.

6.2.2

Bolivia

Following the positive results of conservation policy revealed in the national census, and the re-classification in 1997 of three target vicuña populations to CITES Appendix II,6 the Vicuña National Regulation7 was enacted to provide the national legal framework for Vicuña Conservation and Management. This specific National Regulation reflects the alignment of the Vicuña Convention signed in 1979 with the national policy framework that emerged after the amendment of the Constitution in 1994 to embrace the concepts of sustainable use and community participation in conservation. As a wild species, vicuña is a public property under the original dominion of the State. Under the Vicuña National Regulation, the State vests authority to manage vicuña in local communities8 by issuing a Certificate of Custodianship over those wild vicuña populations living in their communal lands. The unit of custodianship and management is the communal management area, consisting of one or more communities. Vicuña management in the wild was considered the best strategy to maintain the biological and ecological characteristics of populations, and the territorial and

6 In 1996, the vicuña national census recorded that 69% per cent of the total vicuña population (23,293 of 33,844) were located in three target areas: Ulla Ulla and Mauri-Desaguadero located in the department of La Paz, and Lipez-Chichas in the department of Potosi (DNCB 1997a). 7 Authorised by Supreme Decree (DS 24.529, May 1997). 8 These local communities are Quechua- and Aymara-speaking indigenous people.

6 International Policies and National Legislation

71

social configuration of local communities which are characterised by the lack of fences and border markers. From 2002, CITES re-classified all vicuña populations in Bolivia to Appendix II and lifted its quota for export. Under this new international policy framework, all communities with a Certificate of Custodianship have use-rights over the vicuña populations inhabiting their communal land. The Certificate of Custodianship is a legal instrument to promote tenure security by granting to local communities exclusive rights9 to benefit from vicuña fibre, obtained from live-shorn animals. Under the Vicuña National Regulation, government retains the right to store and auction vicuña fibre, which can only be exported as cloth. In Bolivia, there is a lack of technological capacity to transform the fibre into cloth. For the past 5 years10 (2000–2005) government has been debating possible measures to access commercialisation; during this period communities have not reaped any economic benefits from participating in the Vicuña National Programme.

6.2.3

Chile

Wildlife in Chile is res nullius. The first legal instrument that established norms for the capture and use of wild species is the Civil Code from 1888. In its IV Title it states that the domain of wild animals can be acquired through hunting or fishing and it leaves open the possibility of regulating these activities with future legal instruments. The Ley de Caza (Hunting Law) passed in 1929, modified by law No 19.473 passed in 1996, indefinitely closed the hunting season for vicuña throughout the Republic of Chile. Persons possessing, transporting or involved in commercial operations with vicuña products need to prove that such actions are authorised under these laws. Another key regulatory mechanism is the Ley de Bosques (1931) which allowed the creation of National Parks, reserves and natural monuments for the conservation of vulnerable or endangered species. The Servicio Agricola y Ganadero (SAG) of the Ministry of Agriculture is the institution that approves applications for vicuña use, oversees the capture process and registers the quantity of harvested fibre, and provides export permits. Permits are given provided that the management activities are undertaken within a sustainable use framework and ensure the welfare of captured and shorn individuals.

9

Third parties cannot act as representatives of communities. International and national policies became aligned in 2000, when CITES lifted the zero quota for export under certain terms and conditions. 10

72

6.2.4

D. McNeill et al.

Peru

In accordance with the National Constitution (1993), natural resources in Peru belong to the State. Since 1992, communities have been given progressively more control over the vicuña: initially use rights and subsequently property rights. In 1995, President Fujimori signed a landmark Law (26496) that gave rights of use (usufruct) over the vicuña to campesino communities on whose lands they occurred and also gave the campesino communities the responsibility for managing and conserving the species. The mark “Vicuniandes Peru”, and later “Vicuña-Peru” was assigned to Andean communities and multi-communal businesses. In 2000, the Supreme Decree 053 allowed contracts to be drawn up (to be approved by the Ministry of Agriculture), giving usufruct rights to persons and businesses distinct from those campesino communities where such animals occur. In addition, it assigned the “Vicuña-Peru” mark to natural persons who have title to custody or property rights over the vicuña, thus rendering the right over the mark no longer exclusive to the National Vicuña Society and campesino communities.11 Peru does not have a National Management Plan for the vicuña, but a National Strategy for Wild South American Camelids has been in preparation since 2004, in collaboration with CONACS and with support from Netherlands.

6.2.5

A Comparison of the Four Countries

Some interesting differences and similarities emerge from a comparison of the laws of the four countries, of which the following deserve special mention. A general characteristic is that laws regarding land tenure are unclear. In most countries vicuñas inhabit federal land, or private land with un-regularised ownership. The boundaries of private properties or community lands are in many cases not clear, creating uncertainties and disputes about who benefits. Assigning property rights to vicuña is difficult, and practice varies. This is due not only to the nature of the resource (vicuña do not respect artificial boundaries), but also to the weakness of policy frameworks. In the case of Argentina and Chile, for example, the concept of res nullius is unclear, since the mechanisms that would enable the resource to become private property are not specified, neither are the rights of usufruct. Bolivia and Peru have achieved some forms of assignment of property rights which are still under debate. In Bolivia, the State grants exclusive rights to local communities to benefit from vicuña use, but retains the rights to store and sell fibre, and therefore to make these rights effective. In Peru, the vicuña is the property of the communities, but the policy framework enables third parties also to profit from vicuña use; 11

Campesino communities are legally recognized in Peru, and, as of 1998, approximately 3,956 out of 5,666 have legal title to their land.

6 International Policies and National Legislation

73

The implementation of the Vicuña Convention at national level ensures conservation of the vicuña but does not, in all cases, ensure benefits to local people. The extent to which the interests of the local people are secured through legislation varies significantly. Most of the countries lack National Management plans. This is a threat to effective vicuña conservation; without standardised and verifiable criteria for conservation and management of the vicuña, multiple management plans for implementation may be approved without any reference to minimum sustainability criteria for conservation. And in none of the countries are there specific laws concerning animal welfare and animal health relevant to the management of vicuña. This too may pose a threat to long-term sustainability.

6.3

Stakeholders and Their Interests

The laws and policies of the four countries may be seen as the outcome of the shared and competing interests of key stakeholders, and their degree of influence. In this section we summarise these, at international, national and local levels.12

6.3.1

International

• Exporting states. Peru is by far the largest exporter, followed by Argentina and Chile.13 The primary interest of these countries is in maximising the revenues from the sale of vicuña fibre. • Private firms. This includes firms that participate in bidding at auctions and buy vicuña fibre to be exported to Europe (e.g. Pelama Chubut in Argentina and Chile). Other firms process the fibre (mostly in Europe) and turn it into garments (e.g. Loro Piana in Italy).14 There is at present only one firm in Latin America that processes the fibre and produces garments (Inca Tops). • Importing states. The significant countries in terms of potential demand are mainly in the OECD. They are influenced by concerns to preserve the vicuña (along with many other animals) and by the market.15 • Wildlife interest groups. There are a large number of international groups concerned with the conservation of nature generally, or wildlife in particular (notably IUCN and WWF); wildlife trade (CITES); monitoring (WCMC); and poaching

12 The list does not include organizations concerned with development, and more particularly the well-being of indigenous groups, since these have not been of any great significance. 13 Bolivia is not commercializing fibre yet. 14 Until recently, there was in Peru a “Vicuña Consortium”, both buying and processing the fibre. 15 In recent years, since vicuña exports have begun to be permitted, Italy and Japan are the main importing countries, but also others, e.g. Hong Kong, Singapore and China.

74

D. McNeill et al.

(TRAFFIC). Specialist groups concerned with camelids (such as IUCN GECS) are of relatively less significance. • Aid agencies and NGOs. In Bolivia these have played an important role in financially supporting the government to implement the Vicuña National Programme. For example AECI (Spanish Agency for International Cooperation) is currently supporting the vicuña national programme in Apolobamba.

6.3.2

National

• The main authorities responsible in each country are as follows: The National Forest Corporation (CONAF) within the Ministry of Agriculture in Chile; the General Biodiversity Bureau (DGB) within the Ministry of Sustainable Development and Planning in Bolivia; the National Council for South American Camelids (CONACS)16 within the Ministry of Agriculture in Peru; and the Directorate of Wildlife in the National Secretariat of Environment and Sustainable Development within the Ministry of Health and Environment in Argentina. The CITES national authority in each of the countries is responsible for vicuña management at national level. • These national authorities operate within different ministries that are often reorganised. For example, in Argentina, the Secretary of Environment and Sustainable Development was reorganised under the new Ministry of Health and Environment. These changes influence the priority given to vicuña as part of a wildlife conservation and sustainable use programme, and on the distribution and allocation of resources to implement related projects and programmes. • Within each country, a number of other ministries have an interest, especially wildlife/tourism, agriculture, trade and industry. Their objectives differ (broadly between conservation and exploitation). • National NGOs are not usually of great significance, but in Bolivia, for example, there are NGOs interested to support vicuña management by establishing partnerships with communities and prefectures.

6.3.3

Local17

• Government authorities at local level, with varying degrees of autonomy (e.g. decentralised government in Bolivia). • “Indigenous” and other local people on whose land the vicuña are found.

16 17

The CITES authority in Peru was formerly Instituto Nacional de Recursos Naturales (INRENA).

One should perhaps also include poachers, both local and foreign. The issue of poaching is addressed below.

6 International Policies and National Legislation

75

• Local NGOs (very few). • Cooperatives and entrepreneurs (producing and selling vicuña products to tourists). • Firms involved in vicuña capture.18 The policy choices concerning vicuña conservation and exploitation, expressed in the laws described earlier, are the outcome of the interplay between the interests of these different stakeholders. It is clear that these do not always coincide. We may distinguish several major “divides”: • Between international (importing countries) and national (exporting countries). In principle, both agree on a policy of sustainable use. They may not necessarily agree on what constitutes a desirable level of vicuña population and a sustainable rate of off-take – especially if vicuña numbers begin to fall again; and there might be disagreement concerning appropriate management approaches (wild vs. captive management – see Chap. 4). It should also be noted that the zeal with which importing countries pursue sustainable use policy may vary considerably in practice. • Between the four countries. All agree on a policy of sustainable use, and all are interested in the commercialisation of the fibre; but they will compete for the same market (risking a fall in price, if total production increases very greatly). • Trans-boundary issues. The emergence of different systems for vicuña management (with or without enclosures), is creating a serious conflict – both between countries (e.g. Bolivia-Peru) and within the same country (Peru) – regarding use rights over trans-boundary vicuña populations. For example, vicuñas that are wild managed in Bolivia may cross the border and become enclosed in Peru, yielding an unfair distribution of benefits between countries. Key informants in Bolivia assert that bilateral policies need to be planned and implemented so as to align local and national interests, establishing vicuña management regimes in the wild that allow the natural mobility of vicuña across international borders (Renaudeau d’Arc, 2005). This relates to another area of conflict between the four countries, namely poaching, and trans-border movements generally. The borders between the four countries are in the high Andes, and very difficult to control (see below).

6.4

Prospects for the Future

Some of the laws described in Sect. 6.2 are relatively easy to enforce, others are extremely difficult. As the market for vicuña fibre opens up, the potential profits to be made, both from legal and illegal trade, will make it increasingly difficult to enforce some of the laws; but the incentives for successfully implementing sustainable use policies will also be increased. Effective management and the enforcement of laws will 18

This is a recent phenomenon, notably in Peru: private firms that capture vicuña for the communities and are paid in fibre.

76

D. McNeill et al.

be influenced not only by differing interests and incentives, but also by constraints – notably of finance and personnel. Some of the key factors may be briefly identified: • Securing property rights. The current system, wherein some countries’ communities lack secure tenure rights over land and wildlife, provides greater incentives to own domestic livestock (e.g. sheep) than to favour vicuña. Property rights should be secured in such a way as to provide incentives for local people to conserve vicuña. This requires suitable legislation, but also competent implementation of the laws. • Animal welfare. Ensuring animal welfare, notably during shearing, but also at other times in the case of captive management, will be important in order to increase the growth of vicuña population under management (this requires adequate veterinary personnel and equipment). Animal welfare is also inherently important, and may have implications for the “responsible” marketing of the fibre. • Population size. Undertaking censuses of the wild populations (this requires funding and technical expertise, and is particularly difficult where populations straddle national boundaries). • Poaching. Control of poaching, both on-site and in transit (requires adequate personnel and equipment). • Multi-use. Developing vicuña as a resource, both for tourism and for harvesting of fibre (requires finance and technical expertise). • The capacity in each of the four countries to implement stated policies and enforce legislation will vary considerably, according to their varied resources in financial and human terms. In addition, the political situation can substantially affect conditions. Thus, for example, during the period of the “Shining Path” conflict in Peru the number of vicuña in that country fell substantially as controls became difficult to enforce in many areas. In relative terms, Chile and Argentina are best equipped in terms of resources; however, the two countries with a larger vicuña population – Peru and Bolivia – are less well equipped, especially the latter. This variation is significant in relation to poaching, which is likely to be the single most important factor influencing the growth (or possibly decline) of vicuña numbers in the near future, and therefore its conservation status.

6.5

Poaching

Vicuña poaching is problematic in all four countries.19 The difficulty of controlling it is related to the vast extent of the Puna, its topography and the existence of long international borders. Limited human, economic and technical resources make

19 At least 1,252 vicuñas were poached in Peru from June 2004 to July 2005, according to CONACS (Informe a la XXIV Reunion Ordinaria del Convenio de la Vicuna, Republic de Peru).

6 International Policies and National Legislation

77

control ineffective. Several laws and decrees within the countries establish protected areas for the species, prohibit hunting, prohibit commercialisation and transportation or manufacturing of parts or products from hunted animals (see Annexe 6.1). But judges and law-enforcement officers are not always aware of the legislation concerning protection of biodiversity, which results in differing interpretations and applications of the law and unduly light punishments.20 In the case of Argentina, the Departments of Renewable Natural Resources of Jujuy, Salta, Catamarca and La Rioja Provinces have signed agreements with the National Bureau of Fauna and the National Gendarmes, a Federal Law enforcement group, to enforce provisions of Provincial and National laws that prohibit illegal hunting and smuggling. Patrols are conducted in rural areas, border, airports and harbours. Corruption and lack of human and economic resources make it very difficult to control exports, and vicuña fibre and products are probably smuggled in large quantities – as llama (Lama glama) fibre – and exported to Europe or Asia. The fibres of different species of camelids are relatively similar (to the non-specialist), so that personnel with special training and even laboratory equipment is required to identify fibre to species. Measures to reduce or discourage poaching are clearly essential. One is the application of tight controls not only in the producer countries but also in the importing countries. A related measure is transparency in the provision of information concerning the legal market for vicuña fibre, e.g. concerning prices at auction, buyers and producers. Local handicraft production should be encouraged, to maintain an important tradition and source of income, but it is important that this be included under legal trade.

6.6

Conclusion

The campaign to restore vicuña populations in the Andes has been remarkably successful. There is now a transition to a practice of “sustainable use”, and it is most uncertain what will happen in future. Two alternative scenarios may be envisaged. The first, optimistic, scenario is that there will be a continued increase in vicuña numbers 20 In response to this international concern, a workshop was organized by the Directorate of Wildlife, Argentina. Key informants from Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile attended to discuss and identify a list of actions to be taken to address the problems of poaching and illegal trade of vicuña products (VIII Technical Meeting of the Vicuña Convention, 20–22/11/2004). At this meeting it was agreed that the complexity of the poaching issue calls for integration and interchange of information and coordination of activities among all countries, and also within each country, where there is a need for cooperation among authorities in charge of security, customs and politics. Authorities in charge agree also on the importance of local participation in vicuña management in order to get local partners for conservation, and the importance of environmental education (Taller sobre caza furtive y trafico illegal de productos de vicunias. VIII Reunion Tecnica-Convenio de la vicuña. La Quiaca, Septiembre 2004.)

78

D. McNeill et al.

in the four countries, with the rate gradually slowing down to achieve a stable, and high, total population. The resulting fibre will continue to be sold at a high price, both for local processing and export. This will yield benefits both to the local people and to others in the country – the former through sale of fibre, the latter through associated activities, notably in-country local processing, and sale of vicuña products.21 The second, pessimistic, scenario is a rapid increase in poaching. The main reason it has been possible to achieve an effective conservation policy is that there has, until recently, been a total ban. As a result there has been virtually no market for vicuña fibre. The relaxation of the ban on the sale of fibre will not only allow for legal harvesting and sale of vicuña fibre, but also make it far easier to sell illegal fibre. This could have a dramatic impact, depending on the effectiveness of controls in the four countries. As indicated above, this will vary considerably. A very real possibility, therefore, exists that there will be a significant fall in vicuña numbers. Just as it took a long time before legislation reacted to the rapid fall in vicuña numbers 50 years ago, the same could happen again.

References Chambers R (1997) Whose Reality Counts? Putting the First Last. Intermediate Technology, London Lichtenstein G, Renaudeau d’ArcN (in press) Retórica y praxis de la participación local en los proyectos de manejo de vicuñas. Cuadernos XXI del Instituto de Antropología y Pensamiento Latinoamericano Mc NeillD, Lichtenstein G (2003) Local conflicts and international compromises: the sustainable use of vicuña in Argentina. Journal of International Wildlife Law and Policy 6:233–253 Nowak R M (1991) Walker’s Mammals of the World. Fifth edition. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, MD Renaudeau d’ Arc N (2005) Community-based conservation and vicuña management in the Bolivian highlands. PhD Thesis, School of Development Studies, University of East Anglia, Norwich United States Fish and Wildlife Service (2002) Federal Register, May 30, 2002, Vol. 67, number 104 Wainwright C, Wehrmeyer W (1998) Success in integrating conservation and development? A study from Zambia. World Development 26:933–944 Wells M, Brandon K (1992) People and Parks: Linking Protected Area Management with Local Communities, World Bank, Washington, DC

21 Policies that secure benefits to local people are often broadly defined in the Vicuña Convention. In most vicuña management initiatives, however, the implementation guidelines stipulating how to put such policies into practice are unclear (Lichtenstein and Renaudeau d’Arc, in press). Defining the boundaries of vicuña use, and of those authorised to use it, can be thought of as a first step in planning for a fair distribution of benefits (Renaudeau d’’Arc, 2005).

6 International Policies and National Legislation

79

Annexe 6.1 Laws concerning trade in vicuña and vicuña products: The Argentina case Exports are restricted to fibre shorn from live animals, cloth and articles made of cloth, luxury handicrafts and knitted articles. The reverse side of cloth and cloth products must bear the logo adopted by countries signatory to the Vicuña Convention. Articles bought by a foreign tourist at a government authorised store will be exportable as personal accompanying baggage only after a CITES export permit has been obtained (FWS, 2002). If fibre from an authorised captive ranch is sold at auction, the buyer will be issued with a permit from the Provincial Natural Resources Department which the buyer presents to the National Bureau of Fauna to obtain the required CITES permit of export. Argentina, like all other signatory countries of the Convention for the Conservation and Management of Vicuña, has agreed not to export fertile specimens of vicuña. The sole exception was the export of 300 vicuñas to the Republic of Ecuador from Bolivia, Chile and Peru to aid in their vicuña recovery efforts. This was accomplished within the multilateral frameworks of both the Vicuña Convention and the CITES Convention. Product Export permitted? Regulatory policy Live vicuña Vicuña meat

No No

Vicuña fibre from CITES Appendix II Sperm Hides Sport hunting

Yes

Specified in Vicuña Convention Vicuña Convention CITES, FWS, Vicuña Convention CITES, FWS, Vicuña Convention

No No No

CITES, FWS, Vicuña Convention? CITES, FWS, Vicuña Convention National legislation, Vicuña Convention

Chapter 7

Local Participation in Vicuña Management Kristi Anne Stølen, Gabriela Lichtenstein, and Nadine Renaudeau d’Arc

7.1

Introduction

Vicuña management projects and programmes developed in the Andes follow the logic of the community-based conservation (CBC) paradigm (Robinson and Redford, 1991; Western and Wright, 1994; Hulme and Murphree, 2001). This paradigm emerged, in the past two decades, as a strategy to link conservation and community development through local participation and sustainable use. In the case of community-based conservation of vicuña, the assumption is that commercial utilisation of vicuña fibre, obtained from live-shorn animals will generate sufficient benefits to outweigh the burden of conservation and contribute to community development, thus encouraging local people to become partners in conservation. Despite the rapid popularity of vicuña management projects and programmes, developed in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile and Peru, the generation and distribution of benefits to local people has, so far, been limited (Lichtenstein et al., 2002; Lichtenstein and Vilá, 2003; Lichtenstein and Renaudeau d’Arc, 2005a; Renaudeau d’Arc, 2005). This chapter addresses the key limitations of the CBC paradigm for vicuña management in the Andes. In exploring this, the chapter re-examines three cornerstones on which this paradigm is based, by comparing the myths and rhetoric with existing practice. One fundamental assumption of the CBC is that a distinct community, defined as a group of people or social unit with clear defined boundaries, can be identified. This simplification of the term community forms part of an important and debated issue in CBC (Anderson, 1991; Murombedzi, 1991; Agrawal, 2001; Agrawal and Gibson, 1999; Guijt and Shah, 1999). In the vast majority of community-based wildlife management projects, what appears to be a community in terms of size and location may be deeply divided in terms of sociocultural values and control over different kinds of land and natural resources (IIED, 1994; Songorwa, 1999; Mazzucchelli and Ortiz von Halle, 2000). In the case of vicuña management, the Andean community is named as the main beneficiary of vicuña use, but there is no clear definition of what and who the community is. Based on a critical review of this taken-for-granted concept, the question “What is an Andean community today?” will be addressed.

I.J. Gordon (ed.) The Vicuña, DOI: 10.1007/978-0-387-09476-2_7, © Springer Science + Business Media, LLC 2009

81

82

K.A. Stølen et al.

The second important cornerstone of CBC relates to making communities interested in participating in wildlife management projects. Social and economic incentives are used to encourage community members to participate in the conservation programmes (Milner-Gulland and Mace, 1998). Participatory approaches form part of a fundamental shift in development thinking (Chambers, 1983; Oakley, 1991; Chambers, 1993), and participation constitutes a new paradigm of development (Chambers, 1997), embodied in the CBC concept. However, there is also a more recent critique of participation approaches that asks if participation is intrinsically a good thing (especially for the participants); if the focus on getting the techniques right is the principal way of ensuring the success of such approaches (Cooke and Kothari, 2001). The second section addresses the question “What does local participation in Vicuña Management Programmes mean?”. The third core assumption in CBC is that deriving benefits (mainly economic) from wildlife management will result in meaningful benefits to local people and positive attitudes towards conservation, and that this relationship is mutually reinforcing (Ashley, 1998; Salafsky and Wollenberg, 2000). Although economic benefits encourage participation in CBC projects (IIED, 1994; Little, 1994), they do not always imply supportive collaboration (Olson, 1965; Cleaver, 2000). For example, the vast majority of African cases indicates that the traditional economic benefits, generated by CBC, are not at a scale that would adequately compensate local residents for the aggregate direct costs and opportunity costs caused by conservation (Hulme and Murphree, 2001). The chapter assesses the impact of participating in vicuña management on changing people’s attitudes towards vicuña conservation. This is a key issue considering that the main goal of all the programmes is conservation.

7.2

Methods

This chapter is based on fieldwork conducted in Peru during 1998 (Lichtenstein et al., 2002), Bolivia 2001–2003 (Renaudeau d’Arc, 2005) and Argentina in 2001– 2003 (Lichtenstein, 2006). Data collection consisted mainly of 1) Semi-structured interviews with national and local stakeholders involved in vicuña management in the three countries and interviews with key informants; (2) Triangulation of information with data from secondary sources; (3) Participant observation during the capture and shearing season in three communities in Peru; and ten vicuña management communities in Bolivia and (4) A survey of the Proceedings of the Vicuña Convention (1997–2005), national documents from Argentina, Bolivia, and Peru; and international reports (e.g. FWS, CITES).

7.3

The Concept of Community in the Andes

In 1979, Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Peru and Ecuador signed the Convention for the Conservation and Management of the Vicuña (see Chap. 3), and Andean people who had been bearing the burden of vicuña conservation were named as the main

7 Local Participation in Vicuña Management

83

beneficiaries of future vicuña use. The spirit of the Vicuña Convention is reflected in the proposals of the different countries to CITES, where the Andean community is named as the main beneficiary of vicuña management projects. Interestingly, although a clear definition of the target group should be crucial for setting up a CBC programme, the concept of Andean community is not specified in the Vicuña Convention documents or country reports to this convention. What is regarded as a community varies from one country to another and even between regions within the same country, and may change over time, reflecting political and social developments. For example, in Argentina, the so called “local communities” involved in vicuña management may include individual producers who own breeding ranches in Salta or Jujuy provinces; cooperatives that manage vicuña in the wild (e.g. Los Pioneros in Jujuy); and the inhabitants of Laguna Blanca (Catamarca Province) who have joined in the Mesa Local de Vicuña de Laguna Blanca (Dirección de Fauna Silvestre, 2005). Communities are seldom homogenous entities; they are often characterised by internal differences and divisions, for example related to socio-economic status and access to resources, particularly land. In this regard, changes in the land tenure systems have a long history and may have important implications for the way vicuña management systems are implemented, and who are the target beneficiaries from these projects. Currently, the target beneficiaries vary from individual producers or cooperatives in Argentina, to families in Chile and peasant communities in Peru and Bolivia (Renaudeau d’Arc and Lichtenstein, 2008). These variations may be related to changes in the agrarian structure such as agrarian reforms transferring land from haciendas to peasant cooperatives, technological innovations, migration and, more recently, to policies of privatisation (Monge, 1994; Pajuelo, 2000). In Argentina and Chile, where private ownership of land and a land market have existed for a long time, there is a preference for the privatisation and individualisation of land rights (Zoomes and van der Haar, 2000). In these countries, the term community refers primarily to the residential location of target beneficiaries and the neighbourhood, and participation in a system of social relations comprising ceremonial, educational and recreational activities can define community boundaries. However, in recent years, governments in Argentina and Chile have started to change their approach and move, to varying degrees, towards policies of inclusion of indigenous people (Geuder-Ilg and Petermann, 2002). For example, in Argentina, following the recognition of the indigenous peoples’ rights in the 1994 Constitution, the government has established laws that officially recognise collective property rights over specific territories by indigenous groups. Andean communities, especially in highland areas of Peru and Bolivia, still hold communal ownership to land, even though in most cases land is used by family-based households, at least the agricultural land, while pastures continue to be shared by all community members (Alber, 1999). In fact, during the 1990s, there was a tendency towards the liberalisation of land legislation in Peru to create a land market, to facilitate the splitting up of agrarian cooperatives and permitting communal authorities to distribute communal lands (Pajuelo, 2000). In Bolivia, as a result of social pressures, governmental economic liberalisation measures were combined with the recognition of traditional land rights of indigenous people (Kaimowitz et al., 2000).

84

K.A. Stølen et al.

It is usually assumed that where CBC systems have remained viable, and where there are significant elements of their structures still in use, existing resource management regimes may be used as vehicles for conservation (Bennett, 1976; Gadgil, 1987). In the case of Peru and Bolivia, government policy recognises that vicuña conservation is dependent on community management, and that important indigenous groups, the Quechua and Aymara, referred to as indigenous communities, have favoured recovery of the wild vicuña populations (Cardozo, 1954; Wheeler and Hoces, 1997). These communities are usually described as social and territorial organisations, characterised by tightly knit kinship groups possessing specific rights over shared or communal territories recognised by the State. While the communal identity continues to be strong (Pajuelo, 2000), important socio-political processes are cross-cutting these traditional boundaries and, therefore, affecting the community-based conservation model for vicuña management. For example, it is not easy to determine who is a community member and who is not. In Huayopampa, Peru, 30% of the community members are not residents, while a high number of immigrant farmhands, although residents in the area, are not seen as community members (Alber, 1999). The latter have no access to land and are not allowed to participate in the communal assemblies. It is not unusual that in a given community some families own big areas of land, while others have little or no land and thus have to sell their labour in order to maintain themselves and their families. Even in Bolivia, indigenous rural communities1 find themselves in a transitional stage. The traditional local organisation associated with the Ayllu – which is a kinship group comprising descendents from a common ancestor, real or fictitious, who till the land collectively – is affected by ongoing processes of change. Rural–urban migration is affecting local norms and behaviour concerning access to land, as well as local perceptions towards collective action, often leading to the weakening of community ties and responsibilities within the Ayllu. Thus, the official recognition of traditional rights enters into conflict with existing land laws and user rights of the formerly marginalised population groups. Indigenous communities demand regulation of land tenure of at least 34 million ha of farmland in Bolivia (Alcázar, 2006). This is a burning issue that the new2 government plans to address (Alcázar, 2006). From the above discussion we can conclude that there is no straightforward answer to what is an Andean community. What appears to be a traditional community in spatial, socio-cultural or economic terms may be deeply divided with regard to individual, institutional and household interests in, and control over, wild vicuña populations. Because of this, the demarcation of community limits and boundaries in the community-based conservation model for vicuña management is unclear. The meaning of community cannot be taken for granted and it needs to be investigated

1 Approximately 80% of the Bolivian rural population, some 2.5 million people, lives in the rural area of the Altiplano accounting for one-fifth of the territory (INEB, 2001). 2 In December 2005 presidential elections, Evo Morales became the first person of indigenous descent to be elected president of Bolivia.

7 Local Participation in Vicuña Management

85

and specified in each of the countries across which the vicuñas range. The issue of land tenure is basic, but equally important are property and user rights to wild resources such as the vicuña, that certainly need to be considered in the discussion on land tenure.

7.4

The Meaning of Local Participation

The term “participation” appears to be interpreted in different ways by different people. For some “participation” is proposed as a management tool that can help shift costs to recipients, enhancing the project’s effectiveness (Oakley, 1991). For others “participation” evokes recognition and enhancement of people’s ability to speak out, act and determine their own “development” (Nelson and Wright, 1995). Distinguishing who participates, how and at what stages, and in what, becomes crucial for determining the form “participation” takes in practice. Models of participation are often presented as steps along a scale from less to more, ideal types against which to measure participatory development initiatives. Where they are most valuable is in distinguishing merely being told from being asked, being brought into decision-making processes and being able to determine the shape that action takes. Precisely because “participation” can mean so many different things and because multiple understandings easily coexist, it is important to discuss and specify what is meant in a concrete project context (White, 1996; Cornwall, 2001). The term community participation or local participation is now found in most vicuña management project documents, but the concept is seldom if ever discussed, and it is not clear what local participation entails. This section explores the practice of participation in vicuña management projects. Local participation is a broad term, and the requirements of techniques for vicuña capture and shearing render the objectives of participation ambiguous. First, participation can be seen as a tool or means to achieve specific management goals based on efficiency arguments (Uphoff et al., 1998). Participation can be seen, alternatively, as a process that enhances the capacity of individuals to improve or change their livelihoods. The examination of both cases relies on the close exploration of power relationships among various actors along a gradient of community involvement and empowerment (Berkes, 1994; Pretty et al., 1994; Sen and Nielsen, 1996). This continuum goes from cases where a few lucky community members may find temporary employment as guards, or participate in a vicuña capture, to a form of shared agreement between government and communities or co-management. The implementation of vicuña management projects in the region is a process divided into four main stages: conservation, planning, fibre production and processing, as shown in Table 7.1 These stages can be broken down further into activities that involve various degrees and types of participation among local people, government agents and other external actors such as NGOs, researchers and textile enterprises (Renaudeau d’Arc and Lichtenstein, 2005).

86

K.A. Stølen et al.

Table 7.1 Implementation of vicuña management projects Stages

Activities

Key actors

Vicuña conservation

Custodianship Control and monitoring Collecting primary data Census Design of local and national management plansa Investment and infrastructure Capture and shearing Certification Storage Fibre auction Spinning, transformation to cloth and garments and commercialisation Traditional spinning, weaving, and commercialisation of handicrafts

Local people Government External actors

Planning Fibre production and commercialisation

Processing and commercialisation of finished goods

Government External actors Local people Government External actors

Textile enterprises (mainly in Europe) Local people

Source: Lichtenstein and Renaudeau d’Arc (in press) a Argentina, Chile, Ecuador and Peru do not have a National Vicuña Management Plan

In the conservation stage (see Table 7.1), government decides on the conservation activities required to implement the provisions signed under the Vicuña Convention (1979). The protection and increase of vicuña populations and the control of poaching and illegal trade of vicuña products depend on the support of local people who have little influence or control over government directives. This is perceived as a cost for local people, who must allow vicuña to feed on their properties and mingle with their livestock for the sake of their conservation (Lichtenstein and Reneaudeau d’Arc, in press). Planning is the stage when Management Plans are designed and presented to CITES to permit legitimate trade (see Table 7.1). Key decisions are made in relation to the model for vicuña exploitation, the type of infrastructure and equipment, the allocation of costs and benefits between governments and communities. In most of the cases, these key decisions are made by government agencies, sometimes with the aid of researchers, but in most cases with practically no involvement from local people who are invited to participate in these projects at a later stage (Lichtenstein and Reneaudeau d’Arc, in press) The production of fibre relies on a substantial investment in infrastructure such as fencing 1,000 ha in Peru or the materials for building the capture enclosures in Bolivia (Renaudeau d’Arc, 2005) and equipment such as tools and shearing machines (McNeill and Lichtenstein, 2003; Lichtenstein et al., 2002; Renaudeau d’Arc, 2005). These costs can be borne by the State, as in Chile and Bolivia, or by the local people as is the case of the breeding ranches in Argentina and

7 Local Participation in Vicuña Management

87

Peru.3 Capture and shearing depend on the technical support and tight calendars of government.4 In Bolivia, during the period from 1998 to 2002, communities had to adjust to the agenda of the government institution in charge of providing technical support and the certification of fibre obtained by shearing. In the case of Peru, the lack of local capacity-building and enough financial resources from the government agency in charge (CONACS) caused communities to hire private contractors that charge a high percentage of the fibre in exchange for undertaking the capture. In all countries, the government is responsible for the certification of fibre as a measure to control illegal trade. The fibre is pooled together for the national auction that is usually organised by the associations of producers with support from the government (Lichtenstein and Renaudeau d’Arc, in press). The last stage, fibre processing (see Table 7.1), can be done either in a traditional manner or in modern factories. The major part of the fibre is processed in factories and is exported from the Andean Region, going mainly to Italy, where it is processed as cloth and garments. The value increases many times in the process, and vicuña jackets are sold for US$5,000 in the UK. Traditional processing is done in few places such as Belen, in Catamarca Province, Argentina. Here there is an ancient tradition of weaving that results in handicrafts such as scarves and ponchos. The production of vicuña handicrafts is usually not encouraged by governments due to the difficulty of controlling the smuggling of illegal fibre (Renaudeau d’Arc and Lichtenstein, 2008). Examples around the world show that the actual ownership of the protected areas and wildlife very often remains in the hands of the State, and many of the important decisions regarding use rights still remain with central authorities or their local representatives (Murphree, 1994; Strum, 1994). The analysis of participation described earlier in this chapter reveals a lack of involvement by local people in the planning of projects where key decisions are made, and in fibre processing, a key stage for generating added value, as well as a lack of capacity building in the overall vicuña management process. This indicates that many projects are not enacting the philosophy of empowering local people (Lichtenstein and Renaudeau d’ Arc, 2008). Social participation is one of the issues that is supposed to be reported on every year by the vicuña holding countries to the Vicuña Convention. As in the case of “Andean community”, there is no operational definition of social participation. This allows every government to provide its own interpretation of the degree to which social participation occurs in its own country.

3

Since 2005 there has been a policy in Chile to transfer the costs of vicuña management from the State to the beneficiaries. 4 Following welfare standards, shearing activities can only take place in spring after the cold winter and when female pregnancy is not advanced, or in autumn before the winter and when offspring have already been born.

88

7.5

K.A. Stølen et al.

Type of Management and Socio-economic Impacts

The socio-economic impacts of vicuña use will be illustrated with case studies of vicuña management in Argentina and Peru.

7.5.1

Vicuña Captive Breeding in Argentina

In 1989, Argentina initiated a process of privatisation of its main infrastructure services (Chisari et al., 1999). Within a period of 4 years, public services such as telecommunication, oil, gas, electricity, water and sanitation, railways, subways and airlines were transferred from the state to private owners. Vicuña use followed the logic of privatisation, and management plans were designed by the National Institute of Agriculture and Cattle Technology (INTA) at its High Altitude Experimental Station (CEA) in Jujuy Province, which focused on producing fibre from vicuña bred in captivity by individual producers. The main investment in this system is done by the private sector, represented by local producers, and a big Argentinean fibre exporting company that buys all the output and finances fencing materials. The system adopted was purportedly a strategy concordant with the conditions of the Argentine Puna – where lands are owned mainly by individual ranchers, living on scattered farms (see previous section) with low vicuña density.5 Since 1994, 28 vicuña breeding ranches have been established in the Provinces of Salta and Jujuy with the stated aim of improving the economic situation of local people while contributing towards vicuña conservation. The CEA INTA model consists of individual producers maintaining a number of vicuña (ranging from 12 to 36) in fully fenced enclosures of a few hectares (ranging from 0.5 to 10 ha). Mean herd composition consists of 12 castrated males, 2 reproductive males and 10 females. Ranches are not necessarily located in the Puna or in the actual range of the vicuña. Vicuñas are given to the rancher as a loan from the CEA INTA herd. Producers have 7–12 years to return the same number of juvenile vicuña to the CEA INTA station as they were given originally. In 80% of the cases, fencing materials for the installation of corrals are financed by the Argentinian firm that is the principal local buyer of vicuña fibre. Once the vicuñas are shorn, producers sell the fibre to the same firm to pay off the debt on fencing materials (Lichtenstein, 2006).6

5 It may, nevertheless, be argued that wild management is also feasible. In spite of the “individualistic” form of production, there are traditions of cooperative organizations (e.g. cooperatives of llama producers). 6 Repaying the debt can take from 3 to 10 years, depending ofn the amount of money owed to the firm, the number of vicuña shorn, and the proportion of the revenue that is used for repayment (which is by contract specified to be a minimum of 50%).

7 Local Participation in Vicuña Management

89

Although the INTA states that production of vicuña fibre under captive conditions benefits the individual ranchers and is growing in popularity (Rebuffi et al., 1998), interviews with 70% of the ranch owners carried out by G. Lichtenstein revealed contradictory data. Economic returns were far less than anticipated and inadequate to maintain local enthusiasm. An economic assessment of the viability of the captive management model revealed that the annual costs exceed revenues except in the most favourable scenario where there is no need for additional water supply or food supplement; and when the costs of capital and labour for tending the vicuña were ignored (McNeill and Lichtenstein, 2003). Producers with 24 vicuñas need 6–12 years to pay back the fencing material debt (Lichtenstein, 2006). Considering that producers have to give back the same number of vicuña they were given within a period of 7–12 years, the possibility of getting returns diminishes. Vicuña populations in breeding ranches are showing a very small and even negative growth due to low fertility rates and predation. If vicuña populations keep growing so slowly, and the conditions of return are not changed, producers might end up working for 7 years just to pay back the cost of fencing and then they will have to give back the vicuña to the INTA. By 2005, 44.5% of breeding ranches had been closed down either by the INTA or by the producers themselves who decided to return the vicuña to the INTA due to lack of water and good pastures, high predation, high vicuña mortality and low fibre production. The ones that have remained in business are those that (1) have low operating costs (no need to supplement with food or water or wages for tender of livestock); (2) are able to subsidise vicuña use by other economic activities and (3) are getting returns for activities other than selling vicuña fibre to the processing company, such as sales of handicrafts and ecotourism (Lichtenstein and Renaudeau d’Arc, 2005). The people involved in vicuña management are local inhabitants, but very few of the ranch owners could be described as “low income” or “indigenous people”. In most cases, they are influential people in their communities, either public servants, policemen, former military or even professionals (such as a lawyer).7 It would be hard for low-income producers to participate in the corral scheme, since they need to own at least 10 ha of land and to be affluent enough to afford the risk of becoming involved in a long-term, and uncertain, investment. Given the small number of local producers involved and the limited revenues derived from this type of management, the socio-economic impact at the local level is very limited.

7.5.2

Vicuña Management in Peru

Community involvement in vicuña management in Peru has changed over recent years. Since 1992, communities have been given progressively more control over vicuña management, starting with use rights and stewardship and moving to

7

G. Lichtenstein personal observation.

90

K.A. Stølen et al.

property rights over the vicuña. However, in 2000, the exclusive rights over vicuña were taken away from Peruvian Andean communities by the Supreme Decree 53 (DS 53), and the custody and usufruct rights were extended to “natural persons or businesses” that include communal and associative enterprises (Empresas comunales y Asociativas) and private owners on whose land vicuñas live. At present all these groups of beneficiaries co-exist. There are two types of community management of vicuña in Peru: captive management and management in the wild. Until 1995, vicuñas were managed exclusively in the wild, only captured to be shorn and then released. Since 1996, the Consejo Nacional de Camélidos Sudamericanos, CONACS,8 started developing a Programme of Corrals for the Sustainable Use of Vicuña (M.U.S). This programme consists of installing corrals (12 km of perimeter fencing) of 1,000 ha in the communal land from which domestic livestock is withdrawn (CONACS, 1996).9 The corrals were supposed to enclose from 250 to 1,000 vicuña (CONACS, 1996), but in practice they have from 0 to 600 animals (CONACS, 2004). Communities pay US$22,000 for the material to construct the corrals, and provide free labour and communal land. Corrals can be paid for in cash (i.e. through a loan from the government) and/or in vicuña (valued at US$1,000 each). These vicuñas are used for a programme of repopulation that consists of selling animals to communities that want to install a corral (CONACS, 1996). By 2004, 178 communities had joined the captive management program (CONACS, 2004). Communities with large numbers of vicuñas are still managing free ranging vicuña and conducting captures of wild animals. They operate with paid staff, all of whom are community members, and a full time coordinator. These projects have been financed with loans from FONCODES, a social development fund (Lichtenstein et al., 2002). A comparative study of management in the wild and captive management suggested that the former is a better practice in terms of sustainable management of a wild species (Lichtenstein et al., 2002). The economic analysis revealed that management of free-ranging vicuña is a moderately risky venture with a high chance of being profitable in the medium term. Because management includes paying wages to local people, it helps the local economy and provides a direct benefit to those who participate. By not having to remove domestic livestock from the area of the corral, community members suffer no opportunity cost for the management (Lichtenstein et al., 2002). In the case of captive management, local people have to work for free in vicuña capture and the installation of corrals, which represents an opportunity cost in terms of not doing other jobs and removing their livestock from the best communal lands. For communities with 400 vicuñas, corrals are a high risk investment with lowexpected income. For communities with less than 250 vicuñas, corrals are not profitable in any of the above-mentioned scenarios (Lichtenstein et al., 2002).

8

Government agency in charge of camelid management. In practice corrals may vary in size.

9

7 Local Participation in Vicuña Management

91

By 1998, the communities of San Cristobal and Lucanas, which managed vicuña in the wild, had received some benefits, such as money to buy a hydroelectric power plant and to help the local school and hospital, from selling vicuña fibres or live animals to other communities (Lichtenstein et al., 2002). Communities that had adopted captive management (e.g. Para and Huallha) had received no significant benefit. As captive management does not involve capacity building, communities depend on the logistic support given by the CONACS for doing vicuña captures, which restricts the number of captures that they can do each year. Alternatively, they can hire a private company to do the capture at a cost of 40% of the fibre obtained (D. Hoces pers. commun.). Workshops with communities, organised by the researchers, revealed that having to remove the domestic livestock from the corral area is a disincentive for local people, as was the fact that neighbouring communities are fighting over areas to install the corrals. Even though doing communal work is a part of the local tradition, the extent of interest in participating in vicuña captures is decreasing as people realise that they do not receive benefits, at least in the short term. Community-based management of vicuña in Peru is still somewhat limited in practice, as communities rely heavily on technical assistance from Government agencies and have little option but to accept the model of captive management promoted by CONACS. The social advantages normally associated with CBC, such as strengthening of community institutions and capacity building, have not materialised in these cases. There are also signs that captive management programmes may be leading to, or exacerbating, conflicts between communities over land and resource ownership. The exclusion of livestock from corrals has proved contentious, and community members have, in some cases, broken down the fences so that their animals can graze freely. These relationships between government and communities affect the significance of, and attitudes towards, vicuña; and may contribute to the maintenance of poaching (CONACS, 2005).

7.6

Economic Benefits and Attitudes Towards Vicuña Conservation

The relationship between participation, economic benefit and attitudes towards vicuña conservation will be illustrated with reference to case studies in Argentina and Bolivia. Empirical studies suggest that the link between economic or social benefits derived from vicuña use and local people’s attitude towards wild vicuña populations is not that easy to establish (Lichtenstein and Renaudeau d’Arc, 2004). Local people from both Argentina and Bolivia state that the vicuñas are very harmful and express the following complaints: • They have to be chased away from pastures but they come back shortly thereafter.

92

K.A. Stølen et al.

• They eat the best pasture. • They transmit diseases to llamas and sheep. • They bathe in and pollute the drinking points of domestic animals. These complaints indicate that vicuña use, whether organised through captive breeding or wild management, does not have a positive influence on local people’s attitudes towards (or perceptions of) vicuña. In Argentina, breeders as well as nonbreeders expressed the same discontent. The former had a self-interested attitude with regard to vicuña; they did not care about the conservation of the animals outside their own corrals. This result is not surprising when considering that ranchers do not obtain any benefits from having free-ranging vicuña on their properties (if anything, they share the same “costs” as local producers without a ranch). In this country, because of the lack of sufficient earnings, combined with the characteristics of this management system (vicuña breeding by few producers), positive attitudes towards the conservation of vicuña in the wild are not generated either among the “beneficiaries” of the system (local people with breeding ranch), or among the rest of local people. One might even suspect that the lack of incentives for conservation of wild populations contributes to the continuation of poaching and unregulated trade (Lichtenstein, 2006). In the case of Bolivia, vicuña management in the wild has the potential to establish a direct link between vicuña conservation and fibre production, less clearly visualised in the vicuña captive management system established in Argentina. However, local people (whether or not participating in vicuña use) complain about the same problems as in the neighbouring country. While the number of communities interested in participating in vicuña management increased from 1997 to 2002, poaching activities decreased.10 These observations suggest that incentives to participate in vicuña management programmes are not always aligned with positive attitudes towards vicuña conservation; and they are not strictly economic in nature – they may also include the aesthetic, cultural and social value of vicuña associated with community identity, social cohesion and the maintenance of community boundaries (Renaudeau d’Arc, 2005). However, there is no tangible evidence to suggest that the expected economic and non-economic benefits currently derived from participating in vicuña management will be maintained in the future if the lack of fibre commercialisation persists.11

10 Vicuña population increased from 34,543 animals distributed in 3,428,356 ha in 1996 (DNCB 1996) to 56,383 vicuñas in 3,428,356 ha in 2002 (DGB 2002) and, from four communal management areas (CMA) in 1998 to more than ten CMA in 2002 (DGB 2002; Nadine Renaudeau d’Arc, pers. obs.). 11 Under the Vicuña National Regulation (1997), Government retains the right to store and auction vicuña fibre that can only be exported as cloth but there is a lack of technological capacity to process fibre into cloth (Renaudeau d’ Arc, 2005, see Chapter. 3). For the 5 years between 2000 and 2005, Government debated possible measures to access commercialization, but communities have not reaped any economic benefits from participating in the Vicuña National Programme (http://www.mds.gov.bo/DGB/Vicuna).

7 Local Participation in Vicuña Management

93

Both in Bolivia and Argentina local people wanted to limit vicuña movement to ensure that they had exclusive rights to use the animals. This shared perception is probably related to the nature of this particular resource (a wild animal whose mobility over space and through time is unpredictable) and the difficulty of demarcating exclusionary boundaries. This entails a discussion on who owns vicuña and who has rights over its use. In the case of Argentina, producers wanted to capture and fence in all the free-ranging vicuña that grazed in their lands (and outside). In Bolivia, local people say that the mobility of free-ranging vicuña could be “controlled” by providing extra supply of food and water within the communal management area. In these cases, demarcation or exclusion depends upon finding a balance between the benefits of enlarging the size of the communal management area and the costs of internal coordination, which in the absence of economic benefits it is still too costly and difficult (Lichtenstein and Renaudeau d’Arc, 2004). Across all sites and both countries where vicuña and people co-exist, users’ and non-users’ views were generally negative towards wild vicuña populations. These findings indicate that, in practice, a balance has not been achieved between local interests and wider interests and objectives.

7.7

Conclusions

This chapter discusses the limitations of the community-based conservation paradigm for vicuña management in the Andes, which seems to be too simplistic and idealistic. The regional analysis in this chapter reveals that the overall direction of the programmes has not been truly community based. This is a reflection of the fact that the Andean community of today, in most cases, is not a clear-cut social unit with defined boundaries; we have seen that the meaning varies between countries and even regions within countries, and changes over time. Thus, the meaning of community cannot be taken for granted; it has to be investigated and specified. Moreover, special attention should be given to the socio-political processes affecting local contexts. This issue is particularly important when considering the first article of the Vicuña Convention, that the conservation of the vicuña provides an economic production alternative for the benefit of the Andean population (see Chap. 3). Although “Andean people” are meant to be low-income indigenous people, unless this is clearly stated, any person holding land in the Puna or outside (and with no present or past history of interactions with vicuña) could potentially make use of vicuña, as is already starting to happen. Our case studies reveal that community participation in vicuña management reflects rhetoric more than substance and is characterised by some continuation of central government control and management over natural resources rather than a genuine shift in authority to local people. How far the State should retain authority and control over management decisions and usufruct rights over vicuña is a key issue that future policies should address. The wording of policies needs to be

94

K.A. Stølen et al.

reviewed so that they more accurately reflect the alignment of agendas between governments and local people most affected by vicuña management decisions. Moreover, the commitment of allocating benefits to local people, assumed by the Vicuña Convention, needs to be more specifically addressed by national laws. Our findings show that local people are still not obtaining significant economic benefits from legal vicuña use, be it captive management or management in the wild. The distribution of costs and benefits between and within different stakeholder groups should be revised and made more equitable. It is necessary to reach a clear definition of what type of participation projects are aiming for, and who the beneficiaries should be. The current distribution of ownership rights, where communities lack secure tenure rights over land and wildlife, provides more incentives to own domestic livestock (e.g. sheep) than to favour vicuña. Land tenure rights should be secured in order to provide incentives for local people to conserve vicuña. Stronger local organisation capacity and political capital would also enhance outcomes for local people and vicuña conservation. Finally, our results seem to indicate that participation in a vicuña use programme is not necessarily linked to the development of positive attitudes towards conservation. The general assumption that deriving meaningful benefits from wildlife management will result in benefits to local people and incentives for local conservation could not be tested, however, because of the limited extent of benefits generated by the programmes we studied.

References Agrawal A (2001) Common property institutions and sustainable governance of resources.World Development 29:1649–1672 Agrawal A, Gibson CC (1999) Enchantment and disenchantment: the role of community in natural resource conservation. World Development 27:626–649 Alber E (1999) Migración o mobilidad en Huayopampa? Nuevos temas y técnicas en la discusión sobre la comunidad campesina en los Andes. IEP, Lima Alcázar JL (2006) Delays in the land reform a time bomb. Tierramérica, Medio Ambiente y Desarrollo, http://www.tierramerica.net/2005/1112/iarticulo.shtml Anderson BR (1991) Imagined communities: reflections on the origin and spread of nationalism. Verso, London. Ashley C (1998) Intangibles matter: non-financial dividends of community-based natural resource management in Namibia. Report for the World Wildlife Fund Living in Finite Environment (LIFE) Programme, Windhoek Bennett JW (1976) The ecological transition: cultural anthropology and human adaptation. Pergamon, Oxford, UK Berkes F (1994) Co-management: bridging the two solitudes. Northern Perspectives 22:18–20 Cardozo A (1954) Auquénidos. Editorial Centenario, La Paz Chambers R (1983) Rural development: putting the last first. Longman, London, UK Chambers R (1993) Challenging the professions: frontiers for rural development. Intermediate Technology, London Chambers R (1997) Whose reality counts? Putting the last first. Intermediate Technology, London, UK Chisari O, Estache A, Romero C (1999) Winners and losers from utility privatization in Argentina. Lessons from a general equilibrium model. CEER Working Paper Series 3

7 Local Participation in Vicuña Management

95

Cleaver F (2000) Moral ecological rationality, institutions and the management of common property resources. Development and Change 31:361–383 Cooke B, Kothari U (2001) Participation: the new tyranny? Zed Books, London CONACS 1996 Programa de Fortalecimiento de la Competividad Comunal en la Crianza de Vicuñas. Ministerio de Agricultura, Consejo Nacional de Camélidos Sudamericanos. CONACS 2004. Informe XXIII Reunión Ordinaria del Convenio de la Vicuña. Ministerio de Agricultura, Consejo Nacional de Camélidos Sudamericanos CONACS 2005. Informe XXIV Reunión Ordinaria del Convenio de la Vicuña. Ministerio de Agricultura, Consejo Nacional de Camélidos Sudamericanos Cornwall A (2001) Making a difference? Gender and participatory development. IDS Discussion Paper No. 378, Institute of Development Studies, Brighton Dirección de Fauna Silvestre (2005) Secretaria de Ambiente y Desarrollo Sustentable, Argentina. Informe a la XXIV Reunión Ordinaria del Convenio de la Vicuña Gadgil M (1987) Diversity: cultural and ecological. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 2:369–373 Geuder-Ilg E, Petermann T (2002) Land tenure and natural resource management: the experience of the DSE/ZEL. Development and Cooperation 2:8–10 Guijt I, Shah MK (1999) The myth of community. Gender issues in participatory development. Intermediate Technology, London Hulme D, Murphree M (2001) African wildlife and livelihoods:the promise and performance of community conservation. James Currey, Oxford IIED (1994) Whose Eden? An overview of community approaches to wildlife management. International Institute for Environment and Development, London INEB (2001) Censo 2001. Población por organizaciones comunitarias y localidades. Instituto Nacional de Estadística de Bolivia, http://www.ine.gov.bo/cgi-bin/PobComunitLocalidadesADAxx. exe(accessed: 30 March 2002) Kaimowitz D, Flores ER, Johnson J, Pacheco P, Pavez I, Montgomery Roper J, Vallejos C, Velez R (2000) Local government and biodiversity conservation: a case from the Bolivian lowlands. Biodiversity Support Program, WWF, Washingon, DC Lichtenstein, G. y B. M. Vila (2003). Vicuna use by Andean communities: an overview. Mountain Research and Development, Vol 23, N 2, 198–202 Lichtenstein, G y N. Renaudeau d’Arc. 2008. Retórica y praxix de la particippción local en los proyectos de manejo de vicuñas. Cuadernos XXI del Instituto de Antropología y Pensamiento Latinoamericano 21(133–141) Lichtenstein G (2006) El manejo de vicuñas en cautiverio: El modelo de criaderos del CEA INTA (Argentina). In: Vilá B (ed), Investigación, conservación y manejo de la vicuña. Proyecto MACS, Talleres Gráficos Leograf, Valentin Alsina, Argentina Lichtenstein G, y Renaudeau d’ Arc N. (2006) Vicuña use by Andean communities: a risk or an opportunity? X Biennial Conference of the International Association for the Study of Common Property (IASCP), available in http://www.iascp.org Lichtenstein G, y Renaudeau d’Arc. N (2005a) A response to Meerburg’s and de Young (2003) Vicuñas in Bolivia: An opportunity for their sustainable use. Outlook on Agriculture 34:121–122 Lichtenstein G, y Renaudeau d’ Arc N (2005b) La retórica del uso sustentable y su aplicación al manejo de vicuñas en Argentina y Bolivia. In: Galafassi GP, Dimitri A (eds), Sociedad y Desarrollo: Aportes para reiniciar un debate crítico. Extramuros Ediciones, Theomai Libros, Nordan Comunidad, Ranelagh, Buenos Aires, Argentina, pp. 117–132 Lichtenstein G, y Renaudeau d’ Arc N (2008) Retórica y praxis de la partcipación local en los proyectos de manejo de vicuñas. Cuadernos XXI del Instituto de Antropología y Pensamiento Latinoamericano. 21(133–141) Little PD (1994) The link between local participation and improved conservation. In: Western D,Wright MA (eds.), Natural connections: perspectives in community-based conservation. Island, Washington, DC, pp. 347–372 Mazzucchelli S, Ortiz von Halle B (2000) Community wildlife management in South America: a regional review. IIED Evaluating Eden Series Discussion Paper 8

96

K.A. Stølen et al.

McNeill D, Lichtenstein G (2003) Local conflicts and international compromises: the sustainable use of vicuña in Argentina. Journal of International Wildlife Law and Policy 6:233–253 Milner-Gulland EJ, Mace R (1998) Conservation of biological resources. Blackwell, Oxford Monge C (1994) Transformaciones en la sociedad rural. El problema agrario en debate. SEPIA V, Lima Murombedzi J (1991) Decentralising common property resources management: a case study of the Nyaminyami district council of Zimbabwe’s wildlife management programme. IIED Dryland Network Programme Issues Paper 30 Murphree MW (1994) The evolution of Zimbabwe’s community-based wildlife use and management programme. Tanzanian Community Conservation Workshop, Dar-es-Salam. February 8–10, 1994 Nelson N, Wright S (1995) Power and participatory development: theory and practice. Intermediate Technology, London Oakley P (1991) Projects with people: the practice of participation in rural development. International Labour Organization, Geneva Olson M (1965) The logic of collective action. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA Pajuelo R (2000) Imágenes de la comunidad. Indígenas, campesinos y antropólogos en el Peru. In: Degregori CI (ed), No hay país más diverso. Compendio de antropología peruana PUCE, IEP, Lima, pp. 123–179. Pretty J, Guijt I, Scoones I, Thompson J (1994) A trainer’s guide to participatory learning and interaction. IIED Training Series No. 2, International Institute for Environment and Development, London Rebuffi G. 1998. Informe sobre manejo de vicuña sen semicautiverio en la Republica Argentina. Inform INTA Abrapampa al XVIII Reunión Ordinaria del Convenio de la Vicuña Renaudeau d’ Arc N (2005) Community-based conservation and vicuña management in the Bolivian highlands. PhD Thesis, School of Development Studies, University of East Anglia, UK Robinson JG, Redford KH (1991) Neo-tropical wildlife use and conservation. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL Salafsky N, Wollenberg E (2000) Linking livelihoods and conservation: a conceptual framework and scale for assessing the integration of human needs and biodiversity. World Development 28:359–378 Sen S, Nielsen JR (1996) Fisheries co-management: a comparative analysis. Marine Policy 20:405–418 Songorwa AN (1999) Community-based wildlife management (CWM) in Tanzania: are the communities interested? World Development 27:2061–2079 Strum SC (1994) Lessons learned. In: Western D, Wright MA (eds.), Natural connections: perspectives in community-based conservation. Island Press, Washington, DC, pp. 512–523 Uphoff N, Esman M, Krishna A (1998) Reasons for success: learning from instructive experiences in rural development. Kumarian, West Hartford, CT Western D, Wright RM (1994) Natural connections: perspectives in community-based conservation. Island, Washington, DC Wheeler JC, Hoces RD (1997) community participation, sustainable use, and vicuña conservation in Peru. Mountain Research and Development 17:283–287 White S (1996) Depoliticising development: the uses and abuses of participation. Development in Practice 6:6–15 Zoomes A, van der Haar G (2000) Current land policy in Latin America. Regulating land tenure under neo-liberalism. Center for Latin American Research and Documentation (CEDLA), Amsterdam

Chapter 8

Environmental Education as a Tool in the Sustainable Management of Vicuña in the Altiplano of South America Bibiana Vilá, Javier García Gomez, and Ana Wawrzyk

8.1

Introduction

Conservation biology and wildlife management are based on practical experience as well as the application of scientific knowledge of behaviour and ecology (Gibbs et al., 1998); as such science must be integrated with contributions from nonbiologists, especially local people, who need information and training to build their capacities for action. With this in mind, when developing the Manejo Sostenible de Camélidos Silvestres (MACS) project, environmental education (EE) was included as the “glue” to paste the scientific research into the Andean communities, in an attempt to change the Andean people from receivers of information and research findings to actors in the process, mapping out their own future in the sustainable use of wild camelids. Environmental issues are complex, and the issues addressed by the MACS project have been no exception. These are: a) the situations involved are risky and uncertain b) several ethical values are in dispute; c) the product involved is valuable, d) decisions are urgently required; e) research is not only based on curiosity but is also issue-driven; and f) there is a possibility of uncontrolled or runaway consequences of intervention (Funtowicz and Ravetz, 1993; Fontowicz et al., 1998). Management of wild and vulnerable species, including actors from the natural and socio-cultural worlds, needs what Fourez (1997) called “an interdisciplinary island of rationality”, meaning a simple interdisciplinary model with knowledge coming from both scientists and the members of the communities. The MACS project, which simultaneously looked at the ecology of vicuña, the fibre market, Andean culture, biodiversity, equity, household economy and welfare of vicuña, employed environmental education to ensure that the results of the research did not lose their importance to the Andean communities. EE also helped to create a link between the vicuña and Andean teachers and children who now recognise not only the potential of the species for sustainable use but its impact as a grazer in the ecosystem, its conservation history, its importance in terms of the indigenous vision of the environment as well as subjective appreciation of the beauty and elegance of these animals. Thus, the vicuña was used as a flagship species for promoting attitudes and values towards the local environment in the Puna ecosystem. I.J. Gordon (ed.) The Vicuña, DOI: 10.1007/978-0-387-09476-2_8, © Springer Science + Business Media, LLC 2009

97

98

B. Vilá et al.

8.2

Environmental Education

The term environmental education was initially used in 1965 by the Royal Society of London, with a definition associated with the preservation of life systems (Gayford and Dorion, 1994). EE was officially defined in the Tbilisi Conference (UNESCO-UNEP): A basic aim of environmental education is to succeed in making individuals and communities understand the complex nature of the natural and the built environments resulting from the interaction of their biological, physical, social, economic and cultural aspects, and acquire the knowledge, values, attitudes and practical skills to participate in a responsible and effective way in anticipating and solving environmental problems, and the management of the quality of the environment. (Intergovernmental Conference on Environmental Education, Tbilisi U.S.S.R. 1977. Final report).

EE is education in (Van Matre, 1979), about (Hungerford and Volk, 1990) and for (Fien, 1993) the environment and must be understood as an educational process through which to learn about, understand and act upon environmental problems or situations. Given the complexity of environmental problems, it is important that EE should include: a) systematic vision (Torres and Cotes, 1995; Catalan and Catany, 1996; Bonilla, 1997); b) an interdisciplinary approach (Hungerford and Peyton, 1985; Leff, 1999); c) cross-sectoral implementation in formal education “Greening the curriculum” (Yus, 1996; Garcia Gomez, 2000; Garcia and Nando, 2000); and d) and as most of the EE educators agree, constructivism as a framework (Posner, 1982; Ausubel et al., 1989; Furió, 1995).

8.3

History of the Ideas and the Need for EE

After many years of treating nature as an enemy that has to be tamed and dominated, many societies, particularly in the developed world, see the environment as being victimised and needing help to survive. The concept of the environment defines what different actors identify as environmental education (Table 8.1). Table 8.1 Concepts related to the term “environment” (modified from Sauve, 1996; Santo et al., 2000) Environment

Relation

Characteristics

As nature As a subject As natural resource As a problem

To be appreciated and preserved To know, to research To be managed To be resolved

As a place to live

To take care

As a biosphere

To be shared

As a community project

To be involved

Strict conservation Scientific work Collective inheritance Pollution, deterioration, threats Nature with its social and technological components Interdependence of live beings with abiotic objects. Political participation

8 Environmental Education as a Tool in the Sustainable Management of Vicuña

99

Table 8.2 The chronological order of events related to environmental education (mostly from international programmes) Year Institution Event Place 1965 1971 1972 1974 1975 1977

Royal Society, UK UNESCO UN UN UNEP UNESCO-UNEP

1982

Assembly of the Council of Europe

1992

UN

1992

UNESCO-UNEP

1992

1993

Indian Environmental Agency

1997

UNESCO

1997

UNESCO

2000 2002 2003

UN

2005–2014 UN

First use of EE concept Creation of MAB Conference on Human Environment Creation of UNEP Creation of IPEE Intergovernmental Conference on Environmental Education Include Environmental Education within the educational programs of member countries Conference of the United Nations on Environment and Development World Congress for Education and Communication on Environment and Development I Congress of Latin America on Environmental Education: a strategy towards the future International Conference on Environmental and Development Education Education for a sustainable future: an interdisciplinary vision for coordinated action II Congress of Latin America on Environmental Education III Congress of Latin America on Environmental Education Johannesburg Summit IV Congress of Latin America on Environmental Education Decade of education on sustainable development

London Stockholm Belgrade Tbilisi

RIO

Toronto

Guadalajara

Thessaloniki

Guadalajara Caracas

Havana (Cuba)

In the 1960s the concept of environmental education was associated with the beginning of the environmental movement, particularly in developed countries (Reboratti, 1999). This raising of awareness has its roots in events, publications and media that alerted the general public to the fragility of the environment (Table 8.2). These events, the different actors involved and the goals they pursued, generated a spectrum of environmentalism from the deep ecologists to anthropocentric environmentalism including the environmental justice movements, ecofeudalism, green racism, indigenous environmental groups, neoliberalism and feminist ecology, with a confusion of terms, words, meanings and situations (Reboratti, 1999). The unifying factor in many of the relevant ideologies is that EE is the best tool to achieve change.

100

B. Vilá et al.

The general objective of UNESCO’s MAB Program, which started in 1971, was to “develop the basis, within the natural and the social sciences, for the sustainable use and conservation of biological diversity, and for the improvement of the relationship between people and their environment globally, as well as to predict the consequences of today’s actions on tomorrow’s world, increasing therefore the capacity of man to effectively order the natural resources of the biosphere”. More recently, the Conference of the United Nations on Environment and Development was convened in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 and used the term “sustainable development”, which appeared for the first time in 1987. Two documents came out of the Rio Conference: The Earth Letter and Agenda 21. One of the most interesting contributions of the Earth Letter is the proposal to develop the Agenda 21 that incorporates, as a necessary element, citizen participation, which in effect derives from education and awareness which are central pillars of environmental education. At a parallel meeting, not within the official sphere of Rio92, nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) had their own meeting in which they presented 16 points related to EE as a citizen’s right. This denied the “neutrality” of EE and stated that EE is ideologically based, holistic and must follow ideals of solidarity, respect for different cultures, right of citizens to acquire environmental information through the media, ethics and politics. In 2002 the World Summit on Sustainable Development was convened in Johannesburg. In this meeting the decision was taken to instigate a decade of education for sustainable development. As a result, in December 2002, resolution 57/254 on the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005– 2014) was adopted by the General Assembly and UNESCO was designated as lead agency for the promotion of the Decade.

8.4

EE in the Development of Community-Based wildlife Management

There are basic aesthetic and moral arguments to be made for wildlife protection but there are also very strong scientific ones based upon the sustainable use of ecological resources (Bolton, 1997). Humans see the world through the spectacles of culture, and thus nature is transformed into resources (Simmons, 1977). When the resource is fauna, the species often causes problems for the rural community; for example, if the species is an herbivore, the usual complaint regards competition for forage with livestock, or if it is a carnivore, the problem is predation of domestic animals. If the species, such as the vicuña, has had a history of potential extinction, and has subsequently increased in numbers, much of this is because the people living in its habitat have respected the laws that have been put in place to protect the animal. This is a strong argument for why wildlife management must be rooted within the community that lives with the animal and scientists can advise, facilitate and teach local communities about the species management, but cannot be the only actors since EE is the best way of cementing the link between people and management.

8 Environmental Education as a Tool in the Sustainable Management of Vicuña

101

While there are several projects in Latin America that emphasise the association between conservation and environmental education, EE is usually directed towards people’s action, and so is frequently not reported in published papers. However, several EE initiatives have generated publications aimed at local stakeholders. For example, in the forest area of Bolivia (Izozog) a group of educators worked with biodiversity scientists and a local community (Kaa-iya project, 1998) to publish two books: one was a list of species (Manual de la fauna Izoceña) with pictures drawn by local artists and information about natural history and use of each species; the other (Educación ambiental en el Izozog) was a guide for teachers working in the area. These projects usually include NGOs, governmental agencies, education authorities and an international source of funding and their main objective is developing EE material for children with the emphasis on conservation. In the Andean area, there are similar initiatives, such as the publication “La Huallata” in the Salinas Blancas Reserve in Arequipa, Peru, a joint activity between governmental agencies and international cooperation. In Chile, a booklet on vicuña welfare has been published (Bonacic and Baliero, 2002). There is no systematic research on the follow-up to evaluate the impact these publications have had on the communities, though usually their impact is lost if they are not associated with EE courses. In the wild management of vicuña in Cieneguillas, Jujuy, Argentina, it was very important to include informal environmental education activities that expose the close relationship between conservation and economic development. Conservation leads to an increase in vicuña numbers and as a consequence the ability to capture and use the vicuña for economic gain, given that sufficient attention is paid to the care and welfare of the population (Vilá et al., 2004). Teachers and children from the “Puna Argentina” school in Cieneguillas participated in the capture of wild vicuña. The older children were actively involved in the final enclosure of the vicuña and the younger children were afterwards allowed to come inside the capture facilities. This interaction with wild animals has led to children wanting to be veterinarians or biologists in the future, which is extremely encouraging as is very rare in the Puna to find children who express a wish to go to university.

8.5

The EE and the Puna school

Teacher training and the conditions within schools do not always allow the application of the EE’s theoretical concepts in the real world. Usually the “real” EE is a mix between what should be done (theoretical model), the classroom/local reality and what can actually be done (concrete action). In schools in the Puna, the attempt to incorporate EE has run into a number of difficulties; for example, social problems (malnutrition, poverty, domestic violence) emerge as the urgent problems that need tackling now. Most teachers feel that EE is a luxury. However, it is important to put across that good management of the environment can have an ameliorative effect on some of these immediate social issues. We also found that teachers were unable to provide an EE curriculum because of the lack of content, teaching methods and awareness of environment.

102

B. Vilá et al.

As a first step in the development of an environmental education programme it is important to determine what the students know about the environment. Children in the altiplano have their particular vision and beliefs and also, in some Latin American countries across that ecosystem, their own language (aymara or quechua). Although not usually speaking these native languages, most of the children and adults in the Argentinean Puna speak a Spanish dialect that is not used in the classroom. Children are thus limited in expressing their feelings, ideas and preconceptions in the formal teaching environment (Vilte, 2000). This can create a real challenge. What is the previous knowledge about camelids of a child who is a son of a llama herder? This is not always what one might expect. For example, children can have a very preconceived idea about wild vicuña, believing that they eat much more than a llama (which is not true). Therefore, we can create an intellectual conflict between what the child says and the facts about camelids grazing, which is not simply speaking “different languages” but also brings information from outside the Puna (Vilá, 1995, 1996, 2001). Although most of the Puna schools are in natural surroundings and most of the children have their houses in the open fields, this does not guarantee that they have positive feelings towards nature and children have to be led into experiences with nature that are deep, subtle and create awareness and understanding (Cornell, 1989).

8.6

Process and Implementation of the EE in the MACS Project

The results of the research on management of vicuñas (in terms of conservation, welfare, environment and equity) generated by the MACS project had to be translated into the local language and practices of the Andean communities. Therefore, EE became more than an added extra, but the link between the project and the local communities. During the MACS project we worked on three aspects of EE: a) running an informal course for adults on vicuña capture and management in Cieneguillas; b) implementing informal activities for school teachers and children (with participation in the captures) in Cieneguillas; and c) running formal courses for in practice teachers and professors. The course on vicuña management was directed to the local community before our first attempt to capture vicuña in the Cieneguillas area. This was a joint activity between MACS members from Argentina and Chile and participants from the local community. Previous experience of captures in Chile was presented in a video, and the strategy for driving wild vicuña into the capture facility was proposed. This was followed by recommendations on animal welfare and how to hold and manipulate the animals. After that we practised in the field and captured a small number of vicuña, took samples and marked the animals. Later, because it was winter, the animals were released without being shorn. The informal educational activities within the Cieneguillas school included suggestions for naming the school “Puna Argentina” (which had a number but no name), talks before each field trip about

8 Environmental Education as a Tool in the Sustainable Management of Vicuña

103

Fig. 8.1 Child’s drawing of the capture in Cieneguillas

research results, hypothesis, findings and questions that emerge, and an invitation to teachers and children to participate in the captures. After the capture we worked with the children who wrote texts and made drawings (Fig. 8.1) about their experience, the conservation of vicuña and their use. Recently, a young student of Cieneguillas school won a contest “Being a journalist” with the article “Cieneguillas, pueblo de vicuñas” (Cieneguillas vicuñas′ town) in a national agronomics journal “El federal” widely distributed in the country. These activities took place at a local scale. The main goal of the EE programme was to work on a regional Andean level in the four countries, so we developed training courses for in-practice altiplano teachers and professors. Unfortunately, the political instability in Bolivia meant that we had to abandon the proposed courses in that country, but we did work in Argentina, Chile and Peru.

8.7

The EE Training Courses for in-practice Teachers in Altiplano Schools

The local school is one of the most widely distributed and important institutions in the Puna and most of the children in the region attend school not only for learn but also to eat and receive sanitary and medical care. In NW Argentina some children live at the school from Monday to Friday, while others have four meals a day in school but go home to sleep. As a consequence, the teachers have a new role almost

104

B. Vilá et al.

as a substitute mother/father. Teachers taking on this role usually put the teachinglearning aspects of the school mission as a second priority. In this project, the EE approach was implemented using a natural view of the environment. Concepts such as “a natural resource”, “a community project”, “nature” (in decreasing importance) determined our vision of the environment (Table 8.1) which complemented the theoretical base described above. The first idea was to explore, and to some extent, rediscover the Puna environment around the school, that is “here and now” with a vision that was appreciative and critical, and recognises the past, present and the future of the camelids and the local culture. Most of the courses were designed to fill these gaps in teachers’ backgrounds as well as develop a “learning by doing” methodology and pedagogy. The International Environmental Education Programme-UNEP (IEEP) stated that EE must include three areas: a) development of contents, methods and materials; b) training of teachers; and c) promotion of international cooperation. Training teachers (pre-service and in-service) was viewed as the top priority by the Tbilisi conference. Most of the teachers in the Puna lack an academic background, and do not receive any formal training in how to teach children about the environment. They also have difficulties in implementing EE because of differences in EE’s aims, objectives and philosophy from the traditional approach to teaching the main school curriculum. Most of the teachers who attended the courses we developed were “in practice” teachers. For example, in the MACS-EA1 course, most of the teachers were teaching children from 6 to 16 years old. The teachers’ age varied between 24 to 62 with a mean of 37.6 (sd: 7.9 years), and had been teaching for more than five years. We worked with teachers and not directly with the children for several reasons: 1. We wanted the children to have frequent, nature-related learning experiences involving both indoor and outdoor activities, which included detailed observations of their surroundings that were part of the everyday activity in the school, and not just as an intensive short course provided by strangers. 2. Children in the Puna tend to be shy with strangers especially if a group of outsiders are asking them questions, pushing them to conduct experiments, and making them work for short, intensive periods at school. 3. By teaching teachers to teach EE, a lot of children can be reached over the course of the teacher’s lifetime. We know that, although the teachers are well intentioned, their lack of information and experience in open discussion in which they are allowed to make mistakes can lead to communication difficulties. However, following our courses we often heard teachers commenting on how the experience had “changed my brain”. 4. In schools in the Puna, teachers have a number of different roles including community leaders. For example, Carlos Fabián (teacher of the Salar del Hombre Muerto school in Catamarca), said: “we have to be teachers, judges, medical doctors, agronomic engineers, counsellors, physiologists and sometimes policemen and midwives”. In South American countries, it was necessary to have all the official paperwork approved by the relevant education authorities in order to have the courses included

8 Environmental Education as a Tool in the Sustainable Management of Vicuña

105

in the “curricula” of Education Ministries training for teachers. This allowed the teachers to be absent from their schools for a week and to gain credits for attending the course. This prerequisite required us to prepare the paperwork several months in advance since in Latin America most of the provinces or regions have their own bureaucracy. Some of the contents of an Argentinean MACS-course (8 h a day for 5 days) • Diagnostic evaluation of knowledge, attitudes and beliefs of the teachers towards the Puna environment. • EE as an interdisciplinary, systemic and transversal discipline. • Nature, ecology, environment, ecologism, environmentalism, ecological problems and environmental education are not synonyms (differences between these concepts). • Some theoretical themes of ecology (with regional examples): energy flow, material cycle, food web, food chain, cultural modification of these processes. • Natural and artificial selection. Wild and domestic animals. Evolution. • Camelids and Puna environment. • The complexity of the environment in the Puna: conceptual map of actors, stakeholders, fauna, flora, institutions, etc… • Different ways to educate environmentally: papers, music, humour. Examples and creation of Puna environment messages. • Global and regional environmental problems. Rubbish, mines, local fauna extinction. • The role of camelids in “recovering” the Puna environment. • FIELD WORK: We visit a natural place in the surroundings and present the “Flow learning” methodology (Cornell, 1989) for field studies. This method describes a way to use nature-awareness activities in a flowingly purposeful, directional way, guiding step by step through increasingly sensitive activities and deep experiences into a new joy-filled awareness and understanding. We help teachers to organise field visits with their pupils. It is one of the most important activities in the course. • Evaluation of the teachers: presentation of their productions with local materials or with a local environmental situation, role playing, puppets plays, etc… • The role of the teacher as environmental educator. • Greening the curriculum. In the diagnosis evaluation during the first day of the courses we realised that there was a serious lack of information about the environment. This situation can be observed as most of the teachers had some difficulties in: 1. Identifying and describing the four species of camelids. 2. Identifying the domestic animals with their cultural origin. 3. Identifying the historical changes in the Puna environment after the Spanish conquest (for example, presence of sheep). 4. Using local fauna and flora for exemplification in their classes. 5. Writing a regional food web or chain.

106

B. Vilá et al.

We brought the teachers extra material on fauna and Puna environment, such as: “Fauna Argentina” series journals on Puna fauna (guanacos, condor, flamingos, lizards, toads, vicuñas, pumas and lamas,), the books “Camellos sin joroba”(Camels without humps) Vilá (Ed. Colihue), “La naturaleza y el hombre en la Puna” (Nature and Man in the Puna) Reboratti (1995) and “De hombres y tierras: Una historia ambiental del noroeste argentino” (From people and Hearth: An environmental history of the north west of Argentina) Reboratti (1997) and CIENCIAHOY articles (Vilá, 1989, 1995, 2001; Vilá et al., 2004).

8.8

The “Vicuña: Tesoro del Altiplano” (Vicuña: Treasure of the Altiplano) Book

We received a genuine demand from teachers for contents and methodology for EE in the Puna, so we wrote a book, which was a guide for EE and which included texts, plays, games and activities related with the Puna and the vicuña. The book was divided into chapters, although the main focus was the vicuña. The first five chapters relate to the Puna environment, its history, evolution of camelids, domestication, relation between camelids and Andean society. The last five chapters are based on the vicuña, their ecology, behaviour, history of exploitation, risk of extinction, recovery and management. The book includes relevant information for the teachers, including methodological and didactic aids.

8.9

Conclusions

The reality of the Puna altiplano schools in Latin America is similar to other rural poor areas in the third world countries (Daun, 1997; Hedges, 2002; Bekalo and Bangay, 2002; Chapman et al., 2002); that is, poverty and environmental degradation, if left unaddressed, could result in a situation where unsustainable practices of natural resource use predominate accelerating resource depletion and increase poverty (Bekalo and Bangay, 2002). A programme of EE within a natural resource management strategy can help avoid or reverse this situation. For vicuña, EE should be integral to strategies for poverty alleviation. The “Vicuña: tesoro del altiplano” book has proved very useful in informing people about vicuña and their role in the Puna ecosystem and we also have put a lot of effort into running EE courses. Teachers were selected as the focus of these courses because they are integrated into the world of community traditional experiences and when provided with scientific information they can take on the responsibility of implementing an EE curriculum (Bekalo and Bangay, 2002). EE trained teachers more often engage their students in local environmental activities (Bolscho et al., 1990), especially if they have developed a relationship with the local species (Lindemann-Matthies, 2002). When school students are educated about conservation this has a strong

MACS-EA1

13–18 May 2002

La Quiaca, Jujuy (Argentina

Direction of Natural Resources and Environment of the province. 23–28 Catamarca 45 September Ministry 2002 of education

MACS-EA2

Antofagasta de la Sierra, Catamarca (Argentina) MACS-EA3 27–31 October 2003 Chincha (Perú)

Jujuy Education Ministry

Environment Secretary of the province Regional government of Ica Education Ministry

38

Schools

School teachLa Quiaca, Abrapampa, ers, Schools Cieneguillas, Yavi chico, directors Rinconada, Cusi-cusi, Natural Parks Santa Catalina, Tilcara, guards La Intermedia, Llulluchayoc, Veterinary La Quiaca Vieja and Secondary Suripujio school professors

School teachers and directors

Field visit

Yavi and Yavi chico

Responsible who run the course

Dr. Bibiana Vilá and Lic. Ana Wawrzyk

Antofagasta, El Peñón, Laguna de Dr. Bibiana Vilá Las Quinoas, Tinogasta, Antofagasta, and Lic. Los Nacimientos and Los Negros Ana Wawrzyk Salar del Hombre Muerto

Gendarmerie Green team

35

Secondary professors

Yanac, Liscay, Apostol san pedro, Chavin, San pedro de Hucarpana, Bellavista, Chinca Alta, Chincha

No field visit

Dr. Javier García Gomez, Dr. Jane Wheeler, Dr. Domingo Hoces, Ms. Yolanda Almasifuen

8 Environmental Education as a Tool in the Sustainable Management of Vicuña

Table 8.3 The five courses run during the MACS project are described Other institutions Number of Professions Place Date involved participants of participants

(contiuned) 107

108

Table 8.3 (contiuned) Place

Date

MACS-EA4

4–10 January 2004

Arica, (Chile)

MACS-EA5

Mantero (Peru)

20–25 June 2005

Other institutions involved

Number of participants

Professions of participants

Chile Ministry of Education. CONAF Quiborax

24

School teachers Visviri, Ticnamar, Sobraya, and directors. Azapa, Lluta, Codpa

Education Ministry IVITA Presidencia Regional Junin

35

Schools

Field visit Valle de azapa and Lluta.

CONAF parks guards In practice Tambo Paccha Cachi-cachi school teachJunin, Tarma, Acolla, ers and direcyantac, Tingo cancha, tors Oroya

No field visit

Responsible who run the course Dra Bibiana Vilá, Lic Ana Wawrzyk. Lic. Mónica Piña Zepeda and Ms. Pia Bustos Dr. J. Garcia Gomez Dra Jane Wheeler, Dr. Domngo Hoces Ms. Yolanda Almasifuen

B. Vilá et al.

8 Environmental Education as a Tool in the Sustainable Management of Vicuña

109

influence on their commitment to conserving species and habitats (Caro et al., 2003). EE can best be achieved in places were the school is deeply rooted within the surrounding community (Chapman et al., 2002), as is the case in a number of towns in the Argentinean Puna. We worked to get as close as possible to the reality that awaits teachers and children in and after school. Our view is that if teachers are able to provide EE not only at school but also in the community, this would be the most effective way of achieving changes in communities’ attitudes to wildlife and nature (Uzzell, 1999). In Cieneguillas, after MACS project, people started mapping their future, the school has the name the community decided, a name it shares with the ecosystem in which they live. Also, the community embarked on a process that ended in their building capacity for vicuñas conservation and management, and a young girl proud of her community and its vicuñas overcame the challenges of isolation and distance to win a contest. This outcome in just a few years of work showed that we were able to make achieve concrete actions as well as the scientific research towards the sustainability and the conservation of the area (Table 8.3). Acknowledgements We would like to thank all our pupils (the Puna teachers) because they gave us back more than we gave to them. BV would like to thank the town of Cieneguillas and school for their openness and support for this work.

References Ausubel DP, Novak JD, Hanesian H (1989) Psicología educativa. Trillas, México. Bekalo S, Bangay C (2002) Towards effective environmental education in Ethiopia: problems and prospects in responding to the environment-poverty challenge. International Journal of Educational Development 22:35–46. Bolscho D, Eulefeld G, Rost J, Seybold H (1990) Environmental education in practice in the Federal Republic of German, an empirical study. International Journal of Science Education 12:133–146. Bolton M (1997) Conservation and the use of wildlife resources. Conservation Biology Series. Chapman & Hall, London, UK. Bonacic C, Baliero D (2002) Cuidado y manejo de la vicuña. Onaway Trust, Santiago. Bonilla L (1997) Contenidos programáticos y formación ambiental en la escuela. Formación Ambiental. 8(19). Publicaciones PNUMA Madrid. Caro T, Borgerhoff Mulder M, Moore M (2003) Effects of conservation education on reasons to conserve biological diversity. Biological Conservation 114:143–152. Catalán A, Catany M (1996) Educación ambiental en la enseñanza secundaria. Miraguano Ediciones, Madrid. Chapman D, Barcikowski E, Sowah M, Gyamera E, Woode G (2002) Do communities know best? Testing a premise of educational decentralization: community members perceptions of their local school in Ghana. International Journal of Educational Development 22:181–189. Cornell J (1989) Sharing the joy of nature. Dawn, California, USA. Daun H (1997) Teacher’s needs, culturally-significant teacher education and educational achievement in an African context: the case of Guinea-Bissau. International Journal of Educational Development 17:59–71. Ebbut D (1998) Evaluation of projects in the developing world: some cultural and methodological issues. International Journal of Educational Development 5:415–424.

110

B. Vilá et al.

Fien J (1993) Education for the environment. Deakin University, Victoria. Fourez G (1997) Alfabetización científica y tecnológica: Acerca de las finalidades de la enseñanaza de las ciencias. Colección Nuevos Caminos, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Funtowicz S, Ravetz J (1993) Epistemología política: Ciencia con la gente. In: Figueira R (ed), Colección los fundamentos de las ciencias del combre. Centro Editor de América Latina, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Funtowicz S, Ravetz J, O’Connor M (1998) Challenges in the use of science for sustainable development. International Journal of Sustainable Development 1:99–107. Furió C (1995) Preconcepciones del profesorado de siencias sobre algunos aspectos del proceso enseñanza – Aprendizaje a distancia. Universidad Nacional a Distancia, Otoño, Madrid, Spain. García Gómez J (2000) Modelo, realidad y posibilidades de la transversalidad. El caso de Valencia, España. Tópicos en educación ambiental, No. 6, volume 2. Spain.** García J, Nando J (2000) Estrategias didácticas en educación ambiental. Aljibe, Málaga, Spain. Gayford C, Dorion C (1994) Planning and evaluation of environmental education in the school curriculum. University of Reading, Reading, UK. Gibbs JP, Hunter ML, Sterling EJ (1998) Problem-solving in conservation biology and wildlife management. Blackwell, Oxford, UK. Hedges J (2002) The importance of posting and interaction with the education bureaucracy in becoming a teacher in Ghana. International Journal of Educational Development 22:353–366. Hungerford HR, Peyton RB (1985) Cómo construir un programa de educación ambiental. PIEAUNESCO. Los libros de la catarata, Bilbao, Spain. Hungerford H, Volk TL (1990) Changing learner behaviour through environmental education. Journal of Environmental Education 21:8–21. La Huallata (2000–2002) Revista de los comuneros de la Reserva Nacional de salinas y Aguada Blanca. Araucaria, Arequipa, Perú. Leff E. (1999) La pedagogía del ambiente. Educación en ambiente para el desarrollo sustentable. Edited by CTERA. Buenos Aires, Argentina.** Lindemann-Matthies P (2002) The influence of an educational program on children’s perception of biodiversity. Journal of Environmental Education 33:22–31. Posner GJ (1982) Accommodation of a scientific conception: towards a theory of conceptual change. Science Education no. 66 Proyecto Kaa-Iya (1998) Educación Ambiental en el Izozog. Wildlife Conservation Society, Santa Cruz, Bolivia. Proyecto Kaa-Iya (1998) Manual de la fauna Izoceña. Wildlife Conservation Society, Santa Cruz, Bolivia. Puca SL (2006) Cieneguillas, pueblo de vicuñas. Concurso, Periodista El Federal. Revista El Federal 134:71. Reboratti C (1995) La naturaleza y el hombre en la Puna. Colección Nuestros Ecosistemas. GTZ, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Reboratti C (1997) De hombres y tierras: Una historia ambiental del Noroeste Argentino. GTZ, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Reboratti C (1999) Ambiente y sociedad: Conceptos y relaciones. Editorial. Ariel. Buenos Aires, Argentina.** Santos JE, Sato M, Pires J, Maroti P (2000) Environmental education praxis toward a natural conservation area. Revista Brasileña de Biología. 60:361–372. Sauve L (1996) Environmental education and sustainable development: a further appraisal. Canadian Journal of Environmental Education 1:7–34. Sauve L, Berryman T, Brunelle R (2002) International proposals for environmental education: analyzing a ruling discourse. In: Proceedings of the International Conference on Environmental Education “Environmental education in the context of education for the 21st century: prospects and possibilities”. Larissa, Greece, pp. 42–63. Simmons IG (1977) The Ecology of natural resources. Edward Arnold, London.

8 Environmental Education as a Tool in the Sustainable Management of Vicuña

111

Torres CM, Cotes BM (1995) Lineamientos generales para una política nacional de educación ambiental. Ministerio de Educación Nacional, Santafé, Colombia. UNESCO (1970) Reunión Internacional de trabajo sobre educación ambiental en los planes de estudio escolares. Comisión of Education, IUCN, Paris. UNESCO (1971) Consejo internacional de coordinación del programa sobre el hombre y la biosfera (MAB). Informe final.Paris, France. Uzzell D (1999) Education for environmental action in the community: new roles and relationships. Cambridge Journal of Education 29:397–413. Van Matre S (1979) Sunship Earth. The American Camping Association, Martinsville. Vilá BL (1989) Paisaje con vicuñas. CIENCIAHOY 1:46–55. Vilá BL (1995a) La Brava Reserva de Laguna Brava. CIENCIAHOY 5:25–32. Vilá BL (1995b) La educación ambiental: su historia, su necesidad y su riesgo. Novedades Educativas Journal 58:47. Vilá BL (1996) Conservation of South American camelids in Argentina: environmental education project: (Working with the teachers: PACHAMAMA). Global Forum for Environmental Education 7:10–13. Vilá BL (2001a) Huellas de vicuñas: La educación ambiental en las escuelas de adobe. Ed. Universidad. Nacional. de Luján (cuadernos de trabajo No 19). ISSN 039–6512.** Vilá BL (2001b) Las vicuñas en Cieneguillas y Vilama: Cuando los pobladores llaman a los científicos. CIENCIAHOY 11(65):20–26. Vilá BL, Bonacic C, Arzamendia Y, Wawrzyk AY Lamas H (2004) Captura y esquila de vicuñas en Cieneguillas. CIENCIAHOY 14(80):44–55. Vilte LB (2000) Identidad, cultura y lengua. In: Los caminos de la lengua en la Quebrada de Humahuaca. Gonzales A.M., Mamaní E.C., Paz Soldán A.M. (eds), Ministerio de Educación. Programa Nacional de Escuelas. Prioritarias, Jujuy, Argentina. Yus R (1996) Temas Transversales: hacia una nueva escuela. Editorial Graó, Barcelona, Spain.

Chapter 9

Lessons for the Future of Sustainable Use of Vicuña Iain Gordon

9.1

Introduction

Community-based conservation through the sustainable use of wildlife has become one of the basic approaches to wildlife conservation (Convention on Biological Diversity, 2004). Community-based conservation seeks to involve local communities in nature conservation through providing benefits (primarily economic) from wildlife through sustainable use. While the paradigm is not new, it is growing in application due to the perceived success of programmes such as CAMPFIRE in Zimbabwe (Martin, 1986). This requires a holistic, integrated approach to wildlife management that includes research and development across a range of academic and applied research disciplines. However, with the recent debate (e.g. Martin, 1999; Attwell, 2000; Adams and Hulme, 2001) on the value of community-based conservation, the protagonists on both sides of the argument appear to forget that there are two beneficiaries of the community-based conservation paradigm people and wildlife. Generally the emphasis of community-based conservation is on the benefits for livelihoods of the communities/households involved and not the benefits for species conservation. This, in my view, reflects the hijacking of the philosophy of the community involvement in conservation by a socio-economist agenda, which is attempting to use the community conservation paradigm to devolve democracy away from central government by denationalizing wildlife management to the local level. Socio-economists have not been particularly interested in the wildlife conservation part of the relationship, which has provoked some recent debate on the relative benefits to biodiversity of traditional protectionist versus community-based approaches (Walker, 1999; Attwell and Cotterill, 2000; Wilshusen et al., 2002). Also socio-economic perspectives, at all levels, have not considered the impacts of global change and the increase in the demand for wildlife products that occurs with globalisation such as internet access to trophies, traditional medicine, bush meat etc. In the long run, which is what sustainable use is all about, we must develop a greater understanding of the impacts of community conservation, not only for the people, but also on the wildlife populations and the maintenance of the health of

I.J. Gordon (ed.) The Vicuña, DOI: 10.1007/978-0-387-09476-2_9, © Springer Science + Business Media, LLC 2009

113

114

I. Gordon

the ecosystems where wildlife lives. We should beware of viewing communitybased conservation as the panacea of future wildlife management. It is likely that, while the approach will benefit species which have economic value, such as the vicuña (Vicugna vicugna), other species (e.g. lions, Panthera leo, and wild dogs, Lycaon pictus) which major impact directly or indirectly on people, will not survive outside strictly protected areas. There is an even greater need now than ever for ecologists/wildlife biologists and socio-economists to effectively work together with local communities around the globe to develop truly sustainable approaches to wildlife management outside protected areas. My view is that the management of the vicuña, as outlined in this book, will provide a blueprint for the future management of wildlife for both community and wildlife species benefits. For example, the sustainable use of vicuña is advancing into a series of challenges well beyond other experiences of sustainable use. Consider the conservation, ethical and animal welfare issues associated with the live shearing and release of a wild animal; consider also the ongoing discussion about whether it is best to farm the species or to hybridising vicuña with alpaca which demonstrates the genetic, sociological and economic side of the sustainable use approach. These are challenges being faced now that are not unique to vicuña and will be played out in the global arena.

9.2

Recommendations

The research in this book was carried out mindful of the need to provide guidance to the national and international managers and policy makers about the future for vicuña management in the countries of South America. The most basic recommendation that comes out of the research is that the Precautionary Principle (Peel, 2005) should be used as a framework to initiate management action. In the case of the vicuña, this means two things: firstly that researchers provide their advice to managers and policy makers based on the concept of that being “to the best of our knowledge” and do not continually advocate for more money for research before advice can be given; and secondly, that managers and policy makers (local and international), make their decisions on the basis of a lack of certainty concerning the outcomes of these decisions, and build in monitoring and reinterpretation of the information to allow adaptive management and policy development and implementation to take place.

9.2.1

Management

One of the clearest conclusions from the information provided in this book is that the captive breeding of vicuña should not be considered within the communitybased conservation approach as it does not provide benefits to the local community

9 Lessons for the Future of Sustainable Use of Vicuña

115

and the proceeds of fibre sale are not reinvested in the conservation of the species in the wild. Where animals are kept in captivity, animal welfare legislation is paramount; that is the animals should be well fed and in good body condition, provided appropriate veterinary care and that facilities are in place that allow the animals to show their natural behaviour and minimize the stress especially during handling. It is also important that, once animals are brought into captivity (where selective breeding may take place), they be kept in isolation from the wild animals, to ensure that novel gene combinations are not released into the wild. Finally, where an animal is confined to a specific location through fencing then it should be classed as captive, not “semi-captive” as is used for the ranching situations in Peru and Chile. It is now of paramount importance that a Scientific Advisory Committee to the Vicuña Convention should be established that gives advice, based upon the findings of the research outlined in this book, to ensure the implementation of animal welfare standards for mustering, shearing and transport the vicuña and the design the facilities and equipment. Communities should be provided with training in mustering and handling techniques in order to preserve the welfare of animals during capture and survival post release of wild vicuña. Finally, the vicuña is a highly mobile species and because of this bi- or trinational management plans should be developed for the management of wild vicuña populations to ensure the integrity of the species. Despite this, the practice (as conducted in Peru) of transporting vicuña from one place to another to establish new herds should be stopped as this can lead to mixing of genotypes from different sub-species.

9.2.2

Policy

Overall, the countries involved in the Vicuña Convention should develop and implement National Strategies of vicuña management with clear guidelines for the utilization and conservation of the species. Within these strategies each country should develop initiatives for the sustainable use of wild vicuña that maximize the benefit to local communities and minimize the biological impact on the species and habitat. They should also include legal mechanisms (e.g. custodianship) that provide incentives to local communities for the conservation of wild vicuña in their natural habitat as a consequence of deriving economic benefit from the species. Environmental education and training should be provided to the community, in order to guarantee the sustainable use of vicuña. The Vicuña Convention should ensure that no legal manoeuvres are conducted that allow vicuña to remain “outside” the Agreement from the Convention whereby they can be commercialized as a private asset. There are two major risks to the future of the sustainable use of wild vicuña, firstly there is poaching; this could lead to another collapse of the wild populations and/or a view of the international market that the wearing of garments made from vicuña fibre is leading to maltreatment of populations in the wild (c.f. the

116

I. Gordon

elephant ivory debate, Furniss, 2006). For this not to happen there needs to be a strong campaign to strengthen the actions to control the illegal hunting. This will include strategies to control illegal trade both in the Andean countries and in the countries that import vicuña fibre. Secondly, the recent push by the Peruvian Government to develop a hybrid between alpaca (Lama pacos) and vicuña the “pacovicuña” (http://www.elcomercio.com.pe/edicionImpresa/pdf/2007/07/28/ ECPE280707a24.pdf) is a worry. Whilst this has now been removed from official policy, damage has already been done because of alpaca breeders in the Andes have already bred pacovicunas. This could have major negative effects both locally and globally; for instance, unless the cross breeding programme is permanently isolated from wild populations of vicuña then the chances of genetic, diseases and conservation issues arising extremely high. At the global scale the potential for contamination of the international vicuña fibre market by fibre from pacovicuña could cause a reduction in market value of the iconic vicuña brand leading to massive reductions in economic returns from community based conservation initiatives across South America, as well as stigmatisation of Peru by the international conservation organisations (e.g. Robert Gabel USFWS letter dated 15th September 2006).

9.2.3

Market

One of the underlying tenets of the community-based conservation approach is that, because people receive an economic return from the use of wildlife species, their attitude to wildlife will improve and will lead to those people conserving valued wildlife species (Hulme and Murphree, 2001). This is still not happening in many of the regions where the vicuña occurs and without this there will be limited benefits to local communities from their involvement in the conservation of the species. This could lead to (and in some cases already has) poaching, usually through killing wild animals, and the supply of the fibre gained in this way into the legal market. Vicuña fibre is a uniquely Andean raw material, and for the species to benefit, in conservation terms, from fibre harvest it should be marketed as such. This requires that the Andean countries develop common marketing strategies for the sale of the fibre harvest and ensure that material comes from legal rather than illegal sources. If this is to occur then there will have to be improvements in the degree of information exchange (e.g. prices, potential buyers and leases) between the members of the Vicuña Convention. To a limited extent, there may also be opportunities for adding value locally to the fibre, rather than having the processing and manufacturing happening in Europe, the USA or China. This will require an improvement in the design and manufacturing of the garments within the Andean countries for sale on the international market as it is unlikely that potential buyers for such expensive products will come from local citizens or international tourists visiting Peru, Argentina, Bolivia or Chile.

9 Lessons for the Future of Sustainable Use of Vicuña

9.2.4

117

Research

As suggested above, the paucity of information on the systems responses of community-based conservation through the sustainable use of vicuña means that it will be necessary to develop and implement national surveys and updates to adjust the management plans, strategies for conservation and prevention of illegal hunting. It is also critical to evaluate the biological and socioeconomic impact of different alternatives of the use of wild vicuña before and during the implementation of management plans, in order to be able to modify measures to minimize the biological impact on the species and its habitat and maximize the socioeconomic benefits for local Andean communities. Whilst there is much research that needs to be done to meet the requirements for evidence-based management of vicuña the perception that the species no longer faces danger of extinction is limiting funding for new research. The issues that are raised in the chapter of this book highlight the need for new perspectives and research skills. For example, how are communities organised, what are their perceptions, attitudes and values towards vicuñas; these are not stable characteristics of individuals, communities or society, they will change as species change its distribution, abundance, people’s economic circumstances change and local, national and global markets become available for wildlife products. As the other chapters in this book raise many questions that are still unanswered for the management of this iconic Andean species and the fragile ecosystem in which it lives.

9.3

The Future for the Vicuña

A community in north-west Argentina recently sold its first 67 kg of high quality textile fibre harvested from the vicuña that live in and around the sparse grazing resources they have for their llamas and sheep. Arriving at that point was a breakthrough for the village of Cieneguillas, as they finally reaped the reward for the many years of protection that they had offered to the vicuña that live on their land. Their patience and foresight is paying off. Whilst harvesting fibre from wild vicuña has already happened in Chile, Peru and Bolivia, Cieneguillas is the first community in Argentina to establish a community wildlife management program for the sustainable use of wild vicuña, and the initiative is generating a significant additional cash income. Researchers from Proyecto MACS (http://www.macs.puc.cl) used this Argentine community as a test-bed to establish many fundamental guidelines for sustainable use from a broad range of perspectives (ecological, conservation, economic, social equity, ethical and production) that will be used to guide other communities in the area, and in the wider Andean region where wild vicuñas are found. Applied research has been necessary because the strict wildlife protection policies introduced some 40 years ago to address the grave threat of extinction are now progressively being relaxed to allow regulated commercial exploitation. There are now an estimated 250,000 vicuña in the four countries of the Andean altiplano

118

I. Gordon

– Peru, Bolivia, Argentina and Chile. The new opportunities to manage vicuña have given rise to a number of different management models, ranging from live capture and release, through extensive, enclosed, ranching systems, to captive, farmed systems on paddocks. As vicuña fleece is a luxury product, it was seen as essential that the nascent vicuña production industry safeguards its natural image by promoting high standards of animal welfare and minimising ecological impacts. Vicuña, and the related guanaco (Lama guanicoe), are the only truly wild species that can be captured, sheared and re-released on a commercial basis. However, their very uniqueness creates special welfare issues. Using a combination of animal behaviour and physiological studies, the team built up a picture of the main factors which exacerbate the stress experienced by a vicuña during handling, and the degree to which such experiences impact on animal health and fitness. The experience gained within the MACS project suggests that the least invasive production systems are also those which return the most benefit for Andean communities. Such low-impact systems, based on capture and release of wild vicuña, undertaken every two years, also have minimal ecological impact and are most compatible with other development initiatives in the region, such as ecotourism. It is strongly in the interests of the new generation of international vicuña textile producers that the management policies in the producer countries encourage high standards within a sustainable development framework. As with any of the other textiles, market-led development of production quality standards is essential. Shearing techniques, grading and cleaning are important elements of product quality, requiring buyer feedback to maintain high standards. In the case of the vicuña, these quality parameters extend to the production system and its management. The signs from the industry are that the “clean green” image of a natural product harvested in an environmentally sensitive way is a valuable element of the fibre’s marketing approach. Both the vicuña, which is little known outside South America, and its habitat appear exotic and exciting it is likely that future marketing strategies will seek to exploit these qualities. It is equally probable that this top-of-the-range natural material will be vulnerable to negative publicity from inadequate standards of, for example, animal welfare or exploitation of indigenous peoples. Market feedback could play an important role in ensuring that future vicuña management safeguards both its product image and the sustainable development ethos. The vicuña is an icon of the Andes, sustainable use of wild animals for high value fibre offers the opportunity for local communities to benefit from maintaining populations in their natural environment. This will not only benefit local the people of the Andes but also the plant and animal biodiversity that is unique to this region of South America.

References Adams WM, Hulme D (2001) If community conservation is the answer in Africa, what is the question? Oryx 35:193–200. Attwell CAM (2000) What if the emperor has no clothes? – a reply to Martin. Oryx 34:3–5.

9 Lessons for the Future of Sustainable Use of Vicuña

119

Attwell CAM, Cotterill FPD (2000) Post modernism and African conservation science. Biodiversity and Conservation 9:559–577. Convention on Biological Diversity (2004) Addis Ababa principles and guidelines for the sustainable use of biodiversity. Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, Montreal, Canada. Furniss C (2006) On the tusks of a dilemma. Geographical (November) 47–57. Hulme D, Murphree M (2001) African wildlife and livelihoods: The promise and performance of community nonservation. Heinemman, Portsmouth, USA. Martin RB (1986) Communal Areas Management Program for Indigenous Resources (CAMPFIRE). Government of Zimbabwe, Department of Natural Parks and Wildlife Management. Branch of Terrestrial Ecology, Harare, Zimbabwe. Martin RB (1999) The rule of law and African game, a social change and conservation misrepresentation – a reply to Spinage. Oryx 33: 89–97. Peel J (2005) The precautionary principle in practice: Environmental decision-making and scientific uncertainty. The Federation Press, Sydney, Australia. Walker B (1999) Maximising net benefits through biodiversity as a primary land use. Environment and Development Economics 4:203–214. Wilshusen PR, Brechin SR, Fortwangler CL, West PC (2002) Reinventing a square wheel: Critique of a resurgent “protection paradigm” in international biodiversity conservation. Society & Natural Resources 15:17–40.

Index

A Acantholippia hastulata, 43 Aguada Blanca National Reserve, 26 Andean community, as main beneficiary of vicuña use, 81 Animal(s) domestication, process of, 7 kinds of, 7 Animal welfare animal conservation and, 52 in case of vicuña management programme, 54–58 definitions of, 50 and implications for wildlife use, 50–51 legislation, 115 recommendations for sustainable use of vicuña, 58–59 relationship with conservation and sustainable use, 51–54 Aspartate aminotransferase (AST), 55 Ayllu, 84 Aymara, 84

Carex spp., 41 Cellulolytic digestion, 42 Certificate of Custodianship, 70 Cervus elaphus. See Red deer (Cervus elaphus) Chaku, 49 Civil Code, for capture and use of wild species, 71 Community-based conservation (CBC), 1, 52, 81 Community in Andes, concept of, 82–85 Community wildlife management, 3, 52 Conference of the Parties (COP), 65 Conference of the United Nations on Environment and Development, 100 Convention for the Conservation and Management of the Vicuña, 82 Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), 66 Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), 2, 45, 63 Creatine kinase (CK) activity, 55

B Bactrian camel (Camelus bactrianus), 21 Behavioural ecology theory, 38 Bicarbonate secretion, 42 Biodiversity, loss of, 1 Buffer effect, 44

D Deyeuxia nardifolia, 41 Deyeuxia vicugnarum, 40 Distichlis humilis, 41

C Camelid pastoralism, 10 Camelus bactrianus. See Bactrian camel (Camelus bactrianus) CAMPFIRE programmes, 113 Captive management, of vicuña, 91

E The Earth Letter, 100 Eleocharis spp., 41 Endangered Species Act (ESA), 63, 66 Environmental education (EE), 97 in development of community-based wildlife management, 100–101 history of ideas and need for, 98–100

121

122 Environmental education (EE) (cont.) implementation in MACS Project, 102–103 and Puna schools, 101–102 training courses for in-practice teachers in Altiplano schools, 103–106 Evolutionary significant units (ESU), 29

F Festuca dolichophyla, 40 Festuca rigesens, 40 Festuca scirpifolia, 41 Fibre harvesting, 27 wild animals for, 3 Five Freedoms, concept of, 50

G Goats (Capra hircus), 42 Guanaco (Lama guanicoe), 8, 23, 41

H Habitat loss, by growth of human populations, 1 Habitat selection, pattern of, 43 Hordeum andicola, 41 Hunting Law, 71

I International Environmental Education Programme-UNEP (IEEP), 104

L Laguna Blanca National Park, 27 Laguna de los Pozuelos National Monument, 27 La Huallata, 101 Lama glama. See Llamas (Lama glama) Lama guanicoe. See Guanaco (Lama guanicoe) Lauca National Park, 25, 26 Ley de Caza. See Hunting Law Livestock production, report on, 12 Llamas (Lama glama), 42, 77

M Mallku. See Spirit of the Mountain Man and wildlife, relationship between, 7 Manejo Sostenible de Camélidos Silvestres (MACS) project, 4–5, 97

Index courses run during, 107–108 process and implementation of EE in, 102–103

N National Institute of Agriculture and Cattle Technology (INTA), 88 National Law for the Conservation of Fauna, 69 National parks establishment of, 1 for protection of wildlife and their habitat, 1 National Strategy for Wild South American Camelids, 72 Neutrophil/lymphocyte (N:L) ratio, 56 Nitrogen recycling, 42 Nongovernmental organisations (NGOs), 100

O Odocoileus virginianus. See White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) Overhunting, restriction of, 7

P Packed cell volume (PCV), 55 Pampa Galeras National Reserve, 26 Parent–offspring conflict, theory of, 39 Precautionary Principle, 114 Predator–prey relationship, 8 Programme of Corrals for the Sustainable Use of Vicuña, 90

Q Qayqu, 16 Quechua, 84

R Reales Ordenes, 15, 16 Red deer (Cervus elaphus), 55 Res nullius, concept of, 72

S Sajama National Park, 27 Salar de Surire National Monument, 26 Salinas Blanca National Reserve, 26, 101 Sallka, 7 San Guillermo National Park, 27 Servicio Agricola y Ganadero (SAG), 71 Spirit of the Mountain, 7

Index Stipa spp., 40 Sustainable use policy of, 65 sustainable use of the vicuña, 2 of wild species, 1, 113 Sustainable wildlife management system, 52

T Tbilisi conference, 104

U Ulla Ulla National Reserve, 27 United States Department of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), 66 Uywa, 7

V Vicugna vicugna mensalis, 22–23 Vicugna vicugna vicugna, 22–23 Vicuña Conservation and Management, 70 community-based conservation model for, 84 Vicuña Convention, 115 comparative analysis of National Legislation, 67–69 in Argentina, 69–70 in Bolivia, 70–71 in Chile, 71 in Peru, 72 legal instruments used to ratify, 68 Vicuña National Management Plan, 70 Vicuña National Programme, 74 Vicuña National Regulation, 70 Vicuña-Peru, 72 Vicuña (Vicugna vicugna) adaptations to Altiplano, 21–22, 24–25 Andean community as main beneficiary for use of, 81 archaeological sites with recorded evidence of, 9 biomass of vegetation available for, 45 cloth made with fibre from, 11 community-based conservation of, 81 conservation programme for, 25 consumptive use of, 3 contribution to anti-predation vigilance, 38 current distribution of, 25–27 depiction in rock-art, 10 development of community based sustainable use of, 4 diet of, 41 ecology of, 97

123 economic benefits and attitudes towards conservation of, 91–93 effects of climatic oscillations and their influence on, 29 evidence of origins of, 23–24 evolution of breeding systems, 38 fibers and skins exported in nineteenth century, 17 foraging behaviour of activity budgets and overall foraging time, 39–40 botanical composition of diets and diet selection, 40–41 food searching and daily and seasonal movements, 40 intake rate and digestive capabilities, 41–42 future of, 117–118 genetics mitochondrial DNA, 29 nuclear DNA-microsatellites, 27–29 variation in, 22–23 habitat of, 3, 21 habitat use, 42–45 harem size of, 36 intra-specific competition, 44 management projects implementation of, 86 and programmes, 81 meat and other by-products, 17 as member of sallka, 7 method for obtaining skin of, 16 national laws pertaining to conservation of, 68–69 poaching, 76–77 prohibited international trade in, 63 recommendations for conservation of, 114–117 relationship with human during historic period, 12–17 during prehistoric period (10500 BC–AD 1535), 8–12 social behaviour of group composition, 36–38 individual distances, 38–39 territorial behaviour, 35–36 stakeholders and their interests international, 73–74 local, 74–75 national, 74 subspecies of, 22 sustainable use of, 2 type of management and socio-economic impacts

124 Vicuña (Vicugna vicugna) (cont.) captive breeding in Argentina, 88–89 in Peru, 89–91 types of collective hunting of, 11–12 use of communal defecating sites by, 36 Vicuniandes Peru. See Vicuña-Peru

W White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), 55 Wild animals, for fibre harvesting, 3 Wild camelid management, 4 Wildlife conservation, 2, 63

Index Wildlife management. See also Community wildlife management application of five freedoms to, 51 economic benefits from, 3 political economy of, 2 standards for, 51 Wildlife species economic return for use of, 1 hunting or harvesting of, 2 Wild mammals, social organization of, 38 World Summit on Sustainable Development, 100