Short description
The Potato Park is located in the Cusco Region which was largely deforested during colonial times. In its natural state, the ecosystem in this mountaneous area in the Andes is categorised as subtropical moist broadleaf forests. The Potato Park works with 6 Quechua indigenous communities and is collectively owned and governed by the Association of Communities of the Potato Park. The park focuses on protecting and preserving the critical role and inderdependency of indigenous biocultural heritage for local rights, livelihoods, conservation and sustainable use of agrobiodiversity.
Main purpose
Climate adaptation / resilience,
Reducing competition for natural resources,
Increasing community cohesion / community building, Strengthening indigenous culture
Other expected benefits
Biodiversity conservation / restoration,
Food security,
Provision / protection / diversification of employment and livelihoods / poverty reduction,
Gender equality

Conflict context
Stark politcal and social differences, widespread poverty and harsh living condidtions, and lacking government support for people living in vulnerable situations, has led to protests and the arrest of president Castillo in 2022. Grievances were exacerbated as Peru saw the heaviest loss of life per captia due to COVID 19 and trust in Peru’s democratic institutions is the lowest in Latin America.
Although peace has been restored, grievances remain, especially among indgenous communities who have felt neglected and mistreated by the government for centuries. Peru is the second-largest cocaine producer in the world and coca plantations often encroach on natural parks and indigenous lands, leaving Indigenous people to bear the burden of the narcotics industry.
Peace and security contributions
Strengthened Andean cultural values and identity, and stronger social cohesion, have contributed to adaptation by helping to sustain resilient ecosystems and high levels of resilient agrobiodiversity, and by promoting social equity and inclusion so that the adaptation needs of the most vulnerable are addressed. Improved security and reduced conflict over resources. Before the work by ANDES began, there were serious conflicts over resources between communities. Such conflicts no longer occur as competition for resources has been replaced by collaborative management.
Reported elements of good practices
The Potato Park biocultural heritage territory model is unlike a ‘national park’ because it is run by the communities instead of governments, on the basis of customary laws. This community-led model of territorial management enables ‘self-determination’.
Decisions are made by community institutions. Any project needs to be approved by communities through a free prior and informed consent process. Projects must also ensure communities play a leading role in project design, facilitation, data collection and analysis.
Projects are implemented by community technical experts, with ANDES providing technical support. Community technical experts are elected by the community authority.
Reported challenges
- Low donor/government priority at the local level.
- Insufficient knowledge at the government level on ecosystem-based approaches.
- Weak collective community-level institutions, which were particularly challenging at the start of the project.
- A lack of technical skills at the local government levels. These skills exist at the local level, but have not been institutionalised within government.
Practical details of implementation
Local-level support for the Potato Park is enough to ensure sustainability of the initiative, but the threat of mining remains and the political environment is not always conducive to sustainability. At the regional level, the policy environment was not conducive to sustainability at the start of the project, but the Potato Park helped create a favourable policy environment as it matured.
Method of monitoring environmental and peace impacts
This project involved the development of biocultural indicators for monitoring and evaluation of indigenous food sovereignty within the Traditional Resource Rights (TRR) framework. TRR refers to a bundle of rights that support indigenous peoples, including human rights and rights to environmental justice, food, climate justice, and local biocultural heritage. Conventional monitoring and evaluation practices are based on indicators identified by scientists and policy makers, not by the communities themselves. In this project, community researchers developed indicators based on traditional knowledge and biocultural heritage, in collaboration with academics and scientists, to create culturally sensitive monitoring tools.
The method of monitoring the peace impact is currently unknown.


