INDIGENOUS EFFORTS: The Quechua People of Peru

The Quechua people are an indigenous community found in the Andean region of South America, a region where they have lived for thousands of years. They have been known to have a deep connection to the land, and have relied on agriculture, livestock rearing, and herding as their primary forms of subsistence.

The 1970s brought with it the Peruvian Government’s decision to open up its borders to multinational oil companies that sought to carry out fracking operations in various areas of the Amazon rainforest, a region that is host to, and vital for, more indigenous communities than just the Quechua. These communities, of which the Quechua is one, have been devastatingly impacted by the environmental and health concerns given rise to by poorly regulated extractive practices. This, in addition to the negative impacts of climate change on crop yields owing to issues like rising temperatures, irregular rainfall, and changes in weather patterns.

A highly notable Quechuan climate change activist, Tarcila Rivera Zea, is currently a member of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and founded the Chirapaq organization, a center for indigenous people from the Andean and Amazonian regions. One of the main aspects of the Chirapaq organization, is one that aligns closely with the history of the Quechua people: food security.

They aim to develop and maintain resilient and robust food systems that aims to consolidate the Quechuan capacity to sow, produce, share, conserve and consume food using their own agricultural practices. Practices that, necessarily, do not endanger the health of the Quechuan people or the natural environment: choosing to work with the land, rather than off it.

Sources:

http://chirapaq.org.pe/en/food-sovereignty/what-are-food-security-and-food-sovereignty

http://chirapaq.org.pe/en/consejo-directivo/tarcila-rivera-zea