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Environment
Climate change in Peru
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World leaders have begun to arrive at the climate summit in Copenhagen. But deep divisions between rich and poor nations continue to threaten to derail the negotiations. The US says it doesn’t expect to offer any further cuts in its carbon emissions. And developing countries accuse industrialized nations of going back on their commitment to fight climate change. The consequences of failure would have a global impact, from the world’s mountains to its jungles. Peru is a country that has both. John Beaupre tells us that the South American nation is feeling the effects of climate change from top to bottom. Claes Andreaason contributed to this report. <
Marcelino Cruz
Cruz: “There used to be more rain in the past. These days, it seems as if it’s escaping.”
Reporter: It’s not much better during the dry season. Between the months of May and September, Cruz and his neighbors get their water from the nearby Copa Glacier. But temperatures here have been rising, and the glacier is rapidly diminishing. Over his 34 years, Cruz says the glacier has retreated about a mile and a quarter. The lack of water has affected production, Cruz says. Yields from his farm have decreased by forty percent in the last decade.
Cruz:“And it’s not just the water. We also have new pests. And frost – something we never used to have.”
 Copa Glacier (photo: Kate Dunbar) |
Reporter: Cruz is seeing the effects of what researchers have confirmed–that his small part of the world is experiencing a significant shift in its climate. The effects of climate change are also being felt a day’s journey away, at the edge of the Amazon jungle. That’s where a long and slim balsa takes us across the Marañon River to Yamayaka – to meet with Simon Wipe Bejus, a leader of the Awajun. It’s a steamy, 100 degrees or so here. Bejus is dressed in a headband of beans and feathers, with wide belts of red, white and black beans crossing his chest .
Bejus: “The climate is changing, The rain is scarce and the sun feels like three times what it used to be. The mountains are getting drier. And the River is much smaller. It really worries us here in the Amazon.”
Reporter: The Awajun grow plantains, yucca, maize and rice. But as in Copa up in the mountains, Bejus says their traditional lifestyle here is threatened.
Bejus:“The jungle is our market. Nature is our pharmacy. But with climate change, mining, oil exploration and illegal deforestation, the Amazon is getting polluted.”
 Huancayo potato market |
Maria Scurrah: This is another one, Paseña from Huancavelica. Loved in the market for its purple color…
Reporter: 400 miles away in Huancayo, plant breeder and pathologist Maria Scurrah guides me through the potato market. Peru is the birthplace of the potato, and the plentitude at the market is just a fraction of the thousands of varieties of potatoes grown here.
Scurrah: You can see that they native varieties are easy to tell because, you can see that plant breeders go for big, round, no eyes. Whereas the ancient varieties are the opposite; small, shriveled and deep eyes.
Reporter: Scurrah says that lately, Peru’s potato farmers have had to adjust to their changing climate :
Scurrah: “Well, one of the key adaptations that the farmers in the Andes are doing is really climbing up with their crops – only ten years ago you wouldn’t have seen a crop above 4,000 (meters) and those are all the bitter potatoes that are frost tolerant. And the top potatoes would have been at 3,900 (meters) – and now it’s very common to find crops at 4,200 (meters).”
Reporter: Growing potatoes at above 13,000 feet used to be unheard of. But Scurrah says there is a limit.
Scurrah: “As the globe heats up, people move up with their crops until the edge of what used to be highland pastures, not agriculture, And they will have nowhere to go after reaching that top line.”
Reporter: Peru itself is responsible for only about half a percent of all greenhouse gas pollution. But as climate change begins to affect life all over the country, the Peruvian government has adopted an ambitious plan to fight it. The goal is to decrease the country’s emissions by 47 percent by 2020. And to stop net deforestation in the Amazon entirely in just ten years as well. Eduardo Durand runs the government’s special agency for climate change.
Durand: “The reduction has to be very aggressive and very important in the first twenty years.”
Reporter: Durand believes Peru’s goals… and those of much of the rest of the world… can – and must be met:
Durand: “Otherwise we will have a very serious situation, and a very high cost of adaptation in the long term. So it’s better for everybody – developed and developing countries – to have a very bold and ambitious goal of reduction in the next step up until 2020.”
Reporter: Back up in Copa Grande, Marcelino Cruz is getting ready for the night shift as a guard at a rose plantation . Like many other farmers here, Cruz needs the extra income to support his family. Moving his farm somewhere else is not an alternative, he says. They probably don’t have enough water either. But as the climate continues to change, here. Cruz says he doubts own children will be able to stay in Copa Grande:
Cruz: “I hope my children will get a good education and get a job somewhere else. These fields will not be able to support them.”
- The World’s coverage of Copenhagen 2009
- More environment coverage on The World
- Audio slideshow: Saving Peru’s native potatoes
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