Biocultural preservation, innovation and benefit-sharing for climate change resilience

In this project, ANDES (Asociación para la Naturaleza y el Desarrollo Sostenible) provided support to communities in the mountainous Cusco Region of Peru for the establishment and management of a Potato Park, where communities can engage with, preserve and benefit from biocultural heritage. Communities active in the Association of Communities of the Potato Park are supported to preserve native and locally-adapted crop species and to capitalise on this through agrobiodiversity-based microenterprises. Communities’ resilience to climate change is bolstered ecologically by maintaining availability of locally-adapted food crops, culturally by reviving traditional knowledge, and socially by providing ecosystem-based livelihood generating activities. This solution is published as part of the project Ecosystem-based Adaptation; strengthening the evidence and informing policy, coordinated by IIED, IUCN and UN Environment WCMC.