Author(s):
Jennifer K Lipton - University Of Texas at Austin
Abstract:
Patterns and processes associated with landscape transformations in the Andean highlands are a result of both human agency and biophysical change, and also are confounded by the implications of global climate change. A combination of aerial photographs, Landsat data and qualitative data were used to examine human dimensions of landscape change over a 14 year period in and around Huascarán National Park, located in the North Central Peruvian Andes. Interviews were carried out in six intensive study areas and ground truth data were collected. These areas were selected based upon the following: 1) geographic situation and ecological zonation, 2) levels of accessibility, and 3) intensity of types of use (agro-pastoral/tourism/mining). The mutable political and social fabric of the nation from the establishment of the national park in 1975 up to 2001 mirrors the human induced landscape modifications, many of which can be analyzed in satellite imagery and with GIScience. Land cover data derived from a hybrid classification method and interview data with informants demonstrates that valleys undergoing a greater percentage of land cover class changes have noteworthy socio-political legacies relating to historical land tenure regimes, current political networks, and the social cohesion of the Comunidad Campesina. Despite trends in migration for wage labor, people are investing capital in agro-pastoral and tourism-based livelihoods in their home community and increasingly within the boundaries of the national park. Land cover will continue to be altered inside the park, particularly when management strategies are not integrating the goals and needs of the periphery population.
