Tearfund advocacy case study
Protecting La Moya Ecological Reserve - Peru
Background
Ayaviri is a Quechua-speaking community of
17,000 people, situated at an altitude of 4,000
metres in the Andes, Peru. It is centred around
an ecological reserve with a lake, called La Moya.
This is the only place in the district that remains
green all the year round and also has important
historical and cultural significance. Two
indigenous communities, descended from the
Incas, live on the edge of La Moya, and share it
with the rest of the Ayaviri. The two
communities (Umasuyo and Ccapacc Hacco) are
considered as the proprietors of the reserve, but
in reality the land is owned by the government.
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there is no system of pipes to prevent
this happening. This is particularly bad
with blood and other remains from the
abattoir ending up here.
In the dry season use of la Moya by
animals also causes contamination by
their excrement.
Consequences of degradation
- the litter means that La Moya is losing
its beauty
- the bacterial pollution is causing illness
in the population and a number of
deaths have been recorded as a direct
result of this
- the sports and general pollution means
that the size of the ecological system is
shrinking and threatens to disappear if
the degradation continues.
The communities keep animals in surrounding
fields and, during the dry season (April – June)
they are dependent on La Moya for feeding
them. However, for many years, the Moya has
started to be degraded and is now polluted and
in threat of disappearing or being of limited use
due to contamination.
If La Moya shrinks too small or disappears, this
would mean the livelihoods of the two
communities would be under threat.
Reasons for degradation
- People from the town dump their
rubbish in La Moya, a practice that has
been going on for centuries but which
is much worse now due to the increase
in population and increase in
manufactured goods. This practice is
particularly bad during Christmas day
festivals and the annual bull run. In
some places rubbish is as deep as 1
metre.
- Running water is only available for a
few hours each day so people from the
town come to the river to wash their
clothes, especially the poorest people in
the town who also wash clothes for
other families. Studies have shown that
each day between 10 and 15 kg of
detergent end up in La Moya from
washing.
- Because the Moya is the only green
place in the area, people often come for
sports and this is starting to destroy
some of the ecosystem on the drier
parts of the reserve, turning it to dust.
- The village is on a slope of 6 metres so
all of the dirty water and rubbish from
the village flows into the reserve, and
Actions to save La Moya
The two communities have been approaching
the authorities and the mayor for a number of
years to try and get help with cleaning and
protecting the reserve. However, they had no
success. This is partly due to the lack of money
available and partly due to corruption in the
local authorities, as they spend the little money
they have on their own projects or on reelection. It is also due to the fact that the
communities have had little contact with the
authorities and do not have a good relationship,
with suspicion on both sides and the authorities
stereotyping the communities as ‘backward’ and
‘undeveloped’.
In 1999, Pastor Eron of Tearfund Partner, The
Instituto Biblico de Ayaviri (Biblical Institute of
Ayaviri) , started a programme of awareness
raising of the need to protect the reserve. Being
able to speak Quechua, he gained access to the
leader of first community and persuaded him of
the need to keep the reserve clean. However,
the community leadership changes each year,
and when this happened, Eron needed to start
again, showing the need for awareness raising to
be done at all levels of the community in order
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to be sustainable. The second community
initially accused Eron of wanting to challenge
their traditions and drive them from their
traditional lands. They also saw little reason to
co-operate as the vast majority of the pollution
and contamination came from the town.
However, there have been various opponents in
this work, mainly the candidates for the mayoral
elections at the end of 2002, who accuse Eron
and others of developing this campaign as a
platform for political power, or of being paid
large sums of money to do it and therefore of
acting in their own interests.
Actions so far to save La Moya have included
‘cleaning days’ when the institutions, together
with people from the town and the
communities, have got together and cleaned the
area surrounding La Moya of rubbish, as well as
dredging up rubbish from in the lake itself.
They have also distributed leaflets urging people
to protect their local environment, continued to
have meetings with the communities and the
town, and have broadcast regular programmes
on the local radio.
Results of the campaign
- In December 2001, the mayor passed a
decree to say that dumping litter was
prohibited in La Moya, and that the
Christmas celebrations (which cause so
much litter) needed to take place
elsewhere.
- La Moya is much cleaner now than at
the beginning of the campaign, as a
result of the cleaning days and a change
in behaviour.
- The level of awareness in the
communities and the town is much
higher and they see the protection of La
Moya as their own problem that they all
need to help solve.
Building alliances for change
In this whole process, the Institute needed to
make some strategic allies. In this they were
supported by another Tearfund Partner, Peace
and Hope, who also helped them to produce
awareness raising materials and to think through
a strategy for change. They worked with The
Archeological Museum, a Catholic institution
that helped with scientific research into the
causes and effects of degradation of La Moya
and documenting the history of the area to show
the historical and cultural significance of the
reserve.
Problems
However, the actions so far will not provide
long-term solutions as they have yet to address
the fundamental causes of the damage. This is
where the campaign is now heading as it moves
from a campaign on a single issue to one which
works with everyone to bring about the overall
development of Ayaviri. The main outstanding
needs that have been raised are:
- to provide more running water to
houses so people don’t need to wash
their clothes in the river
- to provide drinking water to the
communities and town
- to provide alternative places to put
rubbish
- to find a way so that the infected and
polluted water from the village and the
abattoir does not run into La Moya
- to clean the Moya so that the water
does not cause illness in the population
- to offer an alternative area for sports
and the bull run
The Museum also helped provide access to the
mayor and other local authorities in a Catholic
dominated area. The mayor has been extremely
unpredictable, and presides over a corrupt
regime, with no accountability for his actions to
anyone. At times he has felt threatened by
someone else gaining notoriety and popularity,
and once tried to buy Eron off with the offer of
a good job in the local government. However,
he has also been a useful ally in placing La Moya
at the top of the political agenda in an attempt
to gain credit for improvements for himself!
Eron also worked with a special body (Mesa de
Consertacion) established in Ayaviri to facilitate
consultation between all local groups and
communities and to help with planning for
development of the area. All local authorities,
institutions and most civil society groups are
part of this consultation process, and protection
of the environment is a key part of its strategic
plan.
Communities marginalised
The two communities are open to manipulation
and discrimination and have had little
participation in any discussions about the future
of the area. They are still suspicious of the local
authorities and most institutions and feel
threatened that their land will be taken away.
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One community sees no need to collaborate as
they think they have ownership of the land and
the right to decide what is done with it.
However, they are in a weak position because
the local authority legally has the ultimate say.
The communities are in danger of decisions
about the future of La Moya being taken
without them.
There is also a proposal by the owner of the
current museum to build a new one in the
middle of La Moya, with the promise of jobs
and of bringing tourism. Connected with this
proposal is to build a fence surrounding the
whole reserve and to provide big rubbish
containers. A lot of effort and resources are
planned for this, justified by the need to do
something practical so that the campaign has a
physical ‘presence’ in La Moya. However, the
main problem with this proposal is that is has
not addressed the more fundamental issues first.
It has also been planned to go ahead with the
agreement of most of the local authorities, but
with little consultation with the 2 communities
(although one has signed an agreement that their
land can be used to build a museum, but there is
disagreement over exactly where it will go).
There has also been no collaboration with the
consultation body.
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Although this museum may bring in jobs and
tourism, it threatens to cause conflicts as the
communities and the town will see a new
building but the will still have limited clean
running water, nowhere to wash their clothes,
and the reserve will remain polluted. They may
feel betrayed and participate even less with local
authorities and institutions and become further
marginalised from decisions that affect their
future and from the development of the town.
Key advocacy learning points
- Tried to include the community at all stages
- Holding existing bodies to account for what
they are supposed to be doing
- Educating communities on the causes and
effects of their problems
- Co-operate with the government to bring
change
- Build a strong and varied coalition
- Use the media in appropriate ways
Challenges and next steps
The main challenge now is for the communities
and the poorest sections of the town to
participate in decisions that will affect their
future, and for the main issues in Ayaviri to be
addressed to provid e long-term solutions and a
clean and litter-free reserve. The Biblical
Institute therefore plans to:
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human rights and citizenship, but has so
far failed to do this. The institute needs
to ensure this is done.
continue to build relationships with the
communities and work with them so
that they are able to analyse the causes
of their poverty and marginalisation and
propose their plans for the Moya and
for their own development. These
plans can then be presented to the
current mayoral candidates and the
communities can sign an agreement for
a programme of work with the
incoming mayor.
continue the awareness raising on the
need to protect the environment.
strengthen contacts with key allies who
will be able to lobby at a higher level for
resources and who will also be able to
help with education material sand
capacity building of the communities.
mobilise individual members of the
church to become more involved in
awareness raising and practical activities
to clean La Moya.
work with authorities to ensure that a
scientific technical assessment is made
of the problems with La Moya and the
results used to develop the most
appropriate solutions.
Graham Gordon, April 2002
graham.gordon@tearfund.org
work with the consultation body to
ensure that it functions properly and
that it includes the communities and the
poorest sections of the town in the
consultation and planning process. The
consultation body also had plans last
year for capacity building and training in
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