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Contemporary Landscape Changes in the Cordillera

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Contemporary Landscape Changes in the Cordillera CONTEMPORARY LANDSCAPE CHANGES IN THE CORDILLERA BLANCA AND CORDILLERA HUAYHUASH OF PERU (1936-2012) Cambios en el Paisaje Contemporáneo de la Cordillera Blanca y la Cordillera Huayhuash del Perú (1936-2012) Sergiu George Jiduc1 1Centre for Environmental Policy, Imperial College London, UK https://doi.org/10.36580/rgem.i1.37-50 ABSTRACT tomadas por F. D. Ayres en 1954 para el National Snow and Ice Data Center en Boulder, Colorado. Los resultados Landscape changes in the Cordillera Blanca and sugieren que, desde 1936, la Cordillera Blanca y la Cordillera Huayhuash of Peru between 1936 and 2012 Cordillera Huayhuash han experimentado una recesión were documented, focusing on glacier and vegetation glaciar extensa y la formación de nuevas lagunas glaciares. cover, as well as changes in the cultural landscape. Repeat En términos del paisaje vegetal, la cobertura de los bosques photography (an analytical tool capable of broadly and nativos de Polylepis parece haber mantenido estable, rapidly providing clarifications regarding landscape and mientras que el área cubierta por las especies no nativas land use changes within a given region) was the principal de Eucalyptus y Pinus parece haber aumentado. Al mismo method used, along with oral testimonies and literature tiempo, el paisaje cultural muestra claramente la expansión reviews. The base material used for the research consisted urbana. of historic photographs taken by the German and Austrian Alpine Club (Alpenverein) Expeditions to the Cordillera Blanca in 1936 and 1939, as well as photographs taken by Palabras clave: Cambios del paisaje, paisaje de mon- F. D. Ayres in 1954 for the National Snow and Ice Data tañas, desglaciación, Parque Nacional Huascarán, Perú, Center in Boulder, Colorado. Results suggest that since manejo de recursos naturales, monitoreo fotográfico 1936 the Cordillera Blanca and Cordillera Huayhuash have experienced widespread glacier recession and the formation of new glacier lakes. In terms of the vegetative INTRODUCCIÓN landscape, the native Polylepis forest cover appears to have remained stable, whereas the area covered by non-native The Cordillera Blanca and Cordillera Huayhuash are Eucalyptus and Pinus species appears to have increased. At the most prominent mountain ranges in all of Peru. The the same time, the cultural landscape clearly shows urban Cordillera Blanca is a straight mountain chain, 180 km expansion. long, striking NNW to SSE, and running parallel to the coast from 8°5’ S to 10° S latitude. It also forms the main watershed of Peru’s coastal region. From a geologic Keywords: Landscape change, mountain landscape, perspective, the Cordillera Blanca is made of plutonic rocks deglaciation, Huascarán National Park, Peru, natural re- that have penetrated the upper layers of the Earth’s crust. source management, photo monitoring These rocks consist mainly of light colored granodiorite (intrusive igneous rock containing more plagioclase than orthoclase), and can be found in glaciated areas forming RESUMEN the base of the peaks. Stratified rocks such as black slate (foliated, homogenous, metamorphic rock) surround the Se documentaron cambios en el paisaje en la Cordillera granodiorite. These are folded and strongly compressed Blanca y la Cordillera Huayhuash del Perú entre 1936 towards the crests (Kinzl and Schneider, 1950). y 2012, enfocándose en la cobertura de glaciares y de la vegetación, así como en los cambios en el paisaje The Cordillera Blanca offers some of the best cultural. La fotografía repetitiva (“repeat photography”, mountaineering in South America. Its advantageous una herramienta analítica capaz de ofrecer ampliamente y position in relation to traffic routes and exceptional high rápidamente aclaraciones en relación a los cambios en el summits make it an accessible and popular high altitude paisaje y en el uso de la tierra dentro de una región específica) destination. In terms of climate, the Cordillera Blanca has fue el principal método usado, complementado con a tropical climate with two main seasons (i.e., dry and testimonios orales y una revisión de la literatura pertinente. wet) alternating according to the distribution of rainfall. Los insumos de base para la investigación consistían en The rainy season begins in November and ends in April, fotografías históricas tomadas por las Expediciones de los reaching its greatest intensity between January and March. Clubes Alpinos (Alpenverein) de Alemania y Austria a la The dry season occupies the remaining months and is Cordillera Blanca en 1936 y 1939, además de fotografías considered to be the best season to visit the two cordilleras. INAIGEM 37 S. JIDUC The Cordillera Huayhuash is a compact subregion of during the past century, and currently only 3 per cent of the the Cordillera Occidental, 30 km long and striking NNW original forest remains intact. to SSE, running fairly parallel to the coast from 10°8’ S to 10°24’ S latitude. It contains sharp summits, six of West of the national park lies the agricultural and which exceed 6000 m. The geology of the Huayhuash is earthquake-prone valley of the Santa River, a densely comprised of limestone, interbedded with sandstone and populated region containing cities such as Huaraz (130,000 shale. Volcanic activity is also present in the form of active inhabitants), Caraz (11,000 inhabitants), and hundreds of geothermal areas, hydrothermal alteration (e.g., sulphate rural settlements. These cities are relatively prosperous, minerals and iron oxide) and hot springs. In some limestone although most rural inhabitants still rely on subsidence beds, marine fossils, such as ammonites and bivalves, can agriculture as their means of living. Incomes are mainly be found. The Cordillera Huayhuash is home to some of based on agriculture, livestock, and a growing tourism the most spectacular and difficult alpine climbing in all of sector, especially on the western side of the park. the Andes and is considered by many to be one of the best trekking regions in the world (Frimer, 2005). Important environmental issues exist in the area. They include overgrazing of alpine and subalpine pastures, The Huascarán National Park is situated in Ancash concentrated tourism, uncertain land titles and park Department in the north-central part of Peru and includes boundaries, government policies supportive of resource most of the Cordillera Blanca. The national park was extraction within the national park, and subsequent established in 1975 and was declared a UNESCO Biosphere external pressures such as new roads, mining, dams, and Reserve in 1977. The park contains 60 peaks with altitudes tourist infrastructure. However, during 1995 and 1996, above 5700 m, the highest being Huascarán South at 6768 The Mountain Institute (TMI), along with governmental, m. Forty-four glacial valleys transect the range from both non-governmental, private sector and local communities west and east. The terrain below 4800 m is characterized produced the Huascarán National Park Ecological by high altitude grassland (puna) with remnant quenual Management Plan, the country’s first participatory plan (Polylepis sp.) forests located within the upper inner valley for protected areas (Byers, 2000). TMI has continued slopes. The Polylepis forest cover hosts a highly diverse to work in the region, along with a range of other non- flora and fauna and provides habitat for several endemic governmental organizations, in the fields of education, species of Andean birds. Unfortunately, humans have cultural conservation, alpine restoration, climate change, drastically reduced the area covered by Polylepis forest and water supply. Figure 1. Google Earth map showing the location of the two cordilleras in Peru and our photo locations after cross-referencing with the locations from the Alpenverein maps. ©Google Earth. 38 REVISTA DE GLACIARES Y ECOSISTEMAS DE MONTAÑA CONTEMPORARY LANDSCAPE CHANGES IN THE CORDILLERA BLANCA AND CORDILLERA HUAYHUASH OF PERU (1936-2012) Figure 2. DuÖAV (Deutschen und Österreichischen Alpenvereins, München), 1934, “Cordillera Blanca y el Callejón de Huailas (Peru)”. The map shows the routes taken by Alpenverein expedition members during the 1932 expedition across the Cordillera Blanca. The empty circles and black arrows correspond to the photogrammetric locations and their field of view (aspect) respectively. INAIGEM 39 S. JIDUC METHODOLOGY photographs was met (Figure 1). Between the 1930s and the 1950s, the Deutscher The Alpenverein maps used for our research included und Österreichischer Alpenverein (DuÖAV) and the 1932 DuÖAV (Deutschen und Österreichischen Deutscher Alpenverein (DAV) expeditions produced Alpenvereins, Munchen) “Cordillera Blanca y el Callejón the world-renowned Alpenverein maps, using terrestrial de Huailas (Peru)” (Figure 2). This map is commonly photogrammetry from mid- to high-altitude photopoints. referred to as the “Parte Norte” or “North Sheet” of the Moreover, thousands of glass plate negatives and Leica Cordillera Blanca. The 1939 DAV (Deutschen Alpenverein, photographs were also produced, which are scattered across Innsbruck) “Cordillera Blanca (Perú) Parte Sur” map was Europe in various collections. These historic landscape also used. Other maps included the 1939 DAV Cordillera photographs provide a unique opportunity to qualitatively Huayhuash Expedition “Cordillera de Huayhuash (Peru)”, document contemporary landscape changes (Byers, 2000). and the DAV “Alpenvereinskarte Cordillera Huayhuash”, published in 2008. Repeat photography is an analytical
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