PERCEPTIONS OF RANGELAND DEGRADATION AND ITS CAUSES IN THE PERUVIAN ALTIPLANO DRY PUNA A Dissertation presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School at the University of Missouri-Columbia In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy by CECILIA TURIN Dr. Jere Gilles, Dissertation Supervisor July 2019 © Copyright by Cecilia Turin 2019 All Rights Reserved The undersigned, appointed by the dean of the Graduate School, have examined the dissertation entitled PERCEPTIONS OF RANGELAND DEGRADATION AND ITS CAUSES IN THE PERUVIAN ALTIPLANO DRY PUNA presented by Cecilia Turin, a candidate for the degree of doctor of philosophy and hereby certify that, in their opinion, it is worthy of acceptance. Professor Jere Gilles Professor J. Sanford Rikoon Professor Corinne Valdivia Professor Tola Pearce ………………………….Thanks, my beloved family and friends. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank to all professors and colleagues that in different ways made it possible for me to complete this document. My profound gratitude to professor Jere Gilles for all his teachings, thoughtful comments, and wise advice, not only on my research topic but also for my academic and non-academic life. I really appreciate his listening, his academic and family support and believing in my capacity. My special gratitude to professor Corinne Valdivia, for her valuable friendship and teachings on how the world works from an economic point of view, sharing her knowledge and insights of rural communities in Peru. To professor Sandy Rikoon, for introduced me to integrated frameworks to study complex social and environmental problems. Those frameworks gave me the answers I was looking for long time ago. And to professor Tola Pearce, for her gender and minorities insights. Infinite thanks to professor Carol Gilles for her wise tips to keep moving when I was getting stuck and for her caring. To my friends Bill McKelvey, Jill Lucht, Keith Jamtgaard and Rafael Esponda, for all their listening, companionship, caring and making me feel at home. Thank you to the Puno people. To Roberto Valdivia and staff of the Research Center on Natural Resources and Environment (CIRNMA by its acronym in Spanish), for welcoming me in Puno and supporting me. My gratitude to comuneros of Apopata, Chocorasi and Lacotuyo that welcomed me in their homes during fieldwork, for all their wisdom, sharing, and life lessons. Likewise, thanks to all the people at the different universities, research centers, government offices and other institutions that collaborated to provide information. In all the cases they were very interested and eager to contribute. ii Finally, I would like to thank Fulbright Peru, SANREM CRSP, Department of Rural Sociology, MU Graduate School and International Center, for their kind support, either financial or logistic, without which this research would not have been possible. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................................ II LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................ VI ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................ 1 CHAPTER .......................................................................................................................... 3 1. INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................. 3 1.1. Andean rangelands and degradation ................................................................ 3 1.2. Problem statement and purpose of the study ................................................... 6 1.3. Objectives and research questions ................................................................... 7 1.4. Significance of the problem ............................................................................ 8 1.5. Structure of the study ...................................................................................... 9 2. LITERATURE REVIEW ..................................................................................... 10 2.1. Rangeland science and rangeland degradation .............................................. 10 2.2. Rangeland studies in Peru ............................................................................. 15 2.3. Institutional economics .................................................................................. 18 2.4. Political Ecology ........................................................................................... 25 2.5. Actor-oriented interface analysis and life-worlds approach .......................... 27 2.6. Pastoralists studies in Peru ............................................................................ 29 3. METHODOLOGY ............................................................................................... 32 3.1. Research design ............................................................................................. 32 3.2. Selection of research sites and participants ................................................... 33 3.3. Research Methods ......................................................................................... 35 3.4. Data collection, organization and analysis .................................................... 37 3.5. Scope and limitations of the study ................................................................ 39 4. RESEARCH SETTINGS ...................................................................................... 40 4.1. Peruvian Altiplano ......................................................................................... 40 4.2. Peruvian Altiplano southern dry puna ........................................................... 43 4.3. Southern dry puna pastoralist production systems ........................................ 47 4.4. Rangeland institutional and management framework ................................... 50 5. PERCEPTIONS OF RANGELAND DEGRADATION ...................................... 53 5.1. Perceptions of Rangeland Degradation by Stakeholders .............................. 53 5.2. Perceptions of rangeland degradation by pastoralists ................................... 64 iv 5.3. Different perceptions of rangeland degradation ............................................ 71 6. CAUSES OF RANGELAND DEGRADATION ................................................. 75 6.1 Perceptions of Causes of Rangeland Degradation by Stakeholders .............. 75 6.2 Perceptions of Causes of Rangeland Degradation by Pastoralists .............. 100 7. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ............................................. 113 7.1 Perceptions of rangeland degradation ......................................................... 114 7.2 Perceptions of causes of rangeland degradation. ......................................... 122 BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................................................................................... 131 APPENDICES ................................................................................................................ 145 APPENDIX A ........................................................................................................... 145 APPENDIX B ........................................................................................................... 146 APPENDIX C ........................................................................................................... 147 APPENDIX D ........................................................................................................... 148 APPENDIX E ........................................................................................................... 151 VITA ............................................................................................................................... 152 v LIST OF TABLES Table Page 1. Number of stakeholders per type and scope .............................................................34 2. Number of pastoralists by community .....................................................................35 3. Perception of rangeland degradation by type of stakeholder ...................................54 4. Pastoralists’ perceptions of rangeland degradation ..................................................65 5. Pastoralists’ perceptions of rangeland condition ......................................................65 6. Perceptions of main causes of rangeland degradation by stakeholders ...................76 7. Perceptions of main causes of rangeland degradation by scientists .........................77 8. Perceptions of main causes of rangeland degradation by government ....................77 9. Perceptions of main causes of rangeland degradation by NGOs .............................78 10. Perceptions of other causes of rangeland degradation by stakeholders ...................99 11. Perceptions of causes of rangeland productivity decrease by pastoralists .............101 12. Pastoralists climate change perceptions related to rangelands decline ..................102 vi PERCEPTIONS OF RANGELAND DEGRADATION AND ITS CAUSES IN THE PERUVIAN ALTIPLANO DRY PUNA Cecilia Turin Dr. Jere Gilles, Dissertation Supervisor ABSTRACT This qualitative case study investigated rangeland degradation in Peru by better understanding the social component of the Altiplano dry puna rangeland systems. Participants’ perceptions of rangeland degradation and its causes were collected from Aymara