The recovery of ancestral watercourses and the management of native pastures are the measures that the Miraflores and Canchayllo communities have chosen to start a process that will allow them to learn more about climate change and ecosystem-based adaptation.

 Nearly 70% of the area of the Nor Yauyos-Cochas Landscape Reserve (RPNYC, for its acronym in Spanish) is covered by puna grasslands. It is no coincidence then that the 23 communities living in the Reserve, which are organized in 12 districts, rely mainly on stock farming and agriculture for their livelihood. Access to water is, therefore, essential.
As part of the Mountain Ecosystem-based Adaptation Project, implemented by IUCN, UNDP and UNEP, The Mountain Institute, implementing partner of IUCN, conducted a series of consultations with different actors in the Miraflores and Canchayllo communities in order to identify climate change adaptation measures that respond to their demands and interests and contribute to the improvement of their living standards and to rural development, as well as to increasing their efficiency in the use of natural resources.

After a process of analysis and discussion with specialists, two measures were chosen: i) the recovery of ancestral watercourses in order to improve their access to water for different uses, and ii) the management of native pastures and organization of grazing activities.

In fact, within the Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) framework, the project, promotes the implementation of non-regrets adaptation measures, which offer social, economic and conservation benefits to local communities and ecosystems, independently from the future climate scenario. Generally, non-regrets measures are implemented while detailed climate evaluations are developed with the objective of providing information for the development of large scale EbA activities.

The inhabitants of these communities, both previously selected, showed interest not only in the implementation of non-regrets measures, but also in the need to better understand climate change, in the improvement of environmental governance and in social and community organization. This included the local regulations for the use of community resources and the recovery of community work. In the next months, the implementation of the no-regret activities, with the leadership of IUCN and The Mountain Institute, will focus on reaching these objectives alongside the communities and the RPNYC.