Constantino Aucca Chutas was fascinated by the singing of birds in the cloud forests. Early in his career as a researcher in Peru, the biologist delved into the plant network with Danish ornithologist Jon Fjeldsa and classified the most unlikely species. Now, at the age of 58, he is dedicated to preserving and restoring these Andean forests. In two decades, it has helped plant nearly three million trees, stretching some 7,014 kilometers from Colombia to Argentina. On November 21, the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) recognized him as one of the Champions of the Earth in the Inspiration and Action category.
Cloud forests are key to the complex hydrology of the tropical Andes, which includes Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia. It has wide variations in rainfall, humidity and temperatures as they grow from 3,500 meters to the extreme limit of life, close to the glacial ice of the snow-capped peaks of the Andes, even above Mont Blanc (a 4,809 meters above sea level). The undisputed ruler is the Queñua or Yagual (Polylepsis spp), a tree with a twisted trunk and very hard wood that can live for centuries. Other native species that can withstand the rigors of the high altitude climate are the jellyfish (Buddleja incana), the Andean alder (Alnus acuminata) and the chachacomo (Escallonia resinosa).
Community work in the community of Quelqanqa, Cusco, Peru Marco Zileri
“These native forests store and retain water, form soil through organic degradation, are germplasm banks and habitat for numerous species. They sequester carbon dioxide (CO₂), control watersheds and erodible soils,” describes Aucca. These are ecosystems so unique that many of the animal and plant species that inhabit these forests are endemic. Driven by the predatory actions of humans, the birds behave like the canary in the mines: if they stop singing, their habitat is threatened or gone, a clear warning sign of climate change.
The birds behave like the canary in the mine: if they stop singing, their habitat is threatened or gone, a clear warning sign of climate change.
Protect the Queñuales and the biodiversity of the Andes
On its unusual pilgrimage, Aucca has forged alliances with farming communities in the Andes, with whom it organizes annual days of massive reforestation and training in the sustainable management of natural resources. It also manages the recognition of natural, private or public protected areas, which already cover 16 – a total of 300,000 hectares – in Peru alone. Along the way, he and a few colleagues founded the Andean Ecosystems Association (Ecoan) in 2001, an NGO whose mission is to protect primary forests, headwaters and wetlands to conserve water resources and soil, based in Cusco, southeast of Cusco Land.
Since 2018, the organization’s collaborative reforestation model, supported by the United Nations, has also been applied in Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile and Argentina in partnership with Global Forest Generation, Conservation International, American Bird Conservancy and Wetlands International. Over the next 25 years, Acción Andina, as this international aspect is called, plans to protect 500,000 hectares of Queñual forest and plant another 500,000 hectares. “Deforestation is accelerating and climate change is hitting us hard,” explains Aucca.
Community involvement in planting the right tree in the right place is an important element of any reforestation program.
Tim Christophersen, UNEP ecosystem expert
In the Andes, “the high concentration of population in urban areas (more than 66%) creates material needs for the production and consumption of both water and new agricultural products and energy. This is changing the environment, land cover and use, and hydrological systems at multiple scales,” warned the General Secretariat of the Andean Community a decade ago. The Peruvian scientist works primarily with indigenous communities with solid organizational foundations that have historically developed adaptation practices to climate variability.
Queñua Forest in the Páramo of Tunguraque, Ecuador.Marco Zileri
Tim Christophersen, ecosystem expert at UNEP, the United Nations Environment Programme, explains that “protecting tropical forests while restoring degraded forests and other ecosystems could represent up to 30% of the immediate solution to climate change”. “Community involvement in planting the right tree in the right place is an important element of any reforestation program,” he said.
“The verb has to be clear and simple,” says Aucca of his dealings with parishioners. “When we speak in the name of conservation and mention the water problem, cover your ears!” he says. It is not usually difficult to persuade them of the benefits of protecting and restoring the natural environment – public authorities and institutions can be a tougher nut to crack – and when they do engage, they employ traditional mutual aid programs based on be called Quechua ayni. The spatula-tailed hummingbird (Loddigesia mirabilis) flutters against the light in these amazing forests, a beacon of hope.
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