The Potato Park in Peru is managed by a collective of indigenous communities who employ traditional knowledge and management methods to restore agrobiodiversity, particularly of potatoes, adapt agricultural systems to climate change, and strengthen cultural identity and sovereignty in the area.

Nature-based Intervention:

Established in 2002, the Potato Park, located in the Cusco region in the Pisac district of Peru, aims to protect agrobiodiversity, particularly of potatoes. The Potato Park spans over 9,000 hectares in a mountainous area in the Andes. The Potato Park works with six local indigenous Quechua communities and aims to expand this partnership to a further 23 communities. Management of the area is governed by participating communities who hold a collective land title and have enacted an inter-community benefit-sharing agreement based on customary laws. Principally, the Potato Park aims to protect the diversity of native potato varieties as well as other Andean crops. Depending on which type of classification system is used, the area boasts 650 potato varieties, or 1,200 according to traditional classifications. Concretely, measures implemented included the diversification of crop planting with some farmers planting as many as 200 potato varieties. Additionally, working with the International Potato Centre, 410 locally adapted potato varieties, samples of which had been collected from the area in the 1960s and 1970s, were reintroduced further supporting the diversification and protection of agricultural resources. Furthermore, other biocultural innovations were documented in the Potato Park including the increased use of natural fertilisers and pesticides and shifting the range of cultivation to adapt to changing microclimates.

Overview of context and outcomes:

Efforts to safeguard and enhance food systems and native agrobiodiversity is rooted in indigenous biocultural heritage, traditional knowledge, and community-led and rights-based methods of management. The communal management structure of the Potato Park allows for collaborative learning through experimentation that can help communities effectively adapt local ecosystems to a changing climate.