The Potato Park is a new local model for the conservation of agro-biodiversity established in 1998 by the Association ANDES and six indigenous Kechua communities in Pisaq, Cuzco, Peru.
Based on traditional Andean models, such as the integrated management of the nature of the landscape and the strengthening of local sustainable activities and poverty alleviation strategies, the Potato Park proposes to integrate the communal land within an Indigenous People’s Bio Cultural Heritage Area, whose purpose is the protection and sustainable use of native agrobiodiversity, resources, practices and traditional knowledge.
The Potato Park area is a possible micro-center of potato origin and diversity, currently one of the four most important crops on earth, produced and preserved throughout the centuries by the Andean people. The native potato, with its hundreds of varieties, as well as the knowledge and ancient technology related to the cultivation and management of the agricultural landscape are great treasures for the Andean indigenous people and the Park is a way to protect them.
This enormous diversity represents a gene reservoir of inestimable value for global food security.
In the Potato Park several projects are managed, such as a processing center for natural medicines and soaps, a network of local pharmacies, a registry of the Park’s biological diversity, a video communication center, an agreement with the International Potato Center for the repatriation of native potatoes, the use of geographical indicators and trade marks to ensure our collective rights and access to markets and, finally, an agro-ecotourism project.
Operations are based on traditional values, principles and resource management systems.
The Potato Park is one of the few conservation initiatives in the world where it is the local people themselves who manage and protect local genetic resources and traditional knowledge.
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