Data sharing and joint thinking urged for Amazonia

Zoraida Portillo in SciDev.net: Countries in the Amazon region need better data sharing and a more holistic view of development if they are to avoid conflicts and costs relating to key resources such as water over the next 50 years, experts warn.

A report making recommendations for a new, international security agenda for the Amazon, says the region’s nations should link-up and circulate data on water, energy, health and food security to ensure sustainable development and tackle challenges posed by changes in climate and land use. A failure to do so, it says, could lead to far greater economic and social disruption in the mid-term and create unprecedented challenges for South America’s political leaders.

“The data exist, but are very fragmented,” says Andy Jarvis, a programme leader at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), and an author of the report released by CIAT and think-tank the Global Canopy Programme last month (17 December). The report was developed with input from science experts and political leaders from Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru.

According to Jarvis, existing data on matters crucial for the region’s future security are out of date, and there is a lack of a consistent monitoring on issues such as access to water, energy and health. Where there are data, the links between these issues, or between data collected at a regional, national or international level, are missing, he adds.

Jarvis also laments the disjointed approach to development in the region, with resource extraction currently dominating the development agenda, instead of efforts to deliver sustainable and holistic progress....

An Orange-winged Amazon near Yarina Lodge, Napo Province, Ecuador. Shot by Geoff Gallice, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license

Amazon forest loss risks water security across South America

Paul Brown in the Ecologist: ... The combination of industrial and agricultural pollution and droughts is creating a once unthinkable vulnerability for the five countries of Amazonia. The continued destruction of the Amazon to exploit its resources for mining, agriculture and hydro-power is threatening the future of the South American continent, according to a report by campaigning groups using the latest scientific data.

Five countries - Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru - share the Amazon, and for all of them the forest area occupies more than 40% of their territory. All face threats to their water supply, energy production, food and health.

In addition, the report says, because of the over-exploitation of the region rainfall will fall by 20% over a heavily-populated area far to the south of Amazonia known as the La Plata basin, covering parts of Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay.

Last month it was reported that deforestation in Amazonia had increased by almost a third in the past year, with an area equal to 50 football pitches destroyed every minute since 2000. The report, the Amazonia Security Agenda, authored by the Global Canopy Programme and CIAT, the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture, says the prosperity of the region is based on the abundance of water.

"Amazonia's abundant natural resources underpin water, food, energy, and health security for the economy and people of the region and far beyond", the report states. "At the heart of this nexus of securities is water. So abundant in the region, but now under increasing threat as industrial pollution increases, and unprecedented droughts reveal a once unthinkable water vulnerability."...

A river boat on the Amazon, shot by Pontanegra, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license 

Innovative report calls for a new security agenda for Amazonia

Digital Journal via PRWEB UK:  In a report released today, the Global Canopy Programme and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture call for a new security agenda for Amazonia and its countries. One that focuses not only on national security in a traditional sense, but acts to strengthen the fundamental underpinnings of a flourishing society: sustained access to water, energy, food and good health for all.

Manuel Pulgar, Minister of Environment for Peru (host country of the UNFCCC Climate Change Summit COP 20 – December 2014) said, “Climate change is a global problem, but one that will multiply local and regional problems in unforeseeable ways. In Latin America, we have taken Amazonia and its seemingly limitless water and forests as a given. But recent unprecedented droughts have shown us just what happens when that water security falters: it impacts food and energy production, it affects the wellbeing of entire populations, and it leaves governments and businesses with a big bill to pay. The science is clear, so we cannot afford to miss the opportunity for positive action now.”

The report, developed with input from science experts and political leaders from Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, lays out initial recommendations as building blocks for dialogue and action in each of these countries. Since Amazonia’s ecosystems are shared between countries, there is also a need for governments to collaborate on coordinated responses to these shared risks.

Carlos Klink, Brazil’s National Secretary for Climate Change and Environmental Quality, said: “We are understanding more and more how interdependent water, food, energy and health security are across our continent. There is also interdependence between the countries that share the Amazon, which recycles trillions of tons of water that all our people and economies rely on. The challenge that we are just beginning to recognise and act upon is one of transitioning to a more sustainable economy - one that values the role of a healthy Amazonia in underpinning long-term security and prosperity.”...

A NASA image of the Amazon River near Manaus. You can see Fitzcarraldo!

At least five dead in South America cold snap

Terra Daily via AFP: At least five people have died due to a cold snap in South America, which has also killed thousands of cattle and damaged crops, authorities said Wednesday. In Bolivia, heavy snowfall claimed at least three lives and thousands of families were reeling from a sudden dip in temperatures over the past week, according to regional officials.

Two of the dead were farmers who perished in the high up Ancomilla region of the department of Potosi, according to local mayor Jaime Choque. Bolivia's Social Defense Ministry ministry said on Tuesday that an earlier victim died trying to save their livestock in the village of Huayllas in the central region of Cochabamba.

Four of the Andean nation's nine departments have suffered bad weather, leaving roads blocked and thousands affected. An official report Tuesday said the snow had hit 15 municipalities, affecting almost 3,500 families.

In neighboring Paraguay, two people died from hypothermia due to the chill that has also killed 4,000 cattle and affected 30 percent of the country's wheat crops, according to official reports released Wednesday....

Panoramic view shows the mountainous scenery of Chile’s Chajnantor Plateau, with snow and ice scattered over the barren terrain. The main peaks from right to left are Cerro Chajnantor, Cerro Toco, Juriques, and the distinctive conical volcano Licancabur. Also barely visible is the ALMA astronomy facility. Shot by ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license

Amazon forest fire risk to increase in 2013

NASA: University and NASA researchers predict that the severity of the 2013 fire season will be considerably higher than in 2011 and 2012 for many Amazon forests in the Southern Hemisphere. The outlook is based on a fire severity model that produced a successful first forecast in 2012.

The model, produced by a group led by Jim Randerson of the University of California, Irvine, considers historical fire data from NASA's Terra satellite, along with sea surface temperature data from NOAA. Previous research has shown that sea surface temperatures in the tropical Pacific and Atlantic oceans can be used to forecast the pending Amazon fire season severity three to six months prior to the onset of the dry season.

As of March 2013, surface waters of the tropical north Atlantic Ocean remained warmer than average, while Pacific Ocean temperatures declined from a peak in late fall. These conditions are consistent with increased fire risk across the southern portion of the Amazon later this summer and early fall.

Brazil's key fire states, Mato Grosso and Pará, account for the majority of all burning activity in the Amazon region. For the 2013 season, the model shows that fire activity in these two states is projected to be above average compared to 2001-2012. Other important burning regions in the southern Amazon, such as the Brazilian states of Rondônia and Acre, and the Bolivian departments of Santa Cruz and Pando, are also projected to have average or above-average fire activity in 2013.

"The confluence of climate and people in these areas increases the risk of widespread fire activity when the fire season severity is elevated," said Doug Morton of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., who works with Randerson and colleagues on the forecast....

Dials indicate regions in the southern Amazon forest predicted to have below-average fire activity (green) and above-average activity (orange and red) during the 2013 dry season, relative to the 2001-2012 mean. Credit: UC Irvine

Indigenous Bolivian women fight climate change

Latinamerica Press: Beginning two years ago, about 350 indigenous women farmers from 14 localities of the central Bolivian department of Cochabamba have been applying strategies to confront climate change.

These women are part of communities from the municipalities of Tapacarí, Arque, Bolívar, and Sicaya, where in the last years the drought has worsened and there is a shortage of water reservoirs. According to the newspaper La Opinión, of every 10 watersheds, only two can supply water. Likewise, the lack of grasslands and fodder decreased the livestock production by 80 percent.

Climate change has affected farming calendars; parasite infestations and cattle diseases have increased; there has been a decrease in fodder and food for families. This has forced the campesino communities to strengthen their traditional organizations and recover ancestral knowledge and wisdom.

...As a symbol of reproduction, the women in Andean farming societies have the fundamental role of selecting the seed after the harvest and planting the seed during cultivation. They collaborate with their husbands and sons in farming tasks, and together with their daughters they raise animals, in addition to feeding the family and attending to its health needs. Climate change is forcing women to travel to farther and farther places to get water and firewood for their homes and to herd livestock or collect medicinal plants to cure the illnesses of their families and cattle.

With the help of the Atica Foundation, this group of women has learned to manage the livestock and pastures, conserve the soil, and draw water by constructing reservoirs to store water to provide llamas and sheep with water during the dry period, which is between May and August. They have also learned to medicate their animals and plan the oat, barley, and alfalfa cultivation to store food for their livestock....

Aymara women in Bolivia, shot by Pedro Szekely, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license

Preserving biodiversity can be compatible with intensive agriculture

Penn State Live: Preserving genetically diverse local crops in areas where small-scale farms are rapidly modernizing is possible, according to a Penn State geographer, who is part of an international research project investigating the biodiversity of maize, or corn, in hotspots of Bolivia, Peru and Mexico.

Hotspots are areas where cultivation of peaches and other non-traditional crops has exploded over the past decade, noted Karl Zimmerer, professor and head of the Department of Geography, and where small-scale farms are often female-run and have been previously regarded as marginal to mainstream agriculture.

"Peach-growing in central Bolivia is a vitally important income-generating strategy, even while farmers also desire and succeed in producing their Andean maize, both for eating and seed, as well as some sale," said Zimmerer, whose findings were recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The researcher analyzed small-scale farm, or smallholder, landscapes and their farming and livelihood practices, including labor migration and irrigation issues, from 2000 to 2010 over three areas within Bolivia's Valle Alto region. Farmers had low-to-moderate incomes by national standards.

Zimmerer and his colleagues surveyed land use among 174 smallholder households to assess production inputs and outputs of maize and peach crops. Among the factors they examined were farm-level management, varietal choices and water and soil management. Zimmerer designed this data collection and analysis to use with high-resolution satellite imagery and Geographic Information Systems. These techniques enabled him to create geographic models, maps and estimates of the areas devoted to intensified peach- and maize-growing.

Zimmerer also interviewed diverse groups of land users and officials to determine similarities and differences of perspectives on biodiversity in changing farming and food systems. In addition to determining the compatibility of traditional plants, or landrace, diversity and intensified agriculture, Zimmerer also addressed important links between migrant communities and smallholder farms.

"Many of these farmers rely on money sent back home from relatives abroad, primarily in the United States and Spain," he said. "This money is key to the farmers' ability to run successful smallholder farms and grow high agrobiodiversity maize."...

Terraced farms in Bolivia's Cordillera Central, shot by Christopher Walker, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license

Can vegans stomach the unpalatable truth about quinoa?

A comment by Joanne Blythman in the Guardian (UK): Not long ago, quinoa was just an obscure Peruvian grain you could only buy in wholefood shops. We struggled to pronounce it (it's keen-wa, not qui-no-a), yet it was feted by food lovers as a novel addition to the familiar ranks of couscous and rice. Dieticians clucked over quinoa approvingly because it ticked the low-fat box and fitted in with government healthy eating advice to "base your meals on starchy foods".

Adventurous eaters liked its slightly bitter taste and the little white curls that formed around the grains. Vegans embraced quinoa as a credibly nutritious substitute for meat. Unusual among grains, quinoa has a high protein content (between 14%-18%), and it contains all those pesky, yet essential, amino acids needed for good health that can prove so elusive to vegetarians who prefer not to pop food supplements.

Sales took off. Quinoa was, in marketing speak, the "miracle grain of the Andes", a healthy, right-on, ethical addition to the meat avoider's larder (no dead animals, just a crop that doesn't feel pain). Consequently, the price shot up – it has tripled since 2006 – with more rarified black, red and "royal" types commanding particularly handsome premiums.

But there is an unpalatable truth to face for those of us with a bag of quinoa in the larder. The appetite of countries such as ours for this grain has pushed up prices to such an extent that poorer people in Peru and Bolivia, for whom it was once a nourishing staple food, can no longer afford to eat it. Imported junk food is cheaper. In Lima, quinoa now costs more than chicken. Outside the cities, and fuelled by overseas demand, the pressure is on to turn land that once produced a portfolio of diverse crops into quinoa monoculture.

In fact, the quinoa trade is yet another troubling example of a damaging north-south exchange, with well-intentioned health and ethics-led consumers here unwittingly driving poverty there. It's beginning to look like a cautionary tale of how a focus on exporting premium foods can damage the producer country's food security....

Photo of quinoa by Vi..Cult..., Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

Hydropower threatens Andes–Amazon link

Gayathri Vaidyanathan in Nature: Out of some 151 dams proposed for the Amazon river system, more than half will sever the connectivity between the Amazon lowlands and headwaters in the Andes mountains, according to the latest study. The unimpeded flow of the river over the past 10 million years is thought to have fuelled the extraordinary biodiversity of the Amazon ecosystem1.

The finding follows decisions to prioritize hydropower development in the countries that share the Amazon tributaries, including Bolivia, Columbia, Peru, Brazil and Ecuador. As many as 48 dams that produce at least two megawatts of power each are already in place, and there are plans to triple that number by 2030. Peru, especially, is aggressively pursuing hydropower in cooperation with Brazil.

The study, published in the journal PLoS ONE2, is the first to evaluate the impact of all proposed dams on the six Amazon river basins across five countries, together with associated projects to construct road and power lines. Previous impact assessments focused only on individual projects and country-level impacts.

This kind of analysis “has been needed for a long time to take a comprehensive view of the Amazon basin”, says Robert Naiman, a river ecologist at the University of Washington in Seattle.

The study began in 2010 when Matt Finer, a staff ecologist at Save America’s Forests in Washington DC, and his colleague Clinton Jenkins, of North Carolina State University in Raleigh, acquired data on the locations of proposed dams from government ministries in all five nations. The information included their power-generation capacities and their requirements for roads and electric grids....

Lock number one under construction at Tucurui Dam in Brazil, shot by Luis Felipe Paulinyi, Wikimedia Commons, public domain

Major efforts still needed to clean up Lake Titicaca

Franz Chávez in IPS via Tierramérica: Efforts to combat pollution in Lake Titicaca, which straddles the borders of Peru and Bolivia high up in the Andes mountains, have shown slightly better results in Puno Bay on the Peruvian side, but have barely made a difference in Cohana Bay on the Bolivian side, according to local fishers and specialists interviewed by Tierramérica.

At 3,810 meters above sea level, Lake Titicaca is the highest commercially navigable lake in the world. It has a total surface area of 8,562 square kilometers, of which 3,790 lie on the Bolivian side of the border and 4,772 are in Peru.

Its deep blue waters are a source of livelihoods for 400,000 people who make a living from fishing, harvesting its vegetation for use as livestock feed, and building boats from the totora reeds that grow in the lake, using techniques that date back to pre-Columbian times.

But the inhabitants of the Puno region in southeastern Peru are deeply concerned by the current state of the lake’s waters. In May, Aymara indigenous communities in the region staged a two-week roadblock on the international highway used to transport Bolivian export goods through Peru to the Pacific Ocean. The roadblock was aimed at protesting new mining concessions that could lead to even further contamination of Lake Titicaca, which already receives the waste effluents of six Peruvian gold and uranium mines....

Puerto de Puno on Lake Titicaca, shot by Alfredobi

Bolivia has granted our planet legal rights, but how to enforce them?

Gabrielle Banks in Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports on a legal development that may not be so momentous now, but could be a harbinger: … Bolivia is taking a novel approach to natural stewardship by giving Mother Nature a voice and turning the American model on its head with a Bill of Rights for Mother Nature.

…Lawmakers in the landlocked country had a lot to tackle: the effects from generations of deforestation; unregulated silver, gold and tin mining; melting Andean glaciers and the iconic, evaporating Lake Titicaca. In 2010, Bolivia ranked 137th out of 163 countries in annual environmental performance index by Yale and Columbia universities. Iceland, Switzerland and Costa Rica lead the ranks while the U.S. is 61st, between Paraguay and Brazil.

Evo Morales Ayma, Bolivia's first indigenous president, called on world leaders at United Nations' climate talks to drastically reduce their carbon emissions in an effort to curb global warming. This spring, Mr. Morales, who is a socialist and former leader of the coca-growers union, got congressional approval for a Bill of Rights for Mother Earth, that grants nature the same rights and liberties as human beings and treats resources as blessings.
It says Mother Earth has the right to exist, continue life cycles and be free from human alteration, the right to pure water and clean air, the right to equilibrium, the right not to be polluted or have cellular structures modified and the right not to be affected by development that could impact the balance of ecosystems.

The government, in turn, must create policies that protect nature and communities, promote clean and sustainable resources and prevent climate change. It must defend Mother Earth from exploitation and commodification of its resources that would affect climate change. It must promote peace and encourage the elimination of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and weapons of mass destruction. The ministry of Mother Nature will oversee enforcement…

Flooded Bolivia faces long-term water woes

AlertNet: Widespread flooding in Bolivia, which prompted the government to declare a national emergency last week, shows the vulnerability of one of South America's poorest countries to changing weather patterns linked to climate change. Landlocked Bolivia, which runs from the rugged Andes to the Amazon jungle, faces a variety of climate change-related pressures, from disappearing glaciers to worsening droughts and more intense and unpredictable rainfall. Combined with rising urban demand for water, the problems suggest a long-term water crisis ahead for the country, analysts say.

The latest disaster has killed at least 50 people and left thousands homeless in Bolivia after weeks of heavy rain triggered flooding and mudslides, with 400 houses destroyed in the capital La Paz alone in a mudslide. In Cochabamba, southeast of La Paz, schools and stadiums were sheltering hundreds of families whose homes were destroyed. In lowland Santa Cruz department, Bolivia's major grain growing region, floods damaged soy, corn and wheat crops. Rivers burst their banks and major roads were unusable.

"We've declared a state of emergency on different levels in different areas of the country," Defence Minister Ruben Saavedra said last week. The government has allocated $20 million to help survivors.

Defence Minister Saavedra put the crisis in the Cochabamba, Beni, Santa Cruz, La Paz, Chuquisaca and Tarija departments (administrative regions) down to the La Niña weather phenomenon, linked to abnormally cool ocean temperatures in the eastern and central Pacific….

Catastrophic drought looms for Bolivia’s capital

National Science Foundation: Catastrophic drought is on the near-term horizon for the capital city of Bolivia, according to new research into the historical ecology of the Andes. If temperatures rise more than 1.5 to 2 degrees Celsius (3 to 5 degrees Fahrenheit) above those of modern times, parts of Peru and Bolivia will become a desert-like setting.

The change would be disastrous for the water supply and agricultural capacity of the two million inhabitants of La Paz, Bolivia's capital city, scientists say. The results, derived from research funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and conducted by scientists affiliated with the Florida Institute of Technology (FIT), appear in the November issue of the journal Global Change Biology.

Climatologist Mark Bush of FIT led a research team investigating a 370,000-year record of climate and vegetation change in Andean ecosystems. The scientists used fossilized pollen trapped in the sediments of Lake Titicaca, which sits on the border of Peru and Bolivia.

They found that during two of the last three interglacial periods, which occurred between 130,000-115,0000 years ago and 330,000-320,000 years ago, Lake Titicaca shrank by as much as 85 percent. Adjacent shrubby grasslands were replaced by desert.

In each case, a steady warming occurred that caused trees to migrate upslope, just as they are doing today. However, as the climate kept warming, the system suddenly flipped from woodland to desert. "The evidence is clear that there was a sudden change to a much drier state," said Bush….

One view of La Paz, shot by marcalandavis, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

Bolivia's drought and fires worsen

Earthweek: Bolivia’s worst drought in 30 years has sparked nearly 50,000 wildfires over the past few months, creating health problems and even disrupting air traffic.

“The drought has kindled these massive, widespread blazes and estimates tell us they will continue until December,” Bolivian Forest and Lands Authority president Cliver Rocha told state media.

President Evo Morales and several government officials have said that some of the fires were intentionally ignited, but blame climate change for the conditions that allowed them to spread to such a great extent….

From NASA: The fires are outlined in red. Most of the fires are concentrated in Bolivia, where the governments of two states had declared a state of emergency because of widespread fires three days earlier. Scores of fires also burn in Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina. The fires cloak the heart of South America in gray-white smoke. Spreading north and south along the east side of the Andes Mountains, the smoke extends over the entire 2,500-kilometre length of the image. While some fires do occur naturally in Bolivia, most of these fires were probably set deliberately to clear land for crops or pasture.

Cold blamed for Bolivia's mass fish deaths

Anna Petherick in Nature News: With high Andean peaks and a humid tropical forest, Bolivia is a country of ecological extremes. But the unusually low winter temperatures experienced by the country's tropical region in July and August hit freshwater species hard, killing an estimated 6 million fish and thousands of alligators, turtles and river dolphins.

Scientists who have visited the affected rivers say the event is the biggest ecological disaster Bolivia has known. They are now scrambling to coordinate research into how it happened, and how quickly the ecosystem may recover. … Decomposing fish have polluted the waters of the Grande, Pirai and Ichilo rivers so badly that local authorities have had to provide alternative sources of drinking water for towns along the rivers' banks.

The blame lies with a mass of Antarctic air that settled over the Southern Cone of South America for most of July. Water temperatures in Bolivian rivers that normally register about 15 °C during the day fell as low as 4 °C.

"It is not unlikely that the extreme weather conditions in July might have been related to the El Niño–Southern Oscillation [ENSO]," says Fons Smolders, a fisheries scientist at Radboud University in Nijmegen, the Netherlands. "Although it is still debated whether ENSO is affected by climate change, it is generally accepted that climate change has the potential to increase the prevalence and severity of extremes such as heat waves, cold waves, storms, floods and droughts….

Fish farming in Lake Titicaca, Bolivia, shot by Christopher Walker, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license

Bolivian food crisis due to climate change

Xinhua: Persistent drought, cold weather and flooding, all attributed to climate change, are threatening Bolivia with a food crisis, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and experts have recently warned. FAO coordinator Einstein Tejada said one fifth of Bolivia's territory now suffer from the effects of climate change, causing food prices to rise.

The most vulnerable zone is the Andean area, hit by a long-running drought, he added. According to the government, more than 16,000 head of cattle and over 24,000 hectares of wheat, bean, corn and other crops have been affected by the drought. "Bolivia is affected by all the climate phenomenon in the world" except the hurricanes, he said.

Despite the government's efforts to lessen these effects on agriculture and livestock, the impact on food security will be felt, as well as imbalances in the ecosystems, he said. "We cannot deny the strong impact climate change has on the production systems," he added….

Market in Tarabuco, Bolivia, shot by Jenni Frog, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license

Bolivian village wants compensation for climate change adaptation

Brett Walton in Circle of Blue Waternews: Bolivian villagers, with government encouragement, are proposing an international court to adjudicate claims for compensation from communities whose lives have been affected by climate change, but do not have the money to adapt, the BBC reports. Their announcement comes as the country kicks off the People’s Summit on Climate Change this week.

Approximately 18,000 people will attend the conference in Cochabamba, which addresses social issues that were ignored by world powers during the United Nations climate conference in Copenhagen last December. Delegates will consolidate ideas from the meeting for submission to the next U.N. climate conference in Mexico in December. Indigenous populations in Bolivia are using this conference to ensure the upcoming talks will include their concerns.

Adaptation to climate change is a pressing issue for the 40 or so Aymara who live in Khapi village in the Bolivian Andes. Two million Aymara inhabit the Andean region, and are scattered across Bolivia, Peru and Chile. In the Khapi village, they depend on the run-off from the Illimani glacier to sustain their agricultural way of life, but scientists predict the glacier will disappear in seven to 10 years. “We want those countries to compensate us for all the damage they have done to nature,” said Alivio Aruquipa, the group’s leader, to the BBC.

…Aruquipa attended the Copenhagen climate summit to raise awareness about the fate of the Khapi community if the Illimani glacier disappears. “We don’t know where we are going to go. Like the ice, the source of our lives will be disappearing too. Where are we going to go?”…

Illimani, shot by Titico, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

Floods prompt Bolivia emergency

BBC: Bolivian President Evo Morales has declared a state of emergency in areas of the country, as heavy rains and floods affect some 24,000 families. The worst-hit areas are La Paz, Santa Cruz, Cochabamba, Chuquisaca and Beni. The flooding is expected to get worse as more rain is forecast.

Rivers have broken their banks and overflowed. There have been mudslides. Meanwhile rescuers in Peru renewed efforts to evacuate tourists trapped near the Inca site of Machu Picchu. Rain and mudslides there have severed road and rail links in the region.

However, a break in the weather has now allowed the authorities to send in helicopters to ferry out several thousand tourists. The operation is expected to end by the weekend….The rains, which have swept away crops, livestock and communication lines, are blamed on the El Nino weather phenomenon which results in severe weather conditions across the Asia-Pacific region and beyond….

Warming brings early demise to Bolivian glacier

The Independent (UK): Once home to the highest ski resort in the world and now reduced to a rocky mountainside, Bolivia's Chacaltaya range bears powerful witness to the precipitous melting of glaciers. The rusting remains of a ski lift now dominate what was once the highest ski-run in the world perched on the Chacaltaya glacier at some 5,300 meters (17,390 feet) high.

"That's all there's left: a little piece of ice that is disappearing and will last no more than a year," said Alfredo Martinez, a veteran guide and founder of the Bolivian Andean Club. Glancing at old black and white photographs, he recalled better times for his beloved Andean glacier, when ski competitions saw Argentine and Chilean athletes make the two-hour trip from the capital La Paz on a narrow and winding road.

…But today, "it's a dead glacier," said Edson Ramirez, glaciologist at the Institute of Hydraulics and Hydrology in La Paz. … Ramirez is part of a team of international scientists studying the Tropical Andes stretch of mountain range on horseback in Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia.

The scientists, who have studied Chacaltaya for the past 15-20 years, had forecast it would completely disappear in 2015. But with accelerated global warming spurring the ice to melt at the rate of six meters (20 feet) per year compared to about a meter in the 1940s, its demise has come six years earlier than expected. … For Ramirez, there is only one culprit, climate change, blamed on greenhouse gases that are particularly prevalent in industrialized countries....

The lodge at Chacaltaya with no snow in sight, shot by Ville Miettinen, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 License

Bolivia's Chacaltaya glacier is gone

John Enders in the Miami Herald: If anyone needs a reminder of the on-the-ground impacts of global climate change, come to the Andes mountains in Bolivia. At 17,388 feet above sea level, Chacaltaya, an 18,000 year-old glacier that delighted thousands of visitors for decades, is gone, completely melted away as of some sad, undetermined moment early this year. ''Chacaltaya has disappeared. It no longer exists,'' said Dr. Edson Ramirez, head of an international team of scientists that has studied the glacier since 1991.

Chacaltaya (the name in Aymara means ''cold road'') began melting in the mid-1980s. Ramirez, the assistant director of the Institute of Hydraulics and Hydrology at the Universidad Mayor de San Andres in nearby La Paz, documented its disappearance in March.

Approximately 35 miles from La Paz, it takes an hour and a half to drive the gravel and rock road up tortuous switchbacks to the top of the mountain of the same name. Visitors on a clear day -- and there are many such days -- can see the Bolivian highland plain, or altiplano, thousands of feet below, and the nearby Huayna Potosi and Illimani mountains, part of the Cordillera Real de los Andes.

Ten years ago Ramirez and his team of researchers concluded that the glacier would survive until 2015. But the rate of thaw increased threefold in the last decade, according to their studies. He believes the disappearance of Chacaltaya is an indication of the potent effects at higher elevations of the interaction of greenhouse gas accumulation and an increase in average global temperatures.

…''It's very probable that other glaciers are disappearing faster than we thought,'' he said. Researchers fear that Chacaltaya's fate will be shared by other glaciers in other areas of Bolivia, and in Peru and Ecuador as well, he said.

The Chacaltaya glacier ski resort as recently as 2006, shot by Christopher Walker from Krakow, Poland, Wikimedia Commons, under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 License