Yanacancha-Huaquis: Community participation in an exceptional landscape

Since its election in the Watch 2022-2024, the Yanacancha-Huaquis Cultural Landscape has not ceased to surprise us with its rich heritage, community participation, and the joint efforts of different actors to recover the ancestral water management systems that constitute current alternatives to face the impacts of climate change.

In direct coordination with the Instituto de Montaña, we began the execution of this project with different community participation workshops that have allowed us to discover the vision of the Miraflores community about its heritage and create a specialized committee of “local researchers” to work on the issue. In addition, archaeological surveys and documentation work have also been carried out with the community.

In coordination with the Ministry of Culture and the Nor Yauyos Cochas Landscape Reserve (RPNYC – SERNANP), a communal cleaning and plant control task was executed in the Old Town of Huaquis, where work groups led by women acknowledged and performed the maintenance of this important heritage site. To date, teams of local and external researchers on archeology and conservation issues, ancestral technologies for the management of natural resources and tourism are performing a diagnosis of the heritage area that will establish concrete actions taking place in 2024.

We must highlight the participatory planning approach implemented in the project that allows horizontal dialogue, joint decision-making, and constant validation of the Miraflores community, a fundamental strategy for the sustainable and community management of the project.

In 2024, we will begin the execution of conservation activities in Huaquis, Yanacancha, and we will continue to accompany the community’s vision of this fascinating cultural landscape. This intervention is possible thanks to the Nor Yauyos Cochas Landscape Reserve, a protected natural area of the national service (SERNANP).

At WMF Peru, we ratify the constant work of our specialists, allies, donors, and related organizations in continuing to take cultural heritage as an axis of development for Peru.