Earth Stewardship and the Biocultural Ethic: Latin American Perspectives - Earth Stewardship: Linking Ecology and Ethics in Theory and Practice - page 105

Box 8.4. (continued)
Fig. 8.6 View of the Sallqantay valley ( sallqa = wild or invincible in Quechua language) in
the Willkapampa mountain range in Peru. Sallqantay trail runs from Cuzco to Machu
Picchu, the Inca sacred city. Along the trail it is possible to observe the agricultural land-
scape and harvested traditional crops, such as maize ( Zea mays ) and oca ( Oxalis tuberosa )
(Photograph J. Tomás Ibarra)
Healthy markets based on bartering and run by women from different alti-
tudinal zones are interrupted by the territorial displacements of Quechua com-
munities. Current displacements are caused by mining and other development
projects, by global climate change, and by the substitutions of native varieties
of plants by commercial and modern genetically modifi ed varieties. This eco-
logical and social disruption provokes:
(a) Losses of autonomy and capacity for self-determination of indigenous
communities, due to the destruction and/or denial of access to their ances-
tral habitats and territories, which are essential for the continuity of their
material and spiritual subsistence.
(b) Degradation of local economies and relations of reciprocity among the
diverse human communities, and between these communities and regional
ecosystems.
(c) Degradation of regional biological diversity; for example, of the more
than 2,000 varieties of potatoes that have been traditionally cultivated in
the high Andean slopes.
(continued)