Vilcanota Trek

Live, discover, preserve.

Vilcanota Trek

We are a Rural Tourism Network integrated by communities of the Vilcanota Mountain Range that are within diverse Private Conservation Areas - PCA, committed in the conservation of our diversity and culture, advised by the NGO “Andean Ecosystem Association” - ECOAN in spanish.

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History of the Network of

PRIVATE CONSERVATION AREAS

In the central part of the Vilcanota mountain range, in the provinces of Urubamba and Calca and the Districts of Ollantaytambo, Urubamba, Calca and Lares we find Polylepis forests, considered as the plants that grow at higher altitudes between 3500 to 5000 masl; these ecosystems provide us with diverse ecosystem services.

With the advice of the ECOAN and the support of 14 Peasant Communities involved in nature conservation, we started from 2001 to date, more than 16 years of continuous coordinated work with the strategy process of conservation of high Andean ecosystems, where the Communities are the sole owners, in order to create Private Conservation Areas according to law 26834 in its regulation 038-2001-AG.

The Private Conservation Areas (ACP) is a legal instrument that allows communities to manage and take care of these ecosystems. Thus, with the support and advice of the Andean Ecosystem Association - ECOAN, the creation of Conservation Areas was initiated through ministerial resolutions of the Ministry of the Environment - MINAM, currently we have 08 recognized PCA and 03 proposals that are being processed in the SERNANP.

Our PCA have beautiful high Andean landscapes as well as the folklore of the communities, today we have environmental tourism services to offer in the PCA and Peasant Communities. That is how VILCANOTA TREK, formerly Lares Trek, is created to serve tourists domestic and foreign. Thanks to the responsible payment you make when entering these PCA, you will contribute to its sustainability.

Some benefits we get from these forests are:

Ecosystem services

Reduces the carbon footprint by helping the balance between carbon dioxide and oxygen through photosynthesis, since for many years carbon has accumulated, and this is being released in greater quantity and consequently producing very abrupt climate changes.
During the dry season they gradually discharge the stored water, during the rainy season which is the physiological characteristic of the species and the accompanying flora such as mosses and other shrubs.
They diminish and prevent soil erosion processes, retain nutrients and sediments.
At the foot of the forests there are snowy peaks, lagoons, wetlands, marshes that allow to regulate and store water that is vital for life and acts as a natural reserve that nature gives us.

Restoring high Andean forests

We have more than one million reforested seedlings

Web de ECOAN

ECOAN

From 2001 to the present, thanks to the support of the ECOAN in coordination with 21 communities, the process of the conservation strategy of these Andean ecosystems began, where the peasant communities are proprietors, but the creation of Conservation Areas, according to the law 26834 and its regulation 038-2001-AG, and that during these years, 08 PCA (Private Conservation Areas) have been recognized making a total of 7324,418 Ha. In addition to two proposals for PCA that are already in process and three proposals that are in process of beginning.

All this has made it possible to create the NETWORK OF PRIVATE CONSERVATION AREAS OF THE VILCANOTA MOUNTAIN RANGE, made up of the Abra Málaga Thastayoc communities, Ollanta community, Huilloc, Patacancha, Pallata, Rumira Sondormayo, Mantanay town center, Huarán Cooperative, Cancha Field, Tacllapata, Quishuarani, Pampacorral, Lares Ayllu, Tambohuaylla, Cuncani, Huacahuasi, Suttuc Paccha, Pumahuanca, Chicón.