Climatic and Socioeconomic Drivers of Land-Cover and Land-Use Change in Tropical Andean Alpine Wetlands

Bofedales, or alpine wetlands, are found scattered across the highest non-glacierized elevations in the tropical Andes of Bolivia and Peru. They are unique biologically and botanically, and provide critical support for local alpaca and llama pastoralism, as they provide a very important source of green vegetation during the long dry season. This project seeks to expand upon insight gained from a previously funded LCLUC project, which suggested that both climate and land-use change processes are threatening these bofedales, and thereby, the many livelihoods dependent on them. The goal here is to further clarify the relative importance of climate on land-cover versus socioeconomic drivers on land-use, and assess how these influences have and continue to evolve. We will use satellite data to assess the physical condition, health, and extent of these wetlands. We will conduct socioeconomic surveys at several sites to gain a clearer understanding of how people's use of the bofedales has responded to both changes in climate and socioeconomic factors.  And we will parameterize and run high-resolution climate models for various time points over the next 100 years, to better understand what climatic environment these systems are moving towards.  These three elements will provide essential information on how both the physical and human systems are reacting to and being acted upon by changes in climate and socioeconomic pressures. By integrating the results from these components, we hope to be able to suggest future trajectories for these systems, to better inform planning by governments and organizations active in the region.