Community participation, sustainable use, and vicuña conservation in Peru

This paper examines the history of vicuña conservation in Peru over the last thirty years. During this period management strategies have shifted from protection to sustainable utilization, from a centralized administration with use of armed park guards and disenfranchisement of the campesino communities, to investing the legal custody of the vicuña, together with responsibility for its protection and the right to utilize products obtained from live animals, in the campesino communities located on lands where the vicuña lives. Although many questions remain to be answered concerning the impact of these changes, financial benefits obtained by the communities from sales of live shorn fiber far exceed those from hides sold on the black market, providing a powerful incentive to protect the species, and recent survey data record a decline in poaching.