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The policies of the Andean countries analysed in this
report fall short in terms of their inclusion of both
mountains and adaptation to climate change. Though
mountains hold strategic resources (e.g. water, food,
minerals), the development models promoted in these
countries have favoured urban areas, flat regions, and
lowlands. It has also been noted that the few mining
regulations may hinder policies towards conservation
or sustainable mountain development. Moreover,
mountains are home to indigenous populations that
have historically been marginalized and excluded
from access to and control of their resources.
Ongoing policies are overlooking the synergic effects and
feedback between climatic and non-climatic processes
on mountains. For instance, some risks emerging from
these effects but not yet addressed are food insecurity,
biodiversity loss, population displacement, diminishing
provision of ecosystem services, and changing water
availability. In addition, the impact of these risks and
their effects on the adaptive capacity and resilience of
local communities are not considered, which in turn
may increase their vulnerability.
The risk of glacier lakes outburst floods (GLOF) has
not been addressed in this Outlook because these
are present mainly in Peru and Bolivia (to a lesser
degree). However, the recently created National
Institute of Research on Glaciers and Mountain
Ecosystems in Peru illustrates an institutional
arrangement that can address risk of GLOFs but also
tackle the understanding of mountains impacts and
adaptation to climate change.
Conclusions
Bottlenecks affecting adaptation-related policies
are often caused by limited institutional capacity.
This translates as rare coordination between sectors
whose activity areas overlap, and little integration
between national and local activities. This little
integration may be worse if the authorities belong
to rival political parties. The small budget for
adaptation and mountains leads to bottlenecks and
is indicative of the little priority given to these areas
in the political agenda. At the local level, there is
salient insufficient technical capacity to understand
climate-crop relations and climate change impacts
on agriculture. Furthermore, the network of
meteorological stations has little coverage and low
density, particularly in the mountains. This hinders
the generation of knowledge on local weather
to inform policies. However, the Initiative for
Hydrologic Monitoring in the Andean Ecosystems
aims to improve data coverage and sharing to
inform policymaking. This initiative still needs to
be linked to national meteorological services to
achieve major impact.
Finally, the policy analysis also shows the uneven
development of policies among sectors. While sectors
such as water seem to have some policy instruments,
the health and energy sectors in mountains are less
prepared for adapting to climate change. Though
this chapter does not aim to explain such unequal
attention, it is worth mentioning in order to promote
the sectoral exchange of information and lesson
sharing, as well as to stimulate research to analyse
such differences.
Methodological limitations
National and sectoral policies initially reviewed
were those accessible by Internet. Later, government
officials provided inputs in a workshop held in Lima.
They also responded to a survey, and sent additional
documents. This Outlook has benefited from these
and other officials’ comments on sectoral and
adaptation policies in the Andean region.
Gathering the relevant information for a proper,
comprehensive and exhaustive assessment has had
some shortcomings in relation to data, information
and institutions:
• Lack of data (or access to it) and information
about benchmarks, performance indicators,
implementation stage, outcomes and bottlenecks
of existing policies.
• Limited institutional capacity to provide updated
information about policies’ status.
• Inadequate monitoring and evaluation system.
• Lack of adequate intersectoral collaboration.
• National and sectoral policies implemented on
the same territory are sometimes difficult to
differentiate. Thus, overlapping policies have
different priorities, time schedules, resources
employed, and discourses used. This reveals the
challenge presented by a joint national climate
change adaptation goal.
• The little recognition given to mountains and
adaptation within the countries’ agenda.