Living Lakes Best Practise Award 2022

Living Lakes Best Practise Award 2022 - Lake Titicaca

Reserva Nacional del Titicaca

The Titicaca National Reserve is a Peruvian nature reserve, created on 31 October 1978, with the aim of conserving the natural resources of Lake Titicaca. It is located in the bioregion called "Puna y altos de los Andes" in the provinces of Puno and Huancané and covers an area of about 36,000 hectares. A large part of the well-known floating islands of the Uros are located within, while others border the RNTC.

 

For more than 44 years, the team of the Reserve has been contributing with its valuable work to the protection of Lake Titicaca:

  • Surveillance and control through more than 110 patrols per year plus patrols with the accompaniment of community watchmen.
  • Environmental monitoring of birds and totora reeds, within the framework of a Monitoring Plan. It is also planned to monitor water quality, water level, cattail coverage and biomass.
  • Management and promotion of sustainable tourism, which is carried out in areas for public use, providing opportunities for outdoor recreation and enjoyment of the natural and cultural values of the NPA by local as well as national and foreign tourists. The reserve especially supports the sustainable tourism activity of the floating islands of San Pedro de Ccapi - Uros Titino and the Chimu Community, as well as the Birdwatching activity in the rural community of Yanico.
  • Involvement of stakeholders in the management of the Titicaca National Reserve; through the coordination of the Management Committee and through 16 Conservation Committees, with the linking of biodiversity conservation, sustainable use of natural resources, capacity building of the local communities and the business sector linked to tourism.
  • Environmental education, as a strategy to make future leaders and local authorities aware of the importance of conservation through natural protected areas: 96 educational sessions per year in 12 secondary schools in rural areas.

 

Juan José Ocola, President of ALT Bolivia/Peru and Marion Hammerl, President of the Global Nature Fund and the International Network of Living Lakes congratulate the team of the Titicaca National Reserve. It is an honour for the International Living Lakes Network to award the prize to such a dedicated team and to have them on our side.

Dr. Xavier Lazzaro

Xavier Lazzaro, a French scientist, has been involved in the research of Lake Titicaca since 1979. Since the beginning of his studies, Xavier Lazzaro has been very committed to the conservation of Lake Titicaca, generating valuable scientific information related to the limnological, physical-chemical and ecological characteristics of the lake.

 

Xavier is a Researcher at the IRD (Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, France). His research covers many topics relevant to shallow tropical lakes such as trophic ecology, plankton-fish interactions, eutrophication, phytoplankton blooms, cyanobacteria, biomanipulation and ecological engineering. He has also done a lot of research on high-altitude tropical Andean lakes. Xavier Lazzaro is very committed to the protection of lakes, contributing valuable scientific knowledge to improve the management of many lakes around the world.

In the last three years, Xavier Lazzaro has objectively contributed to the generation and interpretation of data reported by an automatic station located on Lake Menor, which has served to build the Lake Titicaca Observatory (OLT).

He is very committed to the training of young Bolivian scientists at the Universidad Mayor de San Andrés in Bolivia, who are now following in his footsteps.

 

Lake Titicaca is particularly close to his heart and the progressive pollution is of great concern to him. Xavier wants young scientists and young people from all social groups to get involved and work to protect Lake Titicaca.

 

Juan José Ocola, President of ALT Bolivia/Peru and Marion Hammerl, President of the Global Nature Fund and the International Network of Living Lakes congratulate Xavier Lazzaro. It is an honour for the International Network of Living Lakes to award the prize to a person so committed to the protection of lakes and to have him on our side.