Incorporating these formal and traditional structures, the ‘Association of the Communities of the Potato Park’
is the umbrella organization of the 6 Quechua communities that make up the Park. Each community has formal
legal recognition through communal land titles under the national territorial system. The Association also has
formal recognition under Peruvian law that allows for the organization of communities that seek collective
goals. The common goal in this case is not only conservation of cultivated agrobiodiversity, but also the
development of indigenous territoriality based on solidarity economy and innovations associated to traditional
knowledge and genetic resources, and the promotion of traditional resource rights. This common goal helps
to bridge the gap between the formal recognition, which is abstract in nature, and the traditional reality, where
the Association exists in relation to the landscape and not as a separate entity.
2.3 Developing an Indigenous Biocultural Territory: Activities in the Potato Park
The Potato Park provides a framework for a range of traditional and modern activities based on the particularities
of its landscape and biocultural diversity. These activities are vertically and horizontally diversified as well as
by sector, successfully integrating product development (vertical), territorial development (horizontal) and
different sectors (e.g. genetic resources, handicrafts, gastronomy, agriculture, natural products). The six
communities of the Potato Park have worked tirelessly to strengthen their technical skills and traditional
knowledge systems and have used these to establish a host of initiatives:
• six natural medicine pharmacies;
• a cottage industry of natural products based on potatoes and medicinal plants, focused on the production
of natural medicines, cosmetics and nutraceuticals;
• a biocultural tourism program based on landscape enjoyment and educational visits;
• a Culinary Sanctuary dedicated to the potato, which features hands-on activities associated with traditional
crop production, experience of cultural and spiritual values of food, and a restaurant specialized in native
potatoes; and
4
• a handicraft center which uses agrobiodiversity-derived inputs.
A local museum for the native potato is also being planned. These activities are implemented through
collectives with the objective of conserving and sustainably using biological resources, and building a creative
and solidarity economy based on local resources. The collectives include the Potato Arariwas (a seed
repatriation and conservation collective), the gastronomy Qachun Waqachi collective, Tika Tijillay women’s
video collective, Naupa Awana craft collective, the Willaqkuna guides collective, and the Sipaswarmi Medicinal
Plants Collective.
The creative links developed between product development, territorial development and production sectors of
the Park is enabling construction of a dynamic solidarity economy model based on creativity, diversity, equity,
self-management, ecological balance and principles of economic efficiency. This model is not only helping
meet basic needs, but is also producing concrete benefits to share among all communities, as discussed
later in this paper.
Protecting Community Rights over Traditional Knowledge: Implications of customary laws and practices