Condor

The project represents a prime opportunity for a cooperative international effort to manage natures resources. In addition, there is potential for the concept to be applied to other Andean crops, forming part of an integrated approach to the conservation of biodiversity for Latin America and the broader world.

La Ruta del

Dynamic conservation a frontline defense against global climate change

The Ruta Condor sites highlight the complementary relationship between in situ conservation that takes place in the centers of origin, and ex situ conservation that takes place in the CIP genebank, located in Lima, Peru. In the natural in situ environment, the interaction between the potato genes and the natural stresses they encounter leads to the continual evolution for adaptability and resistance. However, although nature is dynamic, it is also slow. Growth chambers and other equipment in the ex situ laboratory environment give scientists a way to accelerate the natural selection processes to complement those that occur in the natural environment. This capability is important as we help these microcenters adapt to the escalating impacts of climate change.
International Potato Center (CIP) PO Box 1558 Lima 12 Peru 51-1-349-6017 cip@cgiar.org www.cipotato.org CIPs MISSION The International Potato Center (CIP) works with partners to achieve food security and well-being and gender equity for poor people in root and tuber farming and food systems in the developing world. We do this through research and innovation in science, technology and capacity strengthening. CIPs VISION Roots and tubers improving the lives of the poor.

A promising adaptation approach

For more information, please contact: Rene Gomez r.gomez@cgiar.org David Tay d.tay@cgiar.org

In the Andes, the condor is an ancient deity, and its flight is a fitting inspiration for CIPs project to restore and conserve the genetic diversity of native potatoes within their natural centers of origin. The Ruta Condor (Route of the Condor) follows ancient Inca trading roads that criss-cross the Andes. It includes a network of microcenters dedicated to agrobiodiversity and to the preservation of the worlds rich heritage of potato diversity. The Ruta Condor microcenters offer the opportunity to study and save native varieties in their native environment, in situ, where they are exposed to the natural stresses of seasonal variation and climate change.

La Ruta Condor
Venezuela

An international network of conservation microcenters

Ultimately, the goal of Ruta Condor is to include a chain of microconservation sites spanning the spine of the Andes from Mrida in Venezuela to Jujuy in Argentina. The aim of each center will be not only to restore and conserve but also to develop market chains linking enhanced production to consumption to improve the livelihoods of

Merida

Carchi
Ecuador

local farmers.

Chimborazo
Ecuador

Colombia

Nario

Currently, two sites have been developed: The Pisac Potato Park in Peru supports the cultivation of more than 600 varieties of potatoes by over 1,200 families among six indigenous communities. CIP works here in conjunction with the

The Qhapaqan back to where it all began

The Ruta Condor program includes the repatriation of native potato varieties back to their communities of origin. The varieties were collected from Andean farming communities 2040 years ago and kept under conservation in CIPs ex situ genebank. The objective is to restore lost native potato cultivars and improve diversity affected by frost, drought, crop pests and diseases, human migration, and poverty. CIP ensures that the planting material that is re-introduced is high quality and disease-free, thus increasing yields. CIPs program of returning planting material to farmers started in 1998, in just four Andean communities. Since then, scientists, farmers, and local partners have repatriated over 3,600 samples of more than 1,200 varieties of native potato in 41 Andean farm communities, following the Qhapaqan, the ancient north-south pre-Columbian highway that unified the Inca Empire.

Cajamarca
Per

Association for Nature and Sustainable Development (ANDES) and has successfully returned 410 virus-free native potato cultivars to this area. San Jos de Aymara is a high-Andean community in Huancavelica formed by 93 families growing native potato. Since 2003, their

Huanuco
Per Per

Huancavelica

Pisac Potato Park

Per

communal seed bank has generated new income by selling native potatoes as seed and for consumption. Since 2004, they have participated in CIPs Tikapapa project, which promoted the commercialization of native potato and won the 2007 BBC-

Oruro
Bolivia

Newsweek World Challenge Award. Additional sites from among the microcenters illustrated on the map will be developed as funding becomes available.

Potosi

Jujuy

Bolivia

Argentina

International

The red dots show sites where native potatoes in CIPs genebank were collected.

Potato Center