Community participation in landslide risk reduction: a case history from Central Andes, Peru

Abstract

This article describes the intertwined history of scientific research and landslide disaster risk reduction efforts in a small peasant community in the Rampac Grande of the Peruvian Andes. It was struck by a catastrophic landslide in 2009, claiming five fatalities and challenging local knowledge about landslide occurrence and mitigation practices. This article describes collaboration between a team of scientists, comprising both foreign and Peruvian experts and the local community, which started after the 2009 landslide and culminated during the disaster risk reduction (DRR) project which ran from 2016 to 2017. It illustrates the shift from refusing outside intervention to acceptance of the proposed measures and active community participation in their application and maintenance. This was achieved by rethinking the role of local and scientific knowledge during the process of DRR through enhanced communication and the appropriate use of the participative methods. Emphasis is placed on the crucial role played by community representative participation during formulation of the expected outcomes of the DRR, which leads to hazard reduction through the preparation of hazard maps and of the monitoring of landslide movement. Enhanced community development can also be evidenced by the construction of water tanks in the year following termination of the project. Despite the documented short-term success in landslide DRR, defining long-term exit strategy allowing the community to continue applying the measures with necessity of the minimum input from the outside actors is intrinsically difficult and still needs to be resolved.