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Este folleto describe diversos aspectos biológicos y culturales relacionados con la especie Puya raimondii, para dar a conocer la gran importancia que tiene para nuestro país. Se describe su descubrimiento, distribución geográfica, condiciones ambientales en las que se desarrolla y principales características biológicas. Además, se destaca su importancia cultural, a través de sus usos cotidianos y los nombres comunes con los que se le conoce en el Perú, además de “puya”.

<p>Water quality is an integral part of water security, but water quality itself is complex, due to its multifaceted nature. Measuring the physico-chemical indicators for water quality (e.g. pH, turbidity, heavy metal content) can provide an objective picture of water health, but it does not provide information on how it integrates and expresses the human perspective. Perceptual information and local ecological knowledge on water quality can help to understand the usability of water and support better conservation strategies. Therefore, the aims of the Nuestro Rio project were to investigate local perceptions of water quality in the upper Santa River basin, Peru. Walking interviews (n = 99) were conducted in the field between July-August 2021 to assess community members perceptions of their local rivers and streams. Through qualitative data analysis in two rural communities in the glaciated Santa River basin, we collected local perspectives on good and poor water quality, identified some of the key water concerns of the population, and explored the importance of emotions for determining water quality perceptions. Overall water quality perspectives differed within, and between, the two communities. Yet, it was possible to identify several characteristics and concerns that the population has been perceiving in recent years, as well as their causes, both natural and anthropogenic. Both communities felt the main cause of poor water quality was pollution due to the presence of minerals in the water, “invisible” aspects of water quality. We found that local perceptions on water quality also depend on water use as it has an important effect on local organisation. Emotions, on the other hand, reflect the population’s concern, fear, anger, and even frustration, when perceiving poor water quality, and happiness, trust, and even affection, when perceiving good water quality. More inclusive science that asks people what they observe, think and feel about the quality of their rivers and water can help provide a much deeper contextual understanding (e.g. useability of water, changes over time, traditional ecological knowledge) of local dynamic human-water systems, and improve science communication and policy implementation.</p>

<p>Water quality is a key consideration for both socio-economic and environmental sustainability (UN Sustainable Development Goal 6: Clean Water and Sanitation). However due to both natural and anthropogenic pressures, water quality is known to be threatened in many regions around the world. In this GCRF funded project, Nuestro Rio (“Our River”), we focus on water quality across the Santa River basin in Peru. To gain insights into water quality perspectives in upstream rural regions as well as downstream, urban regions in the Santa Basin, we designed and launched a citizen science app to assess community perceptions and collect images of water quality (April - August 2021). Here we will reflect on the lessons learnt from our interdisciplinary, citizen-led data collection within rural Peruvian communities, with results aimed at improving our understanding and science communication practice within the region.</p><p>One key insight we gained throughout the project is that direct interactions with local participants during fieldwork offers invaluable benefits that largely outweigh the monetary and temporal costs and, at the same time, addresses the research fatigue in the region through quality instead of quantity. The Nuestro Rio app and dataset is the result of a year-long interdisciplinary and international collaboration. Whilst the data collection through the app resulted in 350 data entries, the majority of these entries were associated with fieldwork and direct engagement with communities. Uptake of the app by participants who did not directly engage with researchers in the field was poor, demonstrating the importance of relationship building and direct interaction that can help to bridge barriers such as insufficient ability to handle technology or a lack of trust. Furthermore, as a topic for data collection, we found water quality to be a complex concept to gather perceptions on. The term water quality was interpreted differently by various groups of respondents, and often needed clarification during the field-based data collection, especially in rural areas. This issue also confirms the importance of fieldwork to capture this diversity and provide direct communication with participants for better understanding. Our results also indicated a community desire for engagement and openness to the co-design of solutions. The lessons learned from this project offer important considerations for the design of future citizen engagement for data collection and dissemination around environmental issues such as water quality in this region.</p>