With residents of Peru’s Andes mountains facing threats from a changing climate, glaciologists say more must be done in Peru to research the problem and ensure that findings inform policy. At a meeting here in early July, leading glacier researchers from France, Switzerland, Peru, the United States, Canada, the Czech Republic and other countries called for regional cooperation to share information; promote research on hydrology, ecosystems and adaptation to climate change; and train young Peruvian researchers.

Success, they said, will depend on the combined efforts of scientists and politicians. “The biggest bottleneck is the fragmentation of the public agenda and the extreme specialization of research,” said Pascal Girot, senior climate-change advisor for Latin America and the Caribbean at CARE International, one of the main sponsors of the conference held July 1 to 4 in Huaraz, in the shadow of Peru’s glaciated Cordillera Blanca. “They are processes that are not designed to coincide. There needs to be a more multidisciplinary approach.”


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