An ancient lake high in the mountains of South America holds lessons about indigenous peoples and sustainability. Discover Lake Titicaca -- today on Earth and Sky.
DB: This is Earth and Sky. Lake Titicaca is high in the Andes Mountains of South America. At three million years of age, it's among the world's most ancient lakes.
JB: The lake has an abundance of reedbeds that cover an area 2 1/2 times the size of San Francisco. They also provide breeding grounds for fish that the local Indians catch, and the reeds are harvested to make boats and to feed cattle. We spoke with Ben Orlove, a professor in the Department of Environmental Science and Policy at the University of California--Davis.
Ben Orlove: There have been fishermen around the lake for at least 5000 years, and the harvest of reeds goes back nearly that far.
DB: Orlove said that the locals carefully tend the reedbeds, burning them when they overgrow and replanting when the reeds die off. And in recent decades the local Indians have resisted efforts by the Peruvian and Bolivian governments to exploit the reedbeds.
Ben Orlove: This is one of the few cases where the indigenous people have kept control of their territory. It's also one of the most sustainable cases, and I think that's not a coincidence.
JB: For more on Lake Titicaca, come to earthsky.org. Thanks today to the Bureau of Land Management and to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation -- supporting the conservation of native fish, wildlife, plants and their habitats. We're Block and Byrd for Earth and Sky.
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