PERU - Shielding of the World's Largest Ancient City

"Peru shields an ancient city of sand from strong storms" PBS NewsHour 12/23/2014

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SUMMARY:  In northern Peru, workers are fortifying the ancient site of Chan Chan, once the largest city in the Americas and the largest adobe city on the world.  Earlier this year climatologists predicted strong El Nino weather effects in 2015, threatening rain in a desert climate that rarely gets any.  Jeffrey Brown reports on the efforts to preserve and protect Peru’s heritage from the elements.

JEFFREY BROWN (NewsHour):  It looks like a giant sand castle, its walls and towers slowly being reclaimed by the earth.

This is the ancient city of Chan Chan.  Nine square miles-wide, it was once the largest in the Americas and the largest adobe city in the world.  It served as the center of political, legislative and religious life for the Chimu people, who ruled this region from the ninth century until the late 1400s, when they were conquered by the Incas.

Here, you get a hint of the splendor before and after restoration of palace ceremonial halls, all of it in one of the driest regions on the planet.

LUIS JAIME CASTILLO, Deputy Minister of Culture, Peru:  This is much more of a desert than Saudi Arabia.  There’s no rain for 15 years, and then one day, boom.

JEFFREY BROWN:  Booming, rushing, flooding.  These images from February 1998 show the impact of the weather phenomenon known as El Nino at its worst, drenching the region, destroying homes, bridges and endangering the lives of those who live nearby, as well as the thousands of archaeological sites that dot the land here, slicing through centuries-old adobe walls and smearing away paintings more than 1,000 years old.

Peru’s deputy cultural minister, Luis Jaime Castillo, was a young archaeologist when one of the most devastating El Ninos hit his country.

LUIS JAIME CASTILLO:  In ’83, when I was like in my early 20s, the El Nino happened and took everybody by surprise.  I mean, we were not prepared.  In the past, the Chimu would do lots of human sacrifices to prevent the rain from falling.  We cannot do that anymore.

JEFFREY BROWN:  No, that’s not allowed, even at the Culture Ministry.

LUIS JAIME CASTILLO:  No.  No.  Well, but we can invest some money, which we can put, unleash the archaeologists to do their work.

JEFFREY BROWN:  It can look as simple and as daunting as this, a local worker with a syringe squirting water into a crack to reinforce an adobe wall.

CLIMATE CHANGE - From the Eyes of Peru's Indigenous People

"Peru’s indigenous people call for protections against environmental threats" PBS NewsHour 12/11/2014

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GWEN IFILL (NewsHour):  International delegates have gathered for climate change talks in Lima, Peru, this week, hoping to build the framework for a plan to cut the world’s heat-trapping gas emissions.

Secretary of State John Kerry arrived there today to help with that new accord.  But, for many Peruvians, the focus is local, as mining and timber operations encroach into once pristine areas inhabited by indigenous tribes.

Jeffrey Brown is in Lima, and has this report, part of his series Culture at Risk.

JEFFREY BROWN (NewsHour):  There were dancers and drummers, banners and chants, traditional clothing of all kinds, a march of thousands, many of them tribal people, that shut down part of downtown Lima for several hours, demanding better protection of their lands and their cultures.  They came from near and far, some very far.

This group from the Ucayali region in Eastern Peru had traveled for several days, by boat, plane, and bus, to get here from their remote homes.

Grimaldo Villacorta heads the group.

GRIMALDO VILLACORTA (through interpreter):  For us, as an indigenous population, it’s important to be here, because we want to stop climate change.  We used to have regular seasons, summer and winter, during which we planted our seeds.  But now, with the climate changing, we can work the land, but sometimes we cannot plant seeds.  There is no production.

PERU - Peruvian Gold Rush Threatens Amazon Rain Forest

"Gold Lures Illegal Miners to Peru's Rainforests" PBS Newshour 11/7/2011

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STEVE SAPIENZA, special correspondent: In southeastern Peru, where the Andes Mountains meet the Amazon lies one of the world's richest ecosystems.

Roughly the size of California, the Madre de Dios region not only attracts tourists, but also those trying to cash in on this region's abundant natural resources. Rampant illegal gold mining has authorities here scrambling to protect the Amazon's last untouched tracts of rain forest. At stake are countless rare plant and animal species and the sanctity of indigenous tribes, some still living in self-imposed isolation.

Rising gold prices and the near-complete Brazil-Peru Interoceanic Highway have combined to propel fortune hunters deeper and deeper into the Amazon. A few hundred miners first settled along the new highway in 2007. Now dozens of ramshackle mining towns line the road, catering to every need and desire of the miners. Close to 30,000 people tied to mining activity now call the region home, with more arriving daily.

In the region's capital, Puerto Maldonado, recent efforts by local officials to halt illegal mining have been met with violence.