food system vulnerability amidst the extreme 2010–2011 flooding in the peruvian amazon: a case...

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Food Security

The Science, Sociology and Economics

of Food Production and Access to Food

ISSN 1876-4517

Food Sec.

DOI 10.1007/s12571-016-0583-9

Food system vulnerability amidst theextreme 2010–2011 flooding in the

Peruvian Amazon: a case study from theUcayali region

IHACC Research Group


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ORIGINAL PAPER

Food system vulnerability amidst the extreme 2010 – 2011 floodingin the Peruvian Amazon: a case study from the Ucayali region

Mya Sherman1 & James Ford1 & Alejandro Llanos-Cuentas2 & María José Valdivia2 &

IHACC Research Group

Received: 30 November 2015 /Accepted: 25 April 2016# Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht and International Society for Plant Pathology 2016

Abstract Projections of climate change indicate an increase

in the frequency and intensity of climatic hazards such asflooding and droughts, increasing the importance of under-standing community vulnerability to extreme hydrologicalevents. This research was conducted in the flood-prone indig-enous community of Panaillo, located in the Ucayali region of the Peruvian Amazon, examining how the 2010 – 2011flooding affected the food system at community and institu-tional levels. Drawing upon in-depth fieldwork using partici-

patory research methods over multiple seasons — includingsemi-structured interviews (n = 74), focus groups, and season-al food security calendar and historical timeline exercises — the flooding was documented to have created several oppor-

tunities for increased fishing and agricultural production inPanaillo. However, households lacked the resources to fullyexploit the opportunities presented by the extreme conditionsand increasingly turned to migration as a coping mechanism.International aid organizations were drawn to Ucayali in re-sponse to the flooding, and introduced additional program-ming and provided capacity-building sessions for local

institutions. However, local institutions remain weak and con-

tinue to generally disregard the increasing magnitude and fre-quency of extremes, documented in the region over the last decade. Moreover, the long-term implications of community-level and institutional responses to the extreme flooding couldincrease food system vulnerability in the future. This casestudy highlights the importance of considering both slowand fast drivers of food system vulnerability in the aftermathof an extreme hydrological event.

Keywords Adaptation . Climate change . Extreme event .

Flood . Food system . Indigenous . Temporal analogue .

PeruvianAmazon

Introduction

Over the past decade, the Peruvian Amazon has experiencedthe most intense flooding and droughts in recent history(Marengo et al. 2013; Espinoza et al. 2009). Flood regimesare expected to continue to change in response to warmingtemperatures and increased precipitation variability with an-thropogenic climate change (Malhi et al. 2008; Pinho et al.2014). Langerwisch et al. (2013), for example, calculated fu-

ture flood duration and area in the Amazon Basin using 24climate models from the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report,with the majority projecting the area of flooding to increase

by one-third.On average, flooding also lasted 3 months longer in the western Amazon. The National Meteorological andHydrological Service of Peru (SENAMHI) has already report-ed that climate events in the country have intensified without

precedent since 2003, including extreme climate phenomenathat do not align with El Niño-La Niña (Santa Cruz et al. 2013;Vegas de Cáceres 2010).

Indigenous Health Adaptation to Climate Change Research Group: Dr.Lea Berrang-Ford, Dr. Cesar Carcamo, Dr. Shuaib Lwasa, DidacusBambaiha Namaya, Dr. Victoria Edge, and Dr. Sherilee Harper at theDepartment of Geography, McGill University, Burnside Hall 805

Sherbrooke St. W., Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3A 0B9

* Mya [email protected]

1 Department of Geography, McGill University, Burnside Hall 805Sherbrooke St. W., Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3A 0B9

2 Fundación Cayetano Heredia, Universidad Peruana CayetanoHeredia, Casa Honorio Delgado, Av. Armendariz 445, Miraflores,Lima, Peru

Food Sec.DOI 10.1007/s12571-016-0583-9

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Rainfall variability and related hydrological disasters areserious threats to agricultural production in developing coun-tries (IPCC 2014). According to the Food and AgricultureOrganization (FAO), climate change will negatively impact food security in the Peruvian Amazon, including production,access, use and stability (Vegas de Cáceres 2010). Severalstudies project lower crop yield, increased soil erosion, re-

duced water availability, and increased human diseases inthe Peruvian Amazon in response to changes in seasonality(Malhi et al. 2008; Santa Cruz et al. 2013; Vegas de Cáceres2010). Climate change could thus have profound implica-tions for agro-fishing livelihoods, biodiversity, water avail-ability, and human health (Pinho et al. 2014; Brondizio andMoran 2008; Marengo et al. 2013), increasing the impor-tance of understanding the vulnerability of communities toextreme hydrological events.

This research was conducted in the flood-prone indigenouscommunity of Panaillo, located in the Ucayali region of thePeruvian Amazon. The study uses the 2010 – 2011 flooding as

a temporal analogue to examine how the Panaillo food systemis currently affected by and responds to extreme climaticevents in the context of socio-economic-political-biophysicalconditions and changes, using this understanding to makeinferences for future food system vulnerability in the light of climate change (Smit and Wandel 2006; Ford et al. 2010).Analogues are increasingly being used in human dimensionsof climate change (HDCC) research and are based upon theidea that knowledge about a socio-ecological system’s inter-action with a climatic event can be used to provide insight intohow a system might interact with a climatic event in another time or place, provided that the systems of interest have a

similar structure and organization (Ford et al. 2010).Temporal analogues examine current and past experienceswith climatic hazards in order to gain insight into future vul-nerability to climate change (Glantz 1991; McLeman andHunter 2010; Brooks et al. 2005; Ford et al. 2010; Stathamet al. 2014). Although such analogues cannot exactly replicatefuture conditions, they are useful for examining societal inter-actions with current climate variability and provide an empir-ical baseline for assessing future vulnerability and opportuni-ties for adaptation (Ford et al. 2010; Ford et al. 2006;McLeman and Hunter 2010; Giles and Perry 1998).

Several temporal analogue studies have focused specifi-

cally on vulnerability and extreme climatic events due to theincrease in frequency of climate extremes, the projection that ‘extreme’ events will become more ‘normal’ and severe withclimate change, and the potential for extreme events tomarkedly increase vulnerability and/or motivate adaptationactions (Adger 1999; Adger et al. 2007, 2012; Giles andPerry 1998; McLeman and Hunter 2010; Travis andHuisenga 2013; Trenberth and Fasullo 2012; Espinoza et al.2009; Statham et al. 2014; Pinho et al 2014). Althoughextreme events almost always increase vulnerability in

the short-term, extreme events have been shown to both in-crease or decrease vulnerability over longer time scales (e.g.,Adger et al. 2007; Fazey et al. 2011; Travis and Huisenga2013). Frequent and severe climatic events may trigger posi-tive changes in adaptive strategies, leading to increased resil-ience for future climatic events, for example, by plantinghazard-resistant seeds or increasing livelihood diversification

(Adger et al. 2007; Sherman and Ford 2013). Several studieshave documented how extreme events may lead to a ‘windowof opportunity’ by catalyzing social, economic, policy andlegal changes due to the vulnerabilities that are exposed as aresult of the climatic event (Ford et al. 2009; Berrang-Fordet al. 2011; Kates et al. 2010; Travis 2012; McSweeney andCoomes 2011). Whether these transformational changes occur is dependent upon the frequency and severity of the extremeevent, decision-making context, and socio-economic condi-tions (Yohe and Tol 2002; Kates et al. 2010). Extremes mayalso lead to increased vulnerability since household resourcesare depleted in the climatic event and recovery is more diffi-

cult (Ford et al. 2013; Travis 2010; Fazey et al. 2011; Travisand Huisenga 2013). Adaptive strategies used for the extremeevent also have the potential to foster maladaptation, especial-ly when changes following a climatic hazard encourage a falsesense of security or foster dependency on unreliable institu-tions and limited resources (Kates et al. 2010; Travis 2010;Arnell et al. 1984). For example, maladaptive strategies de-veloped in the Pacific Islands when households stopped cul-tivating famine foods after the introduction of food aid, de-spite the unreliable and poorly timed distribution of this exter-nal relief (Campbell 2006). It is thus important to criticallyanalyze the effectiveness of adaptive strategies at varying spa-

tial and temporal scales.This study examines these themes through the extreme

2010 – 2011 flooding event in the Ucayali region of thePeruvian Amazon. Specifically, the paper characterizes howan extreme flood event influenced the vulnerability and adap-tive capacity of the food system of the remote case studycommunity of Panaillo. By examining institutional and com-munity responses to a specific historical event, this temporalanalogue case study highlights how climate risks are man-aged, the ways socioeconomic and biophysical stressors shape

post-hazard vulnerability, and the tension that exists betweenfast and slow drivers of vulnerability.

Methodology

Conceptual approach

In order to address the multi-scalar, context-dependent, anddynamic nature of food security and adaptive strategies for climatic hazards, the conceptual framework for this study is

based on the vulnerability approach (e.g. Ford and Smit 2004;

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Smit and Wandel 2006). The climatic hazards literature hasincreasingly recognized the role of socioeconomic conditionsin producing natural disasters (Hewitt 1983). Rather than tryto re-establish pre-event conditions, disaster management andhazards literature increasingly focus on addressing underlyingvulnerabilities (Reenberg et al. 2008; Blaikie et al. 2004). Thevulnerability approach emerged from this literature, incorpo-

rating concepts from sustainable livelihoods, resilience, and political ecology in order to examine complex human-environmental systems that shape how environmental stressesand change are experienced and responded to (Ford et al.2010; Eakin and Luers 2006). As an evolving research para-digm, vulnerability research has increasingly shifted awayfrom an outcome-led ‘ biophysical’ approach to a ‘contextual’or ‘starting point ’ approach that recognizes how socioeco-nomic and cultural factors shape vulnerability in particular

places (O’Brien et al. 2007). The conceptual model that will be used in this research will thus reflect a contextual approachto vulnerability, examining how socioeconomic, political, and

cultural conditions interact with climatic hazards to makesome individuals, households, groups and communities moreor less vulnerable to climatic hazards (O’Brien et al. 2007;Smit and Wandel 2006; Yohe and Tol 2002). Herein, vulner-ability is often described as a functionof 1) exposure, referringto the nature of the stimulus itself (e.g., magnitude and dura-tion of the flood), 2) sensitivity, referring to how a stimulusmanifests in a particular socio-ecological system (e.g., floodimpacts will vary depending on the biodiversity of an agricul-tural system), and 3) adaptive capacity, referring to the capac-ity of that system to manage, adjust to, and take advantage of the conditions that result from exposure and sensitivity (e.g.,

social support systems, income diversification). Adaptive capacity is closely related to the concept of resilience (Smit andWandel 2006).

This study specifically focuses on the vulnerability of Panaillo’s food system (Ingram et al. 2010). Food systemsencompass the range of activities that are responsible for the

production, processing, distribution, and consumption of food, as well as the outcomes of those activities, such as foodsecurity (Ericksen 2008a; Ford 2009). The FAO defines foodsecurity as Bwhen all people have access to sufficient, safe andnutritious food to maintain a healthy and active lifestyle^(FAO 1999). Many food security issues pertain to a range of

social, economic, political, cultural, and environmental fac-tors, especially in the context of globalization and global en-vironmental change (Ingram et al. 2010). It is thus important to also consider the broader socioeconomic and environmentalconditions that influence and result from food system activi-ties (Ericksen 2008b).

The food systems approach emerged as a more holistic andnuanced approach to food security research, which has typi-cally focused on food security outcomes, including the avail-ability, accessibility, and utilization of food (FAO 2008). The

food systems approach recognizes the multi-scalar, multi-dimensional nature of food security by considering environ-mental and social welfare as outcomes of food system activi-ties, in addition to traditional food security outcomes.Accordingly, food system vulnerability results from the inhi-

bition or disruption of food insecurity (e.g., lack of availabil-ity, access, proper utilization), diminished social welfare (e.g.,

income loss, increased migration), and environmental degra-dation (e.g., biodiversity loss, nutrient cycle alteration)(Ericksen 2008a). Similar to the vulnerability approach, thefood systems approach also emphasizes the importance of examining multiple spatial and temporal scales, as well asthe cross-scale interactions and feedback loops that can occur

between scales and components of the food system (Ericksen2008b). Overall, the food systems approach is better equippedto illustrate how vulnerability is nested within multiple spatialand temporal scales than an approach centered exclusively onfood security (Ericksen 2008a).

Both vulnerability and food systems literature discuss the

fast and slow drivers of food system vulnerability (Ericksen2008b; Ford et al. 2013). Fast variables determine whether or not a given exposure can be effectively coped with on rela-tively short time scales (i.e., weeks to years), whereas slowvariables describe upstream drivers of vulnerability that oper-ate on larger spatial and temporal scales and shape the context in which fast variables manifest. Although the interplay of

both fast and slow variables is important for vulnerability,slow variables are outside of direct control and ultimatelydirect sensitivity and adaptive capacity (Ford et al. 2013;Chapin et al. 2004). Chapin et al. (2004: 347) explain that fast variables often receive the greatest attention from institutions,

decision-makers, and the public, even though Bfailure to man-age the slow variables can lead to irreversible changes, such asthe loss of a fishery or traditional ties to the land, with gravesocietal consequences^. Exclusively addressing fast variablesalso has the potential to lead to maladaptive trajectories if theresulting adaptations are inflexible, limiting, and/or have neg-ative long-term consequences (Fazey et al. 2011). In this casestudy, we characterize the fast and slow drivers of the Panaillofood system and identify how they influenced the communityand institutional responses to the 2010 – 2011 extremeflooding.

Case study community

This study uses a case study from the Shipibo-Konibo com-munity of Panaillo (Fig. 1) to examine food system vulnera-

bility and adaptive capacity in the context of flood extremes.Panaillo is located on a riverbank in the Amazonian Lowlandsof Peru where the Panaillo tributary and the Ucayali River meet (Fig. 2). Ucayali is characterized by a tropical climateand an annual flood cycle (Kvist and Nebel 2001). The rainyseason is typically from January to March, a semi-dry season

Extreme flooding in the Peruvian Amazon causes food insecurity


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from April to May, a dry season from July to August, and asemi-rainy season from September to December (Carranza2013). Due to the river ’s low gradient (approximately 5 cm

per kilometer), the Ucayali is one of the largest actively

meandering rivers in the world (Abizaid 2005; Abad et al.2012). During the rainy season, the river typically widensfrom 400 m to 2 km and rises 10.79 m from its low stage at Pucallpa, the capital city of the Ucayali (Bureau of MarineT r a n s p o r t f r o m M i n i s t r y o f T r a n s p o r t a t i o n a n dCommunications - Ucayali, interview, 2013).

The community of Panaillo was originally founded in thelate 19th century along the Ucayali River in the Contamanaregion, and was forced to relocate in the late 1940s when theUcayali River changed course. The community temporarilyrelocated to the city of Yarinacocha for 6 years, until movingin 1954 to a different location on the Ucayali riverbank near

the mouth of the Callería River and above the mouth of the

Aguaytia River (Bergman 1980). It was in this location that Ronald W. Bergman carried out a detailed ethnography of thecommunity in 1971 – 1972 (see Bergman 1980). Between1954 and 1971, Bergman (1980) reported that Panaillo wasflooded three times, with the most severe flooding occurringin 1965 when the community was covered with 1 m of water.In 2004, the community was forcedto move from this location

when the Ucayali River changed course again. The commu-nity is now located further inland on the Panaillo River. Basedon community memory and fieldwork observations of dam-age to housing, the community floods every year with be-tween .75 and 1.5 m of water in the current location.

Many households never returned to Panaillo after the 2004flooding, and instead assumed permanent residence inPucallpa (Hofmeijer et al. 2013). According to semi-structured interviews in this study, Panaillo currently has a

population of 220 people representing 22 households,1 whichindicates that about one-third of the community permanentlyleft the community following the extreme flooding in 2004,

noting that there are no recent official census estimates for thesettlement. According to interview respondents, the popula-tion of Panaillo has been decreasing since 2004 as a result of out-migration.

Like many communities in the area, Panaillo experiences political and cultural marginalization, and is undergoing dra-matic changes from economic development (Hofmeijer et al.2013). The community has become increasingly integratedinto the market economy following the construction of a roadto the city of Pucallpa in 2009. Panaillo is now relativelyaccessible from Pucallpa by traveling 5 – 7 h by boat or 2 – 4 h

by road. However, boat access to the community is restricted

in the dry season when water levels lower substantially, andthe road is often unusable due to flood damage and inadequatemaintenance. This lack of consistent transportation severelyconstrains market access. Constrained market access is a com-mon issue for communities throughout the region, wheremany communities lack road access and must travel for daysto reach Pucallpa. In this sense, Panaillo’s relatively close

proximity to Pucallpa is advantageous. Panaillo also has twoschoolhouses and a health post where community memberscan receive basic medical treatment. However, the health post is closed whenever the nurse technician is not present in thecommunity, which wasobservedand reportedto be a common

occurrence. Panaillo also struggles with the frequent absenceof schoolteachers, resulting in the cancellation of classes.Previous research in Panaillo identified acculturative stress,marginalization, and the loss of traditional knowledge as

pressing community concerns (Hofmeijer et al. 2013).Most households are still highly dependent on subsistence

agriculture and fishing. Households plant cowpea, peanuts,

Fig. 1 The Shipibo-Konibo community of Panaillo (taken duringfieldwork)

Fig. 2 Study site location 1 Bergman (1980) recorded that the Panaillo population in 1971 was 107.

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watermelon, and rice on the sandbar and mudflats at the be-ginning of the dry season (typically May) and harvest thesecrops in August until the onset of the flood in December.Bergman (1980) reported the cultivation of similar crops ona similar timescale in the 1970s. This cultivation is responsiblefor the majority of harvest foods for household consumptionand income in Panaillo. Households also cultivate yuca (also

known as ‘cassava’ or ‘manioc’) and plantain in chacras (for-est gardens) located around the houses in the community andin nearby forests. Since Panaillo’s current location lackshigher ground, Panaillo residents can no longer maintain asexpansive chacras as Bergman (1980) described during hisfieldwork in the 1970s. Bergman (1980) also noted that the

plantain grown in Panaillo is killed by very high flooding,which occurred approximately every 5 – 7 years. In thecommunity’s current location, the community’s normal plan-tain varieties are killed almost every year, during normalflooding as well as more extreme flooding. Both men andwomen engage in agricultural activities, whereas only men

hunt, fish, and work in seasonal timber extraction and mostlywomen work in traditional handicrafts (Sherman 2014).Whereas hunting is discussed in detail in Bergman’s study(1980), Panaillo community members report that they rarelyhunt today, stating that the animal populations in the surround-ing area havedeclined. Women are exclusively responsible for cooking and men typically provide the majority of food for thehousehold (Sherman 2014). Household income has becomeincreasingly important to purchasefoods, especially in the off-season and when harvested food supplies are low. Food is

purchased from two local stores, the market in the neighboringtown of Tacshitea, and the regional markets in Pucallpa

(Sherman 2014). A significant number of households alsomigrate seasonally to live in Pucallpa and the surroundingareaduring the rainy season (Sherman 2014). Panaillo communitymembers often rely on extended family members for work,housing, and food while in Pucallpa.

The Shipibo-Konibo residents of Panaillo have main-tained strong traditional beliefs and customs, including theuse of the indigenous language (Sherman 2014). Panaillo isrelatively egalitarian, which is facilitated by the frequentlyrotation of authority positions between households and the

presence of strong family networks. Some households wereidentified by Panaillo residents to have relatively greater

difficulty in coping with the flood, including those that must depend on other family members for sources of food andincome (e.g., elderly, widows, single mother, orphans) andthose that are unable to work in agro-fishing or income-generating livelihoods (Sherman 2014). Some householdswere also reported to have better access to livelihood equip-ment, such as an ice chest, saw, or fish trap, and somehouseholds are also more actively engaged in income-generating activities, such as the two families that own thelocal stores in the community (Sherman 2014).

Temporal analogue approach

Temporal analogues are commonly employed in HDCC re-search in order to improve the understanding of current re-sponses to climate extremes and to make inferences for thefuture (Ford et al. 2010; Glantz 1991; Tol et al. 1998;Hallegatte et al. 2007; Ford et al. 2006; Duncan 1992).

Analogues are limited in that no two places/times are identi-cal, and this paper does not suggest that Panaillo’s uniqueexperience with flooding in the recent past can be necessarilygeneralized to other communities or other time periods.However, important issues and overarching themes can bedrawn from a case-study analogue approach, and spatial andtemporal analogues have proven to be useful in climatechange vulnerability research in assessing and characterizingthe drivers and circumstances that produce a particular out-come and in creating inference about future conditions(Hayman et al. 2012; Berrang-Ford et al. 2011; Ford et al.2010; McLeman and Hunter 2010; Glantz 1991).

Since future climate change is expected to increase thefrequency and severity of flooding events, the 2010 – 2011extreme flooding event is useful as an analogue to gain insight into the current and potential future responses to extremeflooding. We cannot conclude with certainty that the specificflooding that occurred in 2010 – 2011 is directly and exclusive-ly linked to climate change, since it is possible that the 2010 – 2011 flooding resulted from a combination of natural climatevariability and other socioeconomic drivers. However, therehas been a documented increase in the frequency of extremehydrological events in the Amazon basin since the end of the1980s, which is consistent with projections of climate change

for the area (Espinoza et al. 2012). Prior to the 2010 – 2011rainy season, the Peruvian Amazon was characterized by asevere drought, which unprecedentedly transitioned into oneof the highest river discharges recorded in the area in April2011 as a result of heavy rainfall (Espinoza et al. 2012). In themonth of February 2011, 473 mm of rain fell in Ucayali,exceeding the February average of 279 mm (Vásquez et al.2012). On February 22nd alone, 101 mm of rain fell in theregion (Vásquez et al. 2012). The Ucayali River reached147.463 m above sea level on March 5, 2011, which was thehighest level recorded since 1980 when the Ucayali Coast Guard began to take annual measurements (Vásquez et al.

2012). Panaillo residents in this study also reported that theflooding in 2010 – 2011 lasted longer and rose substantiallyhigher than flooding in normal years. Although 23 regionsin Peru reported emergencies in response to the 2010 – 2011flooding, Ucayali was one of the most affected (Vásquez et al.2012). In 2010 – 2011, Ucayali reported 6706 injuries, 59,021affected people, 22,500 houses damaged or destroyed, dam-age to 30 bridges and 400 km of roads, and the loss of 30,000animals and 40,000 ha of agricultural land (Vásquez et al.2012). The regional governmentdeclareda state of emergency



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on February 25, 2011, and a federally-declared state of emer-gency in the region was pronounced on April 25, 2011(Vásquez et al. 2012).

Methods

Fieldwork utilized Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA)

methods, which enable researchers to obtain information fromcommunity members about local conditions in a cost-effec-tive, timely, and culturally appropriate fashion (Chambers1994). PRA methods are a family of qualitative field researchmethods in which the researcher works in partnership withcommunity members and both the researchprocess and resultsare shared between community members and the researchteam (Sherman et al. 2012). PRA activities often use localmaterials, such as posters, markers, and pebbles, and are typ-ically designed to be accessible to individuals with low edu-cation levels (e.g., use of visuals) (Chambers 1994). PRAmethods are particularly suitable for food systems research

due to their accessibility to community members with lowlevels of education and their ability to thus incorporate localsmallholder perspectives on the food system in the research.PRA methods are also well suited for interdisciplinary re-search given the flexibility and holistic approach of most PRA activities. PRA was employed as part of a community-

based par ticipatory research (CB PR) process in whichPanaillo actively collaborated at each stage of the research

process, and research was guided by the ethical framework developed with indigenous communities in the PeruvianAmazon in previous work (see Sherman et al. 2012;Hofmeijer et al. 2013). The work, in turn, is part of the larger

5-year Indigenous Health Adaptation to Climate Change(IHACC, www.ihacc.ca) project, involving a full 1-year pro-

ject development phase during which community membersand decision makers at various levels helped design the

project. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with 27

Panaillo residents, representing a census of all households present in the community (n =18). Interviews were carriedout with at least one head of household, and in some cases

both th e ma le an d fe ma le he ad s of hous eh ol d we reinterviewed. A snowball sampling technique was employedfor 15 interviews with former Panaillo residents who had mi-

grated to the Pucallpa. Snowball sampling is a non-probabilitysampling technique that is frequently used in qualitative re-search. In snowball sampling, the existing study participantsrecommend or recruit future study participants based on their

personal contacts (Marshall 1996). Thirty-two interviewswere carried out with institutions working with Panaillo or related issues of food security and extreme climate events,including interviews with NGOs and institutions working at the community, local, regional, and national levels. Interviewswere carried out with personnel from non-governmental and

governmental institutions, including organizations workingwith health, agriculture, disaster risk management, education,research, and indigenous issues. All interviews were conduct-ed in-person, in Spanish or Shipibo-Konibo, and lasted be-tween 45 and 120 min. An interview guide was applied for all semi-structured interviews. The interview guide was in-formed by food systems and vulnerability literature and was

pre-tested for content and context by academics, local researchcollaborators and community members. Food security ques-tions were specifically adapted from the Latin American andCaribbean Household Food Security Measurement Scale(ELCSA).

Three participatory rural appraisal focus groups wereconducted in Panaillo. The focus groups lasted 1 – 3 h with8 – 13 individuals participating in each. In accordance withlocal cultural norms, focus groups were carried out with sep-arate groups of men and women in order to overcome the

power relations that can form within the group participatingin the workshop and to explore and compare the different

perspectives that exist in the community (Davis 2001;Mayoux 2005; Kesby 2000). To ensure that the focus groupswere not dominated by a vocal minority, the field researcher worked with community authorities, local research assistants,and the community’s elders to ensure that diverse and alter-nate perspectives were present at each focus group. The fieldresearcher also actively managed the power dynamics in thefocus group, for example, by separating the focus group par-ticipants into smaller groups to complete PRA activities.

A historical timeline activity was carried out in the first focus group to better understand community context and col-lective memory (see Fig. 3). Participants were asked to recol-

lect important social and environmental events in their lives or in the popular memory of the community in order to chart thecommunity’s history from a point in the past to the present. Inthis manner, participants created a historical timeline to ex-

plore food practices, resource availability, and important events in the community’s history. The discussion of the dia-gram centered on the nature of the events and the adaptivestrategies used in response to these events (Mayoux 2005;Davis 2001).

In the second focus group, participants created a seasonal food security calendar (FAO 2011). Each group was provideda calendar with ten categories related to household food secu-

rity, precipitation, transportation, food markets, livelihoods,and planting and harvest activities (see Fig. 3). Participantswere asked to evaluate each category in accordance with itsavailability and/or abundance for each month. The group wasalso asked to identify a year with ‘extreme’ flooding to discussthe similarities and differences between a normal flood year and a severe flood year for each category of the original sea-sonal calendar. All groups chose to discuss the 2010 – 2011flooding, which was consistent with local hydrological re-cords noting 2010 – 2011 as an extreme hydrological year

M. Sherman et al.

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(Vásquez et al. 2012; Espinoza et al. 2012). This activity re-vealed how normal seasonality influences food security andlivelihoods, as well as how extreme climatic hazards impact food security before, during, and after the event. Seasonalcalendars also provided the opportunity to discuss the variousadaptive strategies that have been used in the community inresponse to climatic extremes, and to explore how these strat-egies change over time.

To examine community perceptions of vulnerability

drivers and adaptive strategies, risk ranking was employed.In this focus group, participants were asked to list and rank what they consider to be the major difficulties and opportuni-ties of maintaining household food security in the rainy sea-son. The activity was then repeated for the dry season (seeFig. 3). This activity helped to identify the relative perceivedrisk of flooding for food security in comparison to non-climatic risks. Discussion also explored the persistent effect of certain drivers of risk (e.g., if flooding affects food securityin the dry season), and the availability and preferences tocertain adaptive strategies for climatic hazards.

Participant observation also provided the field researcher

with a more in-depth contextualized understanding of the in-formation documented in the interviews and focus groups. By

participating in local routines and practices in multiple seasonsover 3 years, the researcher was able to culturally integrate and

build rapport with community members.All interviews, focus group notes, and participant observa-

tion notes were transcribed and analyzed using content anal-ysis. A codebook was developed and employed using theMayring approach to qualitative analysis, which uses a sys-tematic approach guided by theory to analyze qualitative text

(Mayring 2004). According to the Mayring approach, induc-tive category development was utilized. Transcriptions wereinitially coded using the analytical framework for vulnerabil-ity and food systems (see Ford and Smit 2004; Smit andWandel 2006; Ericksen 2008b). The codebook was then mod-ified to incorporate the prominent themes that emerged in the

preliminary data analysis. These revised categories were thenapplied deductively to the data in the final analysis.Accordingly, a food systems vulnerability framework served

as the foundation for the collection and analysis of data, al-though the organization of final results also reflects the pro-nounced themes in the data.

Results

Impact of the 2010 – 2011 flooding on livelihoods

The 2010 – 2011 flooding created several opportunities for in-creased fishing and agricultural production in Panaillo.Accordingto the seasonalfood security focusgroup and seven

Panaillo interviewees, the flood created more expansive riverbeds for agriculture, as well as enhanced soil fertility andremoved debris from these riverbeds. Rice production inPanaillo particularly benefited from the post-flood conditionssince the flood created more expansive mudflats for rice cul-tivation. However, participants in the seasonal food securityfocus group commented that the extreme flood damagedhousehold assets and limited the working conditions for agri-culture, fishing, and traditional handicrafts during the rainyseason (see Table 1).

a

b

c

Fig. 3 Posters from ParticipatoryRapid Appraisal Focus Groupactivities, including, a Historicaltimeline, b Seasonal food securitycalendar, and c Risk ranking



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Households lacked the resources to fully exploit the oppor-tunities presented by the extreme flood conditions due to thesame financial and environmental constraints that inhibitedlivelihoods during normal flood years. For example, partici-

pants explained that the increased agricultural potential of theriverbeds was wasted since residents did not have sufficient

seeds to take advantage of the larger planting area and theyalso lacked the laborers and/or money to hire additionalworkers for the harvest. The extended duration of the 2010 – 2011 flood also significantly shortened the harvest season andmany crops were not yet mature by the time the next flood-waters arrived in November 2011. Although rice productionwas higher in 2011, the saturation of local markets with rice

product lowered its price and households struggled to generateas much income as normal years. The majority of Panailloresidents in this study commented that they generally struggle

to sell their agricultural crops at a fair price, which was simi-larly noted by Bergman in 1980. Panaillo residents also re-

ported struggling to effectively store surplus agricultural prod-ucts, such as rice, mainly due to lacking a proper storagecontainer (n =7), pests (i.e. rats, insects, fungus) (n =7), andinsufficient drying of the seeds in humid conditions (n =4).

Storage was reported to be equally difficult during the 2010 – 2011 flooding as in normal flood years.

Fish populations were reported by two institutional inter-viewees to increase after strong flood years (Interview #67,7/16/2013; Interview #70, 7/22/2013). Participants in the sea-sonal food security focus group similarly reported having im-

proved fish quality after the 2010 – 2011 flooding as a result of a more pronounced mijano, the period of fish abundance whenwater levels are lower and fish become trapped in new lakes(Junk et al. 1989). However, community members could only

Table 1 Constraints to traditional livelihoods, as reported by Panaillo residents in the seasonal food security calendar focus group

Livelihood Description of livelihood activity/ practice

Limitations in normal years Specific limitations in 2010 – 2011

Agriculture Rain-fed agriculture on the sandbars inthe dry season. Main crops includerice, cowpea, plantain, yuca, corn, peanut, and watermelon. All

households sell agricultural productsto the local markets.

• Variable soil conditions and timing for planting depending on how river levellowers

• Delayed planting due to other job

obligations• Shortened harvest season from longer

flood duration/ early flood onset • Lack of seeds poor storage, insufficient

production, and household consumption• Insufficient workers for planting and

harvest • Pests• Illness/injury

• All plants were killed by the flood• Shortened agricultural season, resulting in

smaller harvest since crops did not reachmaturity before next flood onset

• Insufficient quantities of rice and cornseeds that were most suited toagricultural conditions on riverbeds

• Inability to sell crops for good price due tomarket saturation

Fishing Small-scale fishing with harpoons and/ or nets. Five residents sell fish to thelocal markets.

• Lack of access to boat • Lack of fishing equipment (e.g., net, ice

box)• Lack of t ime/labor to extract and preserve

all available fish• Selling fish meant for household

consumption• Illness/injury

• Difficulty fishing and low fish catches inthe rainy season

• River shifted and changed flow of fishaway from Panaillo

• Inability to sell fish for good price due tomarket saturation

TraditionalHandicrafts

Traditional handicrafts, such asembroidery, textiles, jewelry, and paintings.

• Over-extraction of natural materials usedfor traditional handicrafts

• Lack of financial resources to purchasematerials (e.g., cloth, needle, string)

• Difficulty working in house during floodconditions

• Inability to dry, dye, and prepare materialsdue to unpredictable rains

• Illness/injury

• Inability to work in house during floodconditions

Timber Extraction Timber extraction. Timber is solddirectly to logging companiesthrough concessions (mostlyillegal).

• Lack of equipment (e.g., power saw)• Lack of labor, money, and boat access• Illness/injury

• Difficulty working in higher water levels

Employment Employment in commercial plantations, construction, oil andlogging companies, and serviceindustry (e.g., restaurants, cleaning).

• Illness/injury• Low levels of education• Limited job contacts• Discrimination

• Limited available jobs since companies’operations also recovering from flooddamage

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sell fish for a low price due to market saturation. Furthermore,households with greater access to livelihood equipment tended to have stronger income-generating livelihoods andwere generally better able to withstand the climatic shock thanhouseholds with fewer financial resources. For example, par-ticipants in the historical timeline focus group noted that somecommunity members in Panaillo owned fishing equipment,

which enabled the household to achieve a relatively higher income. Households that could not afford a fish trap(USD$18 – 21) used a spear or a harpoon and struggled tocatch as many fish for both consumption and sale. This was

particularly important in 2010 – 2011 since the low market price of fish required households to sell fish of a better qualityand/or quantity in order to generate sufficient income.Additionally, the extreme flooding in 2010 – 2011 also led toerosion in some areas, causing fish to asphyxiate as a result of increased sedimentation. Participants in the seasonal food se-curity calendar focus group also reported that fish catcheswere lower in the Panaillo River after the 2010 – 2011 flooding

because the Ucayali river flow shifted during the flood and thenew flow partially prevented fish from entering the tributary.One-third of community members also reported a general de-cline in fish populations over the past decade. Declines in fish

populations in the Amazon as a result of population growthand over-extraction have been documented for several de-cades (Bergman 1980; Hern 1992).

For households unable to produce sufficient food or in-come from agro-fishing livelihoods in 2010 – 2011, income-generating livelihoods became increasingly important for household food security, yet many of these alternatives werealso limited for Panaillo residents during the extreme 2010 –

2011 flooding. Four Panaillo interview respondents discussedthe difficulty of making traditional handicrafts when the floor is covered with water. Community members in the seasonalfood security focus group also reported struggling to find em-

ployment outside Panaillo in 2010 – 2011 since many compa-nies’ operations also needed to recover from flood damage.However, certain livelihoods benefited from the flood condi-tions. Men in the risk ranking focus group discussed beingable to extract timber more easily in the flooded conditionsdue to the high water levels and rapid access to trees by boat.Tomasella et al. (2013) discuss how flooded conditions areadvantageous for timber extraction since it is easier to trans-

port timber from remote areas. However, four community in-terview respondents also reported being unable to extract tim-

ber for sale since they did not own a power saw, and malefocus group participants discussed struggling to sell timber for fair prices at the market.

Many of these challenges, such as poor market access,insufficient labor, limited access to livelihood equipment, lim-ited seed supplies and limited employment opportunities,were also reported to constrain the food system in normalflood years in focus groups and interviews. Bergman (1980)

similarly noted that there were limited income-generating opportunities for Panaillo residents. However, in the aftermath of the 2010 – 2011 flooding, Panaillo households reported aneven greater need for homegrown food and income to aidrecovery, which made the negative impact of theseconstraining factors arguably more pronounced than duringnormal flood years.

Impact of the 2010 – 2011 flooding on adaptive strategies

According to research in the Peruvian Amazon, intensificationof fishing efforts, increased resource extraction from forests,and reliance on upland cropping are often used to cope withflood shocks (Takasaki et al. 2010; Coomes et al. 2010).However, in this research, Panaillo’s location in a low-lyingarea precluded the option of upland cropping. Communitymembers were sometimes able to increase fishing efforts andextract timber products for sale, yet many households do not have access to livelihood equipment that helps to make these

activities profitable, as mentioned in the previous section.Interview respondents also reported declines in fish popula-tions (n = 30) and the over-extraction of desirable timber spe-cies (n =14) in the past decade, as well as limited transporta-tion (n = 18) and constrained market access (n =35) in the

present-day, all of which potentially constrain fishing and timber extraction as a viable coping strategy in Panaillo.

Many traditional strategies for coping with seasonalflooding were rendered unusable for community members inthe 2010 – 2011 flooding according to community interviewsand the seasonal food security focus group (Table 2). Whenincome is low and harvested food sources are limited, food-

sharing among family members and social networks is criticalto maintain household food security. This arrangement ismeant to smooth over temporary food shortages as well asavoid food spoilage (Behrens 1992). According to the histor-ical timeline focus group and interviews with Panaillo resi-dents, food-sharing networks have generally declined over the past few decades as a result of insufficient household foodquantities (n =5), as well as cultural changes (n = 7). Whilesocial capital often increases a household’s resilience amidst a shock (Aldrich and Meyer 2014), during the 2010 – 2011flooding, participants in the historical timeline focus groupnoted that households were unable to share food at all due to

insufficient supplies of food in every household. Participantsin the seasonal food security calendar focus group discussedhow the long duration of the 2010 – 2011 flooding delayed

planting and thus shortened the harvest season. The shorter harvest season significantly reduced the window of time inwhich the starchy tuberous root of yuca could be dried and

preserved in the form of fariña, an important food consumedthroughout the flood season. Similarly, Bergman (1980) alsodescribes observing women hurriedly harvesting yuca tomake fariña at the start of the flood season.



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Six Panaillo respondents identified that households increas-ingly cultivated flood-tolerant plantain varieties (i.e., campeónand sapo) after seeing the need for a more flood-tolerant vari-ety. Campeón and sapo varieties were likely the result of selec-tive breeding carried out by smallholder agriculturaliststhroughout this part of the Amazon, although no formal re-search has been carried out on this specific topic. Panaillo com-

munity members reported that they first encountered theseflood-tolerant varieties while visiting family members in com-munities located downstream of Panaillo. Two respondents be-gan to cultivate flood-tolerant plantain after the 2010 – 2011flooding in particular. The main benefit of these varieties over normal plantain is that the plant will be able to continue to

produce fruit after the flooding period, whereas normal plantain plants do not survive the flooding, even if flooding lasts lessthan 1 week. However, the 2010 – 2011 flooding destroyed allof the flood-tolerant plantain varieties that the community had

planted. The campeón and sapo plantain themselves can onlywithstand up to 1 week of water submergence, and fruit yield is

impaired by cloudy conditions and the submergence of roots.Accordingly, the seasonal food security focus group mentionedneeding to increase dependence on breadfruit during the 2010 – 2011 flooding since plantain was unavailable. Communitymembers also reported in the seasonal food security calendar focus group that Panaillo residents only consume breadfruit that grows naturally in Panaillo and that breadfruit is increas-ingly scarce in the surrounding area. Community members donot cultivate breadfruit andhave not attempted to limit the over-extraction of natural breadfruit in the area. Furthermore,

community members reported that extreme flood conditionscan also damage breadfruit trees.

The extreme flood conditions in 2010 – 2011 also necessi-tated additional measures to protect housing and belongingsfrom wind and water damage. Community respondents men-tioned constructing a raised platform to be placed over thesubmerged floor (n =13), placing wooden poles in strategic

locations to support the house structure (n = 6), and securing belongings to the house (n = 3), practices that Bergman (1980)also observed. Over one-fifth of community respondents(n = 9) reported that houses collapsed during extreme floodingas a result of strong winds and erosion. Some residents recon-structed their houses using stronger materials. For example, in2011, one Panaillo resident used a stronger tin material for hishouse’s roof since the traditional palm fronds used for roofingare increasingly scarce in the area (see Fig. 4). However, fi-nancial resources were required to purchase the metal roofingand some households also preferred natural housing materialsthat were less hot and more traditional.

Eight community members reported that the 2011 – 2012flooding was easier to manage as a result of these structuralchanges and increased preparedness from the experience in2010 – 2011. However, households also increasingly turnedto migration in response to severe flood events, as discussedin 19 interviews. In normal flood years, the principal motiva-tion for migration among current and former Panaillo resi-dents (n =25) was to seek out employment and educationalopportunities in Yarinacocha, Pucallpa, and settlements alongthe Lima-Pucallpa highway (see Table 3). Panaillo migrants

Table 2 Constraints to traditional adaptive strategies, as reported by Panaillo residents in the seasonal food security calendar focus group

Traditionaladaptive strategy

Description of strategy Main limitations in normal years Mainlimitations inthe 2010 – 2011 flooding

Fariña A traditional food made from driedand preserved yuca that isconsumed throughout the rainyseason

• Lack of labor, time, and planting materialto produce sufficient yuca

• Early flood onset • Shortened harvest season

Lack of traditional knowledge to make fariña

Shorter agricultural season reduced time tofor yuca production and preservation

Seed storage Storing leftover seeds from theharvest for consumption duringthe rainy season and plantingmaterial for the next agriculturalseason

• Lack proper storage container • PestsInsufficient drying of seeds

• Lower crop yield from shortenedagricultural season

Need to sell greater proportion of crops out to meet financial needs for floodrecovery

Campeón and sapo plantain

Cultivating more flood-tolerant plantain varieties to ensure plantain source in the rainy sea-son

• Lack of planting material• Fruit dies after 1 – 2 days submergencePlant dies after 1+ week submergence

All plantain plants died from water submergence. Community members hadto wait 9+ monthsfor new plantsto reachmaturation.

Breadfruit Consumption of breadfruit Low amount of naturally-occurring bread-fruit in surrounding area

Increased breadfruit scarcity from over-extraction and from flood damage

Food-sharing Sharing food with extended family

and neighbors to overcometemporary food shortages and toavoid spoilage.

• Insufficient household food quantities

Decline of food-sharing tradition withwesternization

• Insufficient household food quantities

Increased theft between households andcommunities

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also reported permanently migrating to live with family in thecity due to illness, injury, and old age ( n = 7) and/or to avoidflood conditions in Panaillo (n = 4). While young adults might

be among the first to permanently migrate, the migration of children or a spouse often instigates the migration of other

family members, particularly the elderly, as mentioned in sixcommunity interviews. Three Panaillo interviewees discussedthe difficulties experienced by the elderly in Panaillo, sincemany of their children have migrated to the city and are unableto provide for their parents. Participants in the historical time-line focus group believed that the abandonment of elderly

parents reflects the westernization that is happening amongyounger generations.

Five community members reported going to the city in2011 – 2012 for the rainy season and were motivated by the2010 – 2011 flood conditions. One community health worker in Panaillo explained:

Now they leave their homes for the city because [they]think that the flood will be strong… it ’s changed a lot recently because in these past few years there have been

big floods in comparison to other years, and because of this the population has left (Interview #43, 5/3/2013).

Four community members also stated that they decidewhether or not to migrate to the city during the rainy season

by waiting to see if the house floor will be covered with water,leaving for the city as soon as the floodwaters cover the floor.In this sense, the decision to temporarily migrate during the

rainy season is a pre-emptive risk management strategy for some households and an almost-instantaneous response toflood conditions for others. Panaillo respondents stated that households do not migrate to the city at the start of the rainyseason predominantly due to lack of financial resources(n =12) and lack of family contacts in the city (n =6),highlighting the importance of financial and social resourcesat the household level.

Migrants from Panaillo who were interviewed in this re-search in 2013 (a normal flood year) had reportedly worse

food security outcomes than individuals currently living in

Panaillo (See Table 4). Due to the small sample size of mi-grants interviewed in this study, as well as the systematicdifferences between individuals who migrate and those whocontinue to reside in Panaillo, additional research is requiredto assess the statistical significance of this finding. However,the qualitative data collected in this case study supports theview that migrants experienced substantial challenges inhousehold food security. The majority of migrant respondents(n =14) mentioned continuing to struggle with money after migrating due to inconsistent income sources and/or high de-

pendence on financial resources for household food. One in-stitutional respondent noted:

Their lives don’t get much better after they migrate tothe city because they don’t have a place to work. If theydon’t work, how are they going to live? What are theygoing to eat? So the people start to become malnour-ished… And when the men want to do some work andknow how to do it, they won’t employ them here be-cause they don’t have a [national identification card](Interview #56, 5/31/2013).

Accordingly, 10 community members reported lacking thequalifications needed for desirable jobs, such as government,

schools, law, and other highly skilled occupations. Instead,Panaillo respondents most commonly reported working as la-

borers for commercial plantations (n =9), oil and logging companies (n = 4),and construction work (n = 2).Women in Panailloand other Shipibo communities have sold traditional handicraftsin Pucallpa or Yarinacocha for several decades (Follér 2001).Participants in the historical timeline activity reported that wom-en used to make their traditional handicrafts in Panaillo and thentravel to Yarinacocha to sell their handicrafts, staying with fam-ily members in the city. After permanently moving to the city,

Fig. 4 Houses that were reconstructed with metal roofing (left , center )next to a traditional house with a roof made with palm fronds (right )

Table 3 Motivation to migrate permanently and/or temporarily amongcommunity and institutional respondents in normal flood years

Migration motivation Panaillointerviewrespondents(n =27)

Migrant interviewrespondents(n =15)

Institutionalinterviewrespondents(n =32)

Education and job

opportunities

44 %(n =12) 87 %(n = 13) 22 % (n = 7)

Avoid flood conditions 41 % (n = 11) 27 % (n =4) 13 % (n = 4)

Live with family in citydue to illness, injury or old age

0 % (n = 0) 47 % (n = 7) 0 % (n = 0)

Lack of government services in ruralcommunities

0 % (n = 0) 0 % (n = 0) 6 % (n = 2)

Decline in natural resourceavailability

0 % (n = 0) 0 % (n = 0) 6 % (n = 2)



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several former Panaillo residents (n =9) continued to sell tradi-tional handicrafts as their main income-generating livelihood.However, these respondents noted that it is difficult to generatesufficient income from selling handicrafts to pay for the higher costs of living associated with urban lifestyles (e.g., purchasingfood, using electricity).

Two migrants respondents reported that they still main-

tained agricultural plots on the sandbar in Panaillo, in spiteof permanently residing in the city. Over half of the migrantsinterviewed also reported living in the Pucallpa area and trav-eling for several months to find work in other rural parts of thePeruvian Amazon, not including Panaillo. The majority of Panaillo residents interviewed also mentioned temporarily mi-grating in the flood season to live and work in Pucallpa or thesurrounding area. Padoch et al. (2008) examined the patternsof rural-urban migration in Amazonia over the past severaldecades, noting the complexity of rural-urban networks.Padoch et al. (2008) noted that many Amazonian householdsin urban areas are Bmulti-sited^ in the sense that households

maintain economic activities, land-use rights, and/or houses in both rural and urban areas. In the case of Panaillo, somehouseholds are Bmulti-sited^, although the location of a givenlivelihood may change over time depending on the individ-ual’s job security and only one migrant interviewed reportedhaving two houses, one in Panaillo and one in the city.

Migration also has several implications for Panaillo’s foodsystem and community structure. Eleven community mem-

bers discussed how temporary migration separates familymembers, which has serious ramifications for the food securi-ty of individuals that rely on a male family member for fishing(e.g., women, children, elderly). For example, over one-

quarter of Panaillo women interviewed (n =4) were separatedfrom their spouses during the time of fieldwork. Nine inter-view respondents and participants in the historical timelinefocus group also experienced difficulty in tending crops andcontrolling pests when a family member was working outsidethe community. Temporary migration of a household member was stated as the cause of decreased food quantity (n =5),skipping meals (n =4), eating less than one should (n =4),and feeling hungry but not eating (n = 4) in Panaillo inter-views. Fieldwork observations and the historical timeline

focus group also showcased how the permanent migration of the elderly removes a source of traditional knowledge andhistory from the community and furthers the process of west-ernization among migrants.

Institutional response to the 2010 – 2011 flooding

Due to the severity of the flooding in 2010 – 2011, recoveryefforts depended on support from local government institu-tions and NGOs, including the Red Cross, COOPI, Caritasand CARE. Since UNICEF had already been working inUcayali for several years, it played a particularly important role in attracting international attention to the region bycontacting international media and newspapers. The 2010 – 2011 flooding thus created an opportunity to build local insti-tutional capacity and raise public awareness on the issues of

poverty and flooding in Ucayali.Prior to the 2010 – 2011 flooding, Ucayali had poor disaster

preparation (Vásquez et al. 2012) and a low presence of inter-

national organizations, with the exception of UNICEF.According to four institutional interviewees, the majority of local institutions had no specific budget designated for emer-gency situations. An interview with the Civil Defense for Yarinacocha further affirmed that communities in theYarinacocha district (Panaillo’s district) received no flood re-lief from its district government during the 2010 – 2011flooding due to budget misallocations and low financial re-sources. Instead, Panaillo received some flood relief in late-March 2011 from the Coronel Portillo district government, inspite of Panaillo being outside the office’s jurisdiction(Interview #53, 5/30/2013). Panaillo residents were dissatis-

fied with the supplies delivered by the Coronel Portillo CivilDefense, stating that it was insufficient and providing foodand materials for no more than a few days and to only somehouseholds.

Institutional capacity is an issue in this area under normalconditions as well. This research extensively documentedchallenges among institutions at the community, district, pro-vincial, regional and national level, including limited institu-tional resources, poor planning, high turnover, dependencyand corruption. For example, over one-third of institutional

Table 4 Community reportingon dimensions of household foodinsecurity

Dimension of food insecurity Panaillo interviewrespondents(n =27)

Migrant interviewrespondents(n =15)

Insufficient food quantities 100 % (n = 27) 100 % (n =15)

Insufficient food quantities leading to reduced food consumption 85 % (n = 23) 100 % (n =15)

Poor food quality 89 % (n = 24) 100 % (n =15)

Skipping 1 – 2 meals 77 % (n = 21) 87 % (n =13)Eating less than they know they should 77 % (n = 21) 100 % (n =15)

Feeling hungry 85 % (n = 23) 80 % (n =12)

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respondents (n =13) discussed how local institutions areconstrained in their ability to carry out activities due to limitedfinancial resources. In six interviews, respondents attributedlow financial resources to poor budget management and lim-ited capacity to formally solicit funds from the federal govern-ment. Five institutional interviewees noted that institutions areconstrained by the frequent change in authorities and the lack

of knowledge transfer among them. These respondentscommented on how Ucayali is a relatively young department with lower human capital compared to other regions. As aresult, many government officials in Ucayali are migrants that are unfamiliar with the area. Another respondent asserted that dependence on international organizations and day-to-daythinking in Peruvian institutions obstruct sustainable develop-ment and preventative action (Interview #52, 5/28/2013).Political favors and the politicization of services have also

become widespread in Peru, as discussed in 25 % of institu-tional interviews (n =8). As a result of these issues, govern-ment services were reported to be generally lacking in rural

and/or indigenous areas like Panaillo, as discussed in all focusgroups and over 30 % of interviews (n =23). One NGO inter-viewee reiterated that,

The regional government doesn’t pay much attention tothe indigenous communities. The indigenous communi-ties are not so important to them because the government works politically… Since they don’t have [a nationalidentification card], they don’t serve the government,not even to think about them (Interview #56, 5/31/2013).

The extreme flooding in 2010 – 2011 created an opportunity

to improve the disaster management and planning of local in-stitutions. After the flood, the institutional organization of di-saster management in Peru shifted. In May 2011, the NationalSystem for Civil Defense (SINADECI) was replaced by thecurrent National Disaster Risk Management System(SINAGERD). SINAGERD places a greater emphasis on pre-vention and risk reduction and introduces the National Center of Disaster Risk Estimation, Prevention and Reduction(CENEPRED) as an entire institution dedicated to these issues.However, CENEPRED has only one office in Lima and doesnot work directly with the regional and local Civil Defense, but rather acts as a consultant to each president of the region. One

CENEPRED interview respondent commented that,

Since we’re just starting out, the [regional presidents andmayors] need to call us, but some of them still don’t know we exist. They’re saying, ‘Where are we?’ and‘Who are we?’ because we don’t have much capacityto assist everyone (Interview #64, 6/24/2013).

Three institutional interview respondents have commentedthat so far CENEPRED has not been very actively engaged in

preventative action in Ucayali, instead focusing on other re-gions. The State also formed a Lima Working Group for Ucayali in 2011 to coordinate the collaboration between thePeruvian government and international institutions, which re-sulted in capacity-building sessions for Ucayali institutions toimprove their disaster management skills (Vásquez et al.2012). Consequently, many local institutions increased their

budgetary allocations for emergencies in 2011, includingYarinacocha’s Civil Defense, which provided Panaillo withsome flood relief in February 2013. However, five institution-al respondents, including a respondent from Yarinacocha’sCivil Defense, also discussed how the local Civil Defense inYarinacocha did not properly design the budget to cover their

jurisdiction’s needs during the flood season in 2012 – 2013.Many of the international institutions that started to work in

Ucayali in response to the 2010 – 2011 flooding also began towork with general development issues in the region after theflood event, including the Mi Agua (My Water) project, whichwas carried out in Panaillo as well as other rural communities

in the region. Mi Agua is a collaborative effort from interna-tional organizations and local institutions to improve access toclean water in rural areas (Vásquez et al. 2012). However,most Panaillo residents do not actively use the water treatment materials provided by Mi Agua, mainly due to the time andeffort involvedin treating the water. It is important therefore toensure that local institutions effectively monitor and evaluatethese, particularly after international organizations have left the area.

Another remaining issue is the low perceived importanceof climate change issues among Peruvian institutions.Approximately 30 % of community members (n =13) and

38 % of institutional interview respondents (n =12) reportedchanges in climate, including less predictable rains, hotter temperatures in the dry season, and more frequent and severefloodingevents. One-third of institutional respondents (n =11)and 45 % of community interviewees (n =19) also discussedchanges in fish and animal populations in the recent past.Several studies have similarly attributed changes in climateand ecosystem dynamics in the Amazon Basin to agriculturalexpansion, deforestation, mining and oil exploration, urbani-zation, and, to a lesserextent, climate change (SantaCruz et al.2013; Davidson et al. 2012; Vegas de Cáceres 2010; Kvist and

Nebel 2001;UNDPandBCPR 2013; Futemma and Brondízio

2003; Finer and Orta-Martínez 2010). Despite this, over 25 %of community members interviewed (n =11) and two institu-tional respondents explicitly denied that recent extremeflooding events might be linked to changes in climate. Themajority of these respondents believed that extreme floodingis a normal event that occurs every 5 or 10 years, and that recent extreme flooding reflects this natural trend. This per-ception of extreme flooding resembles the frequency of ex-treme floodingreported by Bergman in 1980.However, recent literature states that the Peruvian Amazon has experienced the



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most intense floods and droughts in the period following the publicat ion of Bergman’s study (Marengo et al. 2013;Espinoza et al. 2009). Two respondents reported that CENEPRED has not taken enough initiative on the issue. Arespondent from CENEPRED itself noted: BFor me, climatechange is just a word^ (Interview #64, 6/24/2013), referring tothe lack of available information on specific climate change

impacts in Peru.

Discussion and conclusions

While the long term effect of the 2010 – 2011 flooding is diffi-cult to estimate due to the dynamic nature of vulnerability,community and institutional responses provide insight intothe multiple drivers of vulnerability that exist at different spatialand temporal scales. While there is a rich tradition of adaptationin Panaillo, the 2010 – 2011 floods exceeded the short-term cop-ing capacity of the community to a great extent, as evidenced

by Panaillo residents’ constrained livelihoods and inhibitedadaptive strategies immediately following the flooding.Community members were unable to take advantage of theimproved fishing and agricultural conditions mainly due tolimited household resources. The flood conditions also com-

promised traditional adaptive strategies, mainly by shorteningthe harvest season, constraining fariña production, and imped-ing food-sharing among social networks. In this sense, thePanaillo food system’s food security and social welfare weredisrupted and Panaillo’s food system vulnerability was exacer-

bated not only during the 2010 – 2011 flooding, but the follow-ing year as well. This study also identifies some potentially

concerning trends for environmental welfare, such as the po-tential declines in fish and animal populations, as well as shiftsin river flow pattern. Similarly, Pinho et al. (2014) noted that extreme climatic events in the Brazilian Amazon overwhelmedthe local coping capacity of communities, in spite of thesecommunities’ ability to cope with normal climate variability.

Some new strategies emerged to adapt to the extreme floodconditions in 2010 – 2011, such as reinforcing housing struc-tures with stronger manufactured materials and increasing thecultivation of more flood-tolerant plantain varieties. However,stronger housing structures may also enable Panaillo residentsto stay in their flood-prone location, potentially placing them

at high risk foranother dramatic shift in river flow and erosion.As evidenced by the 2004 flooding event that led to Panaillo’srelocation, a shift in river flow could lead to the completedestruction of the community.

In 2011, community members relied on breadfruit after the plantain crops were wiped out during the extreme flooding.Although alternating between multiple adaptive strategies has

been shown in other case studies to increase resilience (seeEriksen et al. 2005; Ziervogel et al. 2006), in this case, thecontinued preference of Panaillo community members for

flood-tolerant plantain varieties as an adaptive strategy could possibly reduce the community’s resilience to future extremeflooding. Although campeón and sapo were unable to with-stand the severe flooding in 2010 – 2011, breadfruit was stillnot prioritized as an alternative flood-tolerant food sourceaccording to community interviews and focus groups.Community members did not attempt to cultivate breadfruit

following the 2010 – 2011 flooding. Instead, community inter-views indicated that Panaillo residents still viewed campeónand sapo varieties as a preferred flood-tolerant food source,and decided to increasingly plant these varieties after 2011largely due to experiencing more severe flooding in recent years. Although these plantain varieties are more tolerant of moderate flooding in comparison to normal plantain varieties,campeón and sapo plantain have limited potential to withstandsevere flooding, according to local knowledge. The increasedreliance on campeón and sapo thus overlooks the need to finda staple food that can withstand the severe and prolongedflooding that is projected to occur with climate change

(Adger et al. 2007). This issue potentially reflects a limitedawareness of the directional change that may result with cli-mate change, which was also observed in institutional inter-views. Institutions and community members in this researchconsider extreme flood events to be part of a normal 5- or 10-year cycle, rather than an indication of a new climatic normwhere extreme flooding occurs more frequently. Therefore,increased cultivation of campeón and sapo plantain varietiesmay reduce vulnerability to moderate flood events, but thereliance on these varieties may increase vulnerability overallamidst a projection of more extreme flooding in the future.

Many households in this case study also migrated mainly in

response to the extreme flooding and/or to seek out employ-ment opportunities. The urban-rural migration patterns andBmulti-sited^ households described earlier by Padoch et al.(2008) are particularly relevant to the migration patterns ob-served in Panaillo. Recent literature has similarly noted that rural migrants in the Peruvian Amazon struggle to find per-manent, fair-wage positions in the city and often seek employ-ment elsewhere (Padoch et al. 2014; Santa Cruz et al. 2013).Unemployment in Pucallpa itself was recently estimated to beas high as 50 % when the underemployment rate of Pucallpa’sinformal settlements was considered (Padoch et al. 2014).Almost all recent rural migrants live in these informal settle-

ments, including all of the temporary and permanent migrantsfrom Panaillo who participated in this study, and Padoch et al.(2014) report that few migrants in informal settlements obtain-ed formal, stable employment. Todaro (1969) and Harris andTodaro (1970) sought to explain why migration to urban areascontinues to occur in spite of high urban unemployment. Theyassert that the expected wage differential between urban andrural areas is largely responsible for the migration decision.Migration in the aftermath of the 2010 – 2011 flooding maymore closely resemble a recent migration model put forth by

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the New Economics of Labour Migration (NELM). The NELM model examines the migrant ’s household, in contrast to other migration models that only consider the individualmigrant (Stark and Bloom 1985; Lilleør and Van den Broeck 2011). In the case of Panaillo, it was common for one familymember to migrate temporarily or permanently, with other family members sometimes migrating to the city several years

after the first migrant left. Additionally, according to the NELM model, the migration decision is a product of boththe expected wage differential and the risk involved in rurallivelihoods (Stark and Bloom 1985). As previously men-tioned, many Panaillo community members migrated not onlyto seek out opportunities in education and employment, but also in direct or indirect response to flood conditions.Permanent migration, therefore, might increase following theonset of more frequent extreme flooding projected with futureclimate change (IPCC 2014; Pinho et al. 2014). The potentialfuture increase in migration is concerning considering thechallenges with urban employment faced by rural migrants,

as well as the impact of migration on the original ruralcommunity’s social structure, as demonstrated in this casestudy. It is thus increasingly important that institutions work to buffer the impacts of climate change and preserve rurallivelihoods and adaptive strategies.

The increased attention to the Ucayali region in the after-math of the 2010 – 2011 flooding also presents an opportunity totransform local institutions to be better able to respond to cli-matic events and to foster adaptation. Unfortunately, the inter-ventions that resulted in response to the 2010 – 2011 floodingwere incorporated into the operations of relatively weak existing institutions. High employee turnover and low capacity

among local institutions were prominent themes that emergedin this research. These issues could have possibly impeded thefull impact of the capacity-building of local institutions and thenew projects that were created in the aftermath of the 2010 – 2011 flooding. For example, the Mi Agua project was not ef-fective in Panaillo, mainly as a result of poor monitoring.

These examples support the literature that describes howmultiple stressors act simultaneously to shape vulnerabilityoutcomes and the importance of considering both fast andslow drivers of vulnerability (Watts and Bohle 1993; Lauer et al. 2013; Liu et al. 2008; Belliveau et al. 2006; Ford et al.2013). In the case of 2010 – 2011, severe flooding was an im-

mediate and visible fast driver of food insecurity in Panaillo.The Panaillo food system was also directly impacted by arange of biophysical and socioeconomic factors, includingmarket price fluctuations, changing ecosystem dynamics, mi-gration, and limited services and resources reaching indige-nous and rural communities, as previously discussed.However, this vulnerability needs to be situated in the broader context of these drivers. For example, several authors havedescribed the persistence of discrimination against indigenous

peoples in Peru, which may be contributing to the limited

services and underemployment in indigenous communities(Goy and Waltner-Toews 2005; Figueroa and Barrón 2005;Carmona and Cristóbal 2009; Aikman 2012). Additionally,Takahashi and Meisner (2013) note that several decision-makers in Peru prioritized economic growth over other devel-opment initiatives (Takahashi and Meisner 2013). Several au-thors have also documented the poor regulation of extractive

industries, such as oil, gas, and timber industries, in thePeruvian Amazon, which has the potential for serious impactson environmental and social welfare (Finer and Orta-Martínez2010; Sears and Pinedo‐Vasquez 2011; Gutierrez-Velez andMacDicken 2008). Over 84 % of the Peruvian Amazon has

been or is currently zoned for oil and gas activities and over half of those concessions are located on legally titled indige-nous territories (Finer and Orta-Martínez 2010). Furthermore,Takahashi and Meisner (2013) assert that agenda-setting and

policy-formulation processes on climate change issues in Peruare limited by inaccurate information, competition with other

policy issues, and highly politicized institutions. The treat-

ment of indigenous populations, the current economic agendain Peru and internationally, and other institutional issues inPeru are thus potentially important slow drivers of food sys-tem vulnerability in this area.

However, at both the community and institutional levels,slow variables were generally overlooked in the response tothe 2010 – 2011 flooding. For example, at the community level,Panaillo residents increasingly relied on temporary or perma-nent migration to cope with the flood impacts after the 2010 – 2011 flood event. This research found that migration did not improve food security outcomes for Panaillo residents in theshort-term, primarily due to the difficulty of finding employ-

ment and the increased importance of financial resources for household food. Furthermore, many migrants were employedin jobs in resource extraction, which may be partly responsiblefor some of the changes in flood regimes and ecosystem dy-namics that helped to motivate migration at the outset. Other studies have also discussed the positive feedback loops that canform when short-term coping methods lead to maladaptationand eventually heighten vulnerability (Fazey et al. 2011;Eriksen et al. 2005; Westerhoff and Smit 2009). In a case studyin Ghana, Westerhoff and Smit (2009) describe how declines insoil fertility constrained agricultural production and ledindivid-uals to pursue other income-generating livelihoods, such as

charcoal production, which further depleted the soil and exac-erbated resource degradation. In this research, temporary or

permanent migration as an adaptive strategy for flooding may potentially launch Panaillo residents on a maladaptive trajecto-ry if the migrants continue to struggle with job insecurity andthe regulation of extractive practices remains weak.

At the institutional level, post-flood interventions tended todirectly focus on climate risk management, without much at-tention given to other important slow variables in food systemvulnerability, such as constrained market engagement and



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discrimination. Furthermore, most capacity-building initia-tives for local institutions did not include transformationalchanges to institutional structures. However, this research doc-umented several systemic problems in existing institutions,such as low institutional memory and the politicization of services, and the community members interviewed in thisstudy had a generally negative perception of many local

institutions. Adger et al. (2012) described the importance of public perceptions of institutions in order to reduce vulnerability and foster adaptation. In their comparison of individualresponses to flooding in western Ireland and northwest England, they found that the failure of the Irish government to

provide sufficient flood aid fostered a Bsense of helplessness^which manifested through Ban unwillingness to take personalresponsibility for flood protection. Reliance on charitable orga-nizations, outside the formal humanitarian aid provided, was asource of government-directed anger from many Galwayrespondents^ (2012: 332). Similarly, the UNDP describedhow the regularity of climatic hazards in Peru has not resulted

in better adaptation, but has rather led populations to rely onhumanitarian aid as a way of life (Santa Cruz et al. 2013). Sinceflooding occurs annually in Ucayali, it is important that climaterisk management not only provides assistance to families after an extreme climatic event, but that institutions also work to

prevent a food crisis by strengthening the capacity of familiesto cope with extreme climate events. In the Brazilian context,Marengo et al. (2013) asserted that ineffective Amazonian pol-icies in response to climatic hazards have undermined resilience

by encouraging dependency on government aid.This research highlights the importance of both the slow and

fast drivers of food system vulnerability in the aftermath of an

extreme climatic event. Several underlying institutional issueswere identified in this case study, such as the politicization of services and discrimination, which contribute to the slow var-iables driving food sy

food system vulnerability amidst the extreme 2010–2011 flooding in the peruvian amazon: a case...

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