Every year, the stark slopes of the high Andes are brought to life in an eruption of colour as hundreds of people from local villages, dressed in vibrant traditional clothing, gather for the annual tree-planting festival, Queuña Raymi. Everyone from village elders to mothers and the newborns they carry takes part in the celebration, where ancient Incan instruments accompany dances passed down for generations to honour Pachamama (Mother Earth) before the villagers trek up steep mountain trails to plant trees together. This yearly celebration is the result of decades of work from 2023 Rolex Awards for Enterprise Laureate Constantino Aucca Chutas.

For years, the inhabitants of the high Andes have witnessed alarming changes in their environment. Glaciers are receding, rapid deforestation is causing soil erosion, and water resources are diminishing. Habitat loss means that species once emblematic of these mountains, such as the Andean condor, Andean cat, and spectacled bear, are now rarely seen.

As the descendent of Indigenous Quechuan farmers, Aucca Chutas felt he had to do something to preserve his natural heritage. In 2000, he founded the conservation group Asociación de Ecosistemas Andinos (ECOAN); they hosted an event in 2014 where villagers came together to plant 57,000 trees in a single day, which went on to become the annual Queuña Raymi festival. To date, the association has planted 4.5 million native trees and created 16 protected areas in Peru’s Vilcanota mountains, involving more than 60 communities.

Eighteen years after its conception, ECOAN’s work had been so successful that Aucca Chutas co-founded Acción Andina, an international organization that would spread his reforestation work throughout the Andes. Acción Andina now works in Equador, Chile, Bolivia, Argentina, Peru, and soon Colombia and Venezuela, with a million hectares slated for reforestation. “Acción Andina is now a movement,” says Aucca Chutas proudly. His work with Acción Andina transformed him from a local leader to an international conservationist, and his Rolex Award for Enterprise will help him expand the work he has been doing with both organizations.

Polylepis forests are ancient woodlands growing at altitudes of up to 5,000 metres, often on steep, barren slopes where most trees cannot take root. They host a complex union of species, many of which are endemic to the Andes and more than half of which are on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species. Polylepis forests not only reduce soil erosion and provide a habitat for wildlife, but also act as a key component of the wider Amazon’s water cycle. Moss and lichens growing on the tree trunks and forest floor gather moisture from rising mountain mists and feed it back into the river basin below.

According to Aucca Chutas, the people of the Andes are well equipped to tackle the challenges they face. In response to a period of local climatic warming around 1100 AD, Andean communities came together to reforest the mountains and built a network of canals and terraces to tackle erosion and ensure the supply of water as glaciers retreated. Aucca Chutas applies traditional Quechuan values of cooperation like Ayni (reciprocity) and Minka (shared communal work) to his reforestation programmes.

Crucial to the philosophy of both ECOAN and Acción Andina is their emphasis on local communities as conservation stakeholders. “Everywhere we looked it seemed the problem was mankind,” says Aucca Chutas, “So we said: why not work with people so that they can be part of the solution? That’s why we coordinate with local actors and Indigenous communities.”

An environmental revolution like Acción Andina cannot live on good will alone, and Aucca Chutas is excited about the potential impact of his Rolex Award for Enterprise. The newfound support from the Rolex Perpetual Planet Initiative will help the organization build fences around protected zones and develop measures for wildfire control such as building water deposits, while supporting the planting of 3.5 million new native trees and training for over 20 local conservation leaders.

While protecting the planet has become an increasingly urgent task, Aucca Chutas believes that the support of the Rolex Perpetual Planet Initiative is enormously encouraging – and will have a global impact. “Rolex gives us strength to carry on. We need to plant more and more trees, and only then will Pachamama be happy again.”

ABOUT THE PERPETUAL PLANET INITIATIVE

For nearly a century, Rolex has supported pioneering explorers pushing back the boundaries of human endeavour. The company has moved from championing exploration for the sake of discovery to protecting the planet, committing for the long term to support individuals and organizations using science to understand and devise solutions to today’s environmental challenges.

This engagement was reinforced with the launch of the Perpetual Planet Initiative in 2019, which includes the Rolex Awards for Enterprise, as well as long-standing partnerships such as Mission Blue and the National Geographic Society, or younger organizations such as Coral Gardeners, among a pool of over 30 partners.

As one of the pillars of the Perpetual Planet Initiative, the Rolex Awards continue to expand their portfolio, which includes projects from Grégoire Courtine’s groundbreaking technologies to treat spinal cord injury, to Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim’s work with indigenous people to map natural resources and prevent climate conflicts in the Sahel.

Rolex also supports organizations and initiatives fostering the next generations of explorers, scientists and conservationists through scholarships and grants, such as Our World-Underwater Scholarship Society and The Rolex Explorers Club Grants.