ABSTRACT
The main threats to biodiversity in the Vilcanota presently involve land use changes. This chapter identifies the next level of causal interactions between biodiversity, land use changes, and socioeconomic drivers. To investigate the dynamic changes affecting biodiversity across the vertical gradient of the Vilcanota watershed in Peru, it utilizes the major vertical profile of the Vilcanota–Urubamba Valley. Apart from the valley topography and gradual increase in temperature, an important environmental factor is the drying of the climate towards the valley floors as a climatic effect of valley wind circulation. Land-based agriculture contributes 25.4% of the gross domestic product and provides 47.5% of employment in the Cusco Department. The distribution of access to productive land depends on the distribution of cultivated parcel sizes. Much larger cultivated sizes in tropical lowlands are an effect of dynamic colonial expansion into the lowlands and are contrary to ecological expectations.
