ABSTRACT
The Lake Titicaca basin and the Central Andes region are the center of origin for numerous domesticated food crops and, as in other centers of origin, Indigenous farmers not only domesticated wild plants, but in some cases also developed hundreds, if not thousands, of varieties of them. In Bolivia, for example, there are approximately 2,963 varieties of quinoa and 1,944 varieties of potato alone. In recent decades, however, a combination of factors, including large-scale and rapid migration from the countryside to cities, the climate crisis and the industrialization and globalization of food systems, has caused a decline in agrobiodiversity. not only in Bolivia but also around the world. To counteract the loss, agrobiodiversity conservation projects at many scales have been implemented, including in situ and ex situ seed banks, the development of national and international markets for neglected and underutilized crop varieties, agro-tourism initiatives and health education campaigns aimed at promoting the conservation and consumption of native crops. Agritourism has emerged as an important approach to conserving agrobiodiversity by integrating farming and food systems into tourism activities. This chapter presents the results of a comparative research project carried out over 12 years in the Aymara community of Santiago from Okola, Bolivia, with the objective of evaluating the impacts and potential of agritourism to contribute to the conservation of Andean agrobiodiversity.
