Comparing peasants' perceptions of precipitation change with precipitation records in the tropical Callejón de Huaylas, Peru

Gurgiser, Wolfgang; Juen, Irmgard; Singer, Katrin; Neuburger, Martina; Schauwecker, Simone; Hofer, Marlis; Kaser, Georg

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-7-499-2016

Articles | Volume 7, issue 2

https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-7-499-2016

© Author(s) 2016. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-7-499-2016

© Author(s) 2016. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Articles | Volume 7, issue 2

Research article

|

26 May 2016

Research article |

| 26 May 2016

Comparing peasants' perceptions of precipitation change with precipitation records in the tropical Callejón de Huaylas, Peru

Wolfgang Gurgiser, Irmgard Juen, Katrin Singer, Martina Neuburger, Simone Schauwecker, Marlis Hofer, and Georg Kaser

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Final revised paper (published on 26 May 2016)
Preprint (discussion started on 09 Oct 2015)

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment

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RC C960: 'referee comment on paper by Gurgiser et al', Anonymous Referee #1, 18 Dec 2015
RC C1017: 'Review Comments, "Comparing Peasants' Perceptions....", ESD Discussion', Anonymous Referee #2, 04 Jan 2016
AC C1136: 'Responses to Reviews', Wolfgang Gurgiser, 01 Feb 2016

Peer-review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision

AR by Wolfgang Gurgiser on behalf of the Authors (01 Feb 2016) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (17 Feb 2016) by Somnath Baidya Roy

RR by Anonymous Referee #1 (03 Mar 2016)

RR by Anonymous Referee #3 (04 Apr 2016)

Suggestions for revision or reasons for rejection

The paper compares peasants' perceptions of rainfall with precipitation records in the Peruvian Cordillera Blanca. It finds lack of synergy between the two knowledge systems . This is not surprising and I would have expected the article to spend more time analysing why these differences occur. Instead, we have a rather dense account of the methodology employed and two very long and difficult to understand sections of the agro-relevant criteria for the precipitation statistics (Section 4.2 ) and the Precipitation analysis (Section 4.3).

Rather than so much technical detail, I would have valued a more detailed account of the actual qualitative perceptions of different peasants, how they are socially differentiated and what else is being articulated through peasants' views of rainfall (E..g politics of anticipation/ hope etc. ) . It is disappointing that more men were interviewed and that the reason given was because men are the ones in charge of water management. Even if this is the case, it would have been good to interview different women of different ages and see what comes up. This kind of gender bias at the very outset is surprising. Age presumably plays a key role in this kind of analysis, with older women and men, usually being more articulate and vocal about precipitation change.

It would have also been good to develop a stronger conceptual framework trying to make sense of the divergences in knowledges/ uncertainties at stake, taking into account questions of scale, wider drivers of change and the multiple factors that influence rainfed agriculture.

I am no expert on the Andes but I know from work on rainfall and uncertainty dynamics in drylands, that downscaling is incredibly complicated; that conventional meteorological accounts cannot make sense of high local variation and variability and that local perceptions capture a range of other issues (e.g. socio political changes, land use patterns; land/ water interfaces; etc. etc ) that are not a part of scientific analyses . The article alludes to these issues but only in the summary at the end.. These issues instead could be far more central in the paper.

The article is not easy to read. It should be edited for clarity and many technical details can be put in an appendix. Instead, greater elaboration of local people's perceptions as well stronger analysis of why there is this discrepancy in rainfall data on the one hand and local people's perceptions on the other would make this a far more compelling article.

Further reading:

K. Hastrup (ed). The Social Life of Climate Change Models . Routledge.

L. Mehta .. The Manufacture of Popular Perceptions of Scarcity. World Development. 2025-2041

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ED: Publish subject to minor revisions (review by Editor) (18 Apr 2016) by Somnath Baidya Roy

AR by Wolfgang Gurgiser on behalf of the Authors (25 Apr 2016) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Publish as is (06 May 2016) by Somnath Baidya Roy

Short summary

Working on the interface of water availability and water demand in a small Andean catchment, peasants’ reports on detrimental precipitation changes during the last decades have attracted our scientific interest. We could not confirm any precipitation trends in this period with nearby precipitation records, but we found precipitation patterns that very likely pose challenges for rain-fed farming – in addition to potential other stresses by environmental and sociopolitical changes.