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Angela Ponce

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Guardians of Glaciers

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The Phinaya community is locat...wn near the glacier Quelccaya.

1 of 11 © 2024 Angela Ponce

The Phinaya community is located 4,830 metres (15,850 feet) above sea level, in Cusco, Peru. Is the highest town near the glacier Quelccaya.

Alpacas grazing in wetlands pro...lting of the glacier Quelccaya.

2 of 11 © 2024 Angela Ponce

Alpacas grazing in wetlands produced by the melting of the glacier Quelccaya.

‘The cold waves are m...ng for a portrait in his cabin.

3 of 11 © 2024 Angela Ponce

‘The cold waves are much harder to bear now, getting lower because of climate change. There is almost no rain, there is no water, the animals die, it is worrying in the heights of the Andes’, says one of the community elders, posing for a portrait in his cabin.

Exaltation holds ice detached from the Glaciar Quelccaya.

4 of 11 © 2024 Angela Ponce

Exaltation holds ice detached from the Glaciar Quelccaya.

Teresa (46) observes the snowy ...are sacred and considered gods.

5 of 11 © 2024 Angela Ponce

Teresa (46) observes the snowy ice cap, while remembering her father. ‘My dad always made offerings to the snowy mountain. He told me that it would be the end of the world when the snow melted’. For many local people the mountains are sacred and considered gods.

One of the consequences of clim... of ancestral Andean knowledge.

6 of 11 © 2024 Angela Ponce

One of the consequences of climate change is displacement. People migrate after very cold temperatures, droughts and floods, leaving communities with fewer inhabitants and a loss of ancestral Andean knowledge.

Yolanda works as a park ranger ...n, the most important in Cusco.

7 of 11 © 2024 Angela Ponce

Yolanda works as a park ranger and is in charge of protecting and monitoring the snow. According to a town legend, a homeless old man came asking for food and water at a wedding celebration in the community, but was kicked out because of his appearance. However, one woman helped him and the old man told her: ‘Go upstairs with your animals and don’t look back’. Loud noises followed and snow began to fall, flooding the entire town as punishment and creating the Sibinacocha lagoon, the most important in Cusco.

Glaciers function as vast aquif...their alpacas and llamas graze.

8 of 11 © 2024 Angela Ponce

Glaciers function as vast aquifer reservoirs, continually releasing water as they melt. The people living downstream use this water for drinking and basic hygiene, as well as to irrigate their fields and maintain the wetlands where their alpacas and llamas graze.

Salomé (left) and Ne... Earth in the Quechua language)

9 of 11 © 2024 Angela Ponce

Salomé (left) and Nemesio (right), make an offering with coca leaves as a symbol of respect and in order to balance the damage that man does to the ‘pachamama’ (Mother Earth in the Quechua language)

‘I remember the peak ...disappear in the next 30 years.

10 of 11 © 2024 Angela Ponce

‘I remember the peak was huge. It looked beautiful, but now everything is gone. There isn’t much snow left, so what are we going to do when the snow has gone? We will run out of water’. Quelccaya is currently receding at a rate of 60 metres (195 feet) a year, and could disappear in the next 30 years.

Guardians of Glaciars project won the Latin America prize in the Sony World Photography Awards 2023. This work is supported by the Pulitzer Center.

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Guardians of Glaciers

Copyright Angela Ponce 2024

Updated Apr 2023

Topics Spotlight

Ice constitutes the second largest source of freshwater on the planet and 70 percent of the world’s tropical glaciers are found in Peru. Located in Cusco, the Quelccaya Ice Cap is the largest tropical glacier in the world, covering an area equivalent to more than 9,000 soccer fields. However, due to accelerated melting it is receding by 60 metres (195 feet) a year and some studies have determined that it will disappear in the next 30 years if global greenhouse gas emissions are not reduced.

The inhabitants of the Quechua community, who live on the slopes and close to the glacier, are being affected directly by the retreating ice and dedicate their lives to making the population aware of the problem of melting ice as an effect of climate change. They seek to protect their snow-capped mountains through ancestral knowledge and rituals of the Andean worldview, which over time are also disappearing.

The thaw not only threatens the continuity of life in Andean communities, but also puts certain species at risk of extinction, as these areas are inhabited by a range of aquatic and terrestrial species.

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