The role of ancestral practices as social capital to enhance community disaster resilience. The case of the Colca Valley, Peru

Mitigating the gap between disaster risk management planning by government agencies and the perception and adaptation to risk of local communities is currently challenging. Numerous stud-ies have generated knowledge based on the value of community actions and increased resilience. This research aims to analyze the role of ancestral Andean practices in building community re-silience in settlements exposed to volcanic risk. The methodology is based on the combination of quantitative methods, survey and qualitative methods, focus groups, and interviews. The case study is the Colca Valley in Arequipa, specifically the villages which were affected by the erup-tion of the Sabancaya volcano and by collateral seismic effects. The results support knowledge re-garding risk management in Andean communities, in addition to reflecting on 4 findings related to the validity of ancestral networks and practices, the lack of community trust regarding the gov-ernment's response capacity, the differences between the perception of risk according to the ac-tivities that are carried out within the same community, and the existence of different percep-tions of risk according to the location of the communities.

Automated summary

Mitigating the gap between disaster risk management planning by government agencies and the perception and adaptation to risk of local communities is currently challenging. This research aims to analyze the role of ancestral Andean practices in building community resilience in settlements exposed to volcanic risk. The results support knowledge regarding risk management in Andean communities, in addition to reflecting on 4 findings related to the validity of ancestral networks and practices, the lack of community trust regarding the government's response capacity, the differences between the perception of risk according to the activities that are carried out within the same community, and the existence of different perceptions of risk according to the location of the communities.