Mountain regions in countries in development are particularly vulnerable to climate change. These regions need readily available base lines of expected impacts on the regional and local level to be in a position to plan and implement effective and socially consistent adaptation measures. However, the field of climate change impacts and adaptation is highly complex, both on a scientific and on an implementation level. A main reason are impacts on different ecological services and socio-economic systems, and related feedback effects, and a multi-actor environment on different levels of social and political systems. International collaboration is needed to address the key problems.
Peru and the Andes have been recognized to be among the most vulnerable areas to climate change (Bradley et al., 2006, Magrin et al., 2007). In collaboration with the Peruvian Government, Ministry of Environment, therefore, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) has recently initiated a program on climate change adaptation (PACC - Programa de Adaptación al Cambio Climático) in two regions of the Peruvian Andes.