RESCUING THE VICUÑA As part of a plan to protect the vicuña in the upper reaches of the Colca Valley, the traditional rundup and shearing have been revived -this ceremony is called the chaccu. The vicuña is a South American camelid and, like the guanaco, it remains wild, whilst the llama and alpaca were domesticated more than a thousand years ago. The marvelous vicuna was almost exterminated by indiscriminate hunting for its valuable fiber, exceptionally fine at 14 microns, which is hygroscopic and highly insulating as well as being light and very soft to the tuch. One expert says that it has an "indecent feel". From the time of the Incas -perhaps earlier- the chaccu has taken place in the Peruvian highlands, both a task and a festival, its aim is to capture and shear vicuñas. The chaccu has been revived in recent years as part of a promotion of ancestral culture based on the vicuña. Once the population of the vicuña had been stabilized -in the 1960s it was in danger of extinction- awareness of its value has been raised. At the beginning of the 1960s it has been calculated that there were no more than 150,000 in Peru alone, with more in Bolivia, Chile and Argentina. Try to come here in October and November and you will see the chaccu the corralling and shearing of the vicuña for their fine wool, now offered as added value to visitors. The communities make their preparations well in advance and ancestral techniques are used to draw these timid animals into the corral where they are temporally held. The first animal is sheared in a symbolic marriage between a male and a female vicuña, a ceremony aimed at ensuring fertility and abundance. After that the shearing begins in earnest of hundreds of vicuña who are then released to graze in complete freedom. In the Salinas and Aguada Blanca Protected Area the traditional Arequipa chaccuK is held every three years. The protected area was created in 1975 after a long period of negociation between the authorities and PRODENA, a non governmental organization led by the major of Arequipa Guillermo Lira Hamsen. The chaccu is a grand spectacle that coincides with the Alpaca festival, an international event bringing together breeders, industrialists, traders, fashion designers and scientists from many countries, including the USA, United Kingdom, Japan, Italy and Australia. The revival of the chaccu was very important for the recovery and sustainable use of the vicuña. In the 1970s fifteen thousand animals were killed for their meet and wool. Felipe Benavides Barreda, a pioneer in conservation in Peru, together with a group of technicians and alpaca breeders from the area, fought to defend the vicuña by proposing that it should be used without being killed, that is, by catching and shearing as done in the time of the incas. Furthermore, they suggested that flocks of vicuña be taken from areas where they were scarce. This was a highly controversial suggestion at the time, with international implications. Later vicuñas were taken not only to the protected area but elsewhere; they were caught and sheared thus benefiting a significant number of people from Andean plateau who were living in extreme poverty.