Sociedad Nacional de Criadores de Vicuna del Peru  (SNV)

Vicuna Educational Research

Introduction.

The Vicuna is a Wild South American Camelid, living in Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, Ecuador, and more particularly  Peru where some 80% of the world's population of the species can be found. 

In this last country, it is important to emphasize that, until the year 1995, the rational handling of the Vicuna had been prohibited and the high value of its fiber had fomented furtive hunting, which threatened the species with extinction.  That situation motivated the Government to promulgate the Law 26496 on the 23^rd of June 1995, which basically permitted the following progresses:

-         Sanctions against furtive hunting

-         The farmers communities were recognized as the owners of the natural resource.

-         The Sociedad Nacional de Criadores de Vicuna del Peru representing those communities, became the unique institution authorized to develop activities linked to rational handling and commercialization.

Those progresses led to a significant increase in the vicuna population from 66,000 in 1994 to 118,000 in 2001.

Institutional information.

The Sociedad Nacional de Criadores de Vicuna del Peru (SNV) was set up on the 13th of October 1993 according to the standards of the Civil Code, as a civil non-profit making institution.  It was registered with the No 16034 in the Legal Entities Register of Lima and was recognized by the government through the Resolution No 010-94-AG-CONACS.

Mission and Vision.

-         Mission:

We are an entity representative of Wild South American Camelids preservers committed with the sustainable development for the benefit of the Andean population.

-         Vision:

Be a leading workers controlled organization in the sustainable handling and management of Wild South American Camelids, and a direct interlocutor in a globalized world.

Organization and Activities.

The Vicuna Farmers communities are organized, according to the law No 26496,  in Communal Commitees, which make up the 9 Regional Associations representing those farmers in the SNV.
 

  Basically, we could summarize the activities of the SNV in three axis:

-         Preservation of the species, among others through the control of the furtive hunting.

-         Rational handling and utilization of the natural resource.

-         Commercialization.
 

Production and Commercialization.

The evolution of the national production of pre-cleaned vicuna fiber is compiled in the graph presented next.

As far as the commercialization is concerned, we have been selling, from the creation of the organization till the end of the year 2001, 872.279 Kgs of dirty fiber as well as 11,645.938 Kgs of pre-cleaned fiber and 4,340.561 of cleaned fiber.

The future of the commercialization.

The SNV, as you might know, has signed, in the year 1994, a Consortium for the commercialization of the fiber, which was ratified through three ademdums till the year 2000 and options for the years 2001 and 2002.  This consortium will be in force till the 31^st of July of the present year.  From then on, our collaboration with the IVC will be over and our Association will have the trademark Vicuna Peru at its disposal, enabling us to work with new clients.  

For more information about Vicuna, please visit http://www.vicugna.org.pe