Already named “Endangered Lake of the Year 2023”.

The “Global Nature Fund” (GNF) and the “Living Lakes” network have now re-awarded the sad title for 2023 to South America’s largest freshwater lake after 2012. The award is presented annually on World Wetlands Day on February 2 at the draw attention to a lake or wetland threatened by human activities.

The renewed choice for Lake Titicaca was justified by the GNF, an international foundation for the environment and nature based in Germany, with the environmental pollution to which the lake has been exposed for years – and which continues to increase.

ecological exploitation
“The importance of the water body to humans and its ecological exploitation are in a particularly striking mismatch,” said GNF biology professor Thomas Schaefer. Lake Titicaca is important as a drinking water reservoir for two million Peruvians and Bolivians. For example, the indigenous people of the Urus use the coastal reeds to make their homes, boats, and even the island they live on. Hundreds of thousands of tourists a year visit the lake high in the Andes, bordering the countries of Bolivia and Peru.

Sewage from cities such as Puno and Juliaca in Peru and El Alto in Bolivia, pesticides from agriculture and heavy metals from sometimes illegal mining pollute the deep blue lake. Fish and frogs die, some species disappear forever. Politicians in both countries have repeatedly promised action – so far without significant results, criticize environmentalists.