Guano

As stated, I work for the Guano Islands National Reserve System in Peru, a system of 33 sites previously (and still) used to produce guano.  I'm sure most of you are wondering what that even is....
Guano is dried bird droppings, and happens to be rich in nitrogen, phosphorus, and the nutrients essential for fertilizer. During the 19th century, there was a huge demand for this stuff from the US and Europe and countries such as Peru were the biggest producers, and even fought a war with Chile over the islands because their guano was so valuable.  Peru's geography and climate means that it has lots of nesting seabirds, and the dry climate to preserve their droppings.  The invention of synthetics led to the end of Peru's guano "boom" years, but Peru still produces guano...now mostly for domestic use and for export since it qualifies as organic.  Peru's government has managed the islands for the last 100 years, monitoring the bird populations, and rotating harvest through the islands every 5-10 years.

When my bosses had to head out to some of the islands to supervise the end of the guano harvest (before breeding season starts), I jumped at the chance to see what this operation is actually like.

The process itself is interesting, and uses only human labor and no machines (besides an occasional truck). About 200 men (usually from the Andes) pick and shovel to break up the ground, sift the guano, and then bag it up. The bags will then get loaded on ships, and since the old docks from the boom years are not in conditions, so often they get sent down cables onto waiting barges.

It was interesting, because guano is clearly an important part of Peru's tradition that it wants to continue, but the operation is not particularly efficient or highly productive (they were very behind schedule), using traditional methods and facing a changing climate and declining bird populations.  It was also interesting to see the living and working conditions of the men that do this back-breaking labor.  At the meeting between my agency and Peru's agricultural agency (responsible for harvest), it also illustrated the problems, challenges, and conflicts between production and conservation, and Peru's efforts to show that guano harvesting can be a sustainable natural resource and activity.