Table 4. General information on the Bolivian and Peruvian Andeans of South America (Pattie 1988, Kuznar 1991, Westreicher et al. 2007) Location The Andean highlands are located at 3800 m above mean sea level in central Peru and Bolivia. Peruvian highlands, called the Sierra, covers about 30% of the Peru's land area (1,285,220 km²). Bolivian highlands, called the Altiplano, covers about 305,791 km² of lands, amounting to 28% of total land base of Bolivia. Climate It is characterized by extreme cold and wind stress with mean annual temperatures ranging between 8 and 3°C, and annual precipitation declining from 800 mm in the north to 250 mm in the south. Vegetation The vegetation is composed primarily of bunch grasses and low-lying shrubs known as tola. Land use In Peru, about 86% of the land in Andeans mountains is used exclusively as pasture; in Bolivia, pastoral management is dominantly present in the highland. Animals All of Peru’s sheep, llamas (Lama glama), and alpacas (Vicugna pacos) and 70% of its cattle are found in the region. A Bolivian wool marketing system has developed in this region, primarily since the middle of 19th century. Population About 41% of Peru’s total population lives in the Sierra, where pastoralists make up more than 60% of the rural population. In Bolivia, about 50% of the nation’s population lives in the altiplano and most of them are pastoralists. Social problems Agrarian reform policies aimed at ending exploitation by modernizing and mechanizing production has forced the transhumance pastoralists to settle in communities.