Huanuco

Huánuco exhibits niche partitioning across its dramatic elevation gradient—different crops claim different thermal zones in a pattern of agricultural zonation that began over 6,000 years ago. The Temple of the Crossed Arms at Kotosh, just 4 kilometers from the city, dates to 4,200 BC—one of the oldest known ceremonial sites in the Americas, predating the Chavín by millennia. This early settlement established Huánuco as a node where highland and lowland ecologies meet, and that geographic position still defines its economy.

Today, the warm valleys below produce coffee, pineapple, sugarcane, and the coca variety Erythroxylum coca var. coca, specifically adapted to this humid tropical montane forest. Huánuco holds 4% of Peru's coca cultivation but absorbed 26% of national eradication efforts in 2022—a disproportionate targeting because the region is more accessible than traditional growing areas like VRAEM. The competitive exclusion dynamic plays out in real time: cocoa cultivation is displacing coca as export prices and legitimate market access favor the legal crop. Approximately 120,000 producers across Peru, including many in Huánuco, have switched from coca to cocoa production.

The mining sector's 350% growth in 2023 made Huánuco Peru's third-fastest-growing region, behind only Piura and Moquegua. Oil production continues at Aguas Calientes in the Pachitea basin, timber remains significant, and the lowlands yield bananas, papayas, oranges, and avocados. This agricultural diversity across elevation bands—from tropical fruit to highland potatoes—represents the same ecological logic that drew pilgrims to Kotosh six thousand years ago: the region sits at a crossing point where ecological zones intersect.