Lima - This is no minor undertaking: Peru’s Ministry of the Environment (MINAM) launched on July 22, its National Program for the Conservation of Forests and Mitigation of Climate Changes, an initiative that aims at preserving 54 of the 72 million hectares of tropical forests of this Amazonian country. In the press conference held in Lima, Antonio Brack, minister of that department, supplied the program’s details approved by a Decree issued by the Executive Power. He admonished that, to this moment, at least 7 million hectares, or 9.25% of the Peruvian Amazon Rainforest, have been deforested.

Vast land areas

If this seems too little, it is worth noting that, according to the Public Defensory, the rate of deforesting in the country grows by 150 thousand hectares a year. Although Brack challenges this number, arguing that actual numbers would be closer to 81 thousand hectares, there is no doubt that the rate of deforesting is high for these delicate ecosystems.

The problem, according to the Defensory, is the fragile environmental control that motivated Sandro Chávez, president of the Ecological Forum, to argue that the country is going through an “environmental governance” crisis.  “Actually, there has been very little progress”, said he in a text written for a blog called Quarto Ambiente.

These remarks add to a point made by Brack during the program’s presentation: about 70% of the Peruvian Amazon was divided into lots to exploit hydrocarbons. Naturally, not all lots were authorized or are in operation, but some oil-related conflicts have occurred.

However, this program seems to have clear goals. It intends to identify and map (including the use of a satellite) areas for conservation, promote the development of sustainable production systems (such as forestry) and develop the capacity for conservation.

These last two goals mean to involve local inhabitants, both of native peoples and peasants as well. Aside from that, according to a MINAM employee, Sandra Ísola, it was agreed to pay communities participating in the program the amount of $10 soles (US$ 3,5) per hectare of conserved forest every year.

Here, the Peruvian program looks like Ecuador’s Socio-Bosques program that also offers money for conservation although it includes only small farmers. In Peru, forests are located within protected areas, in native Indian communities, in areas with several types of concessions and in the so-called ‘permanent production forests’.

For example, the natural areas under protection (that in Peru include several categories, from National Parks to National Sanctuaries and National Reserves), include little more than 16 million hectares of forests, while ownership deeds of Native Communities enjoy a total of 10,628,092 hectares.

The 54 million hectares mentioned include these areas, as well as ecotourism and conservation grants, native population reserves and isolated native populations (1,768,173 hectares) and high-moisture areas in the Amazon rainforest. Even so, it seems that in the future some aspects that make conservation still insufficient will have to be clarified.

Internal and external problems

One of the great problems, acknowledged even by MINAM sources, is that forest concessions for the exploitation of wood in Peru continue to be the responsibility of the Ministry of Agriculture (MINAG), without any kind of authority on the part of the environmental sector. Ongoing denouncements of irregularities in this process have been the cause of much concern for the Defensory.

It is also not clear whether this program will be associated with REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation), something that is still being considered. According to Ísola “CO2 capture estimates vary according to the type of forest” and it is expected that it will be possible to determine these with the aid of appropriate methodologies, “within the program’s intervention areas”. However, the most urgent part is to obtain a detailed record of the situation. There is no detailed inventory of forest resources and, as Milagros Sandoval from Conservation International pointed out, it is necessary to coordinate all these initiatives with the development policies, so that they can relate to the government’s major goals.

This entire debate is taking place at Congress where a new Law for the Forests and Wildlife is being discussed, presented by the Executive Power in July (according to critics, without enough consultation). And soon after the energy agreement signed between Brazil and Peru in June, that foresees the construction of eight dams in the Peruvian Amazon, with negative impacts on the environment.

More recently, a series of declarations came from the US regarding the attachment of the forests of the Free Trade Treaty (TLC) signed between both countries. Sander M.Levin, member of the North-American Congress committee that monitors this agreement, spoke of a “violation of environmental commitments” that were accepted.

Then, it is no easy task to preserve the forests of Peru. However, the National Program for the Conservation of Forests and Mitigation of Climate Changes “forges ahead, and according to MINAN it has already obtained credit from JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency) to the amount of US $ 40 million, with other financial sources such as the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank and from the German Technical Cooperation agency (GTZ).

Lastly, the Program is expected to include not only the 54 million hectares announced, but the whole 72 million, because these remaining 18 million hectares will always be subjected to several threats.

Ramiro Escobar is a journalist specialized in international and environmental themes. Currently, he writes for the La República newspaper and is a collaborator in Peru for magazines such as Poder, Quehacer and for the Noticias Aliadas news agency. Abroad, he collaborates with Spain’s El País newspaper and Brazil’s ((o) eco Amazonia web portal. He is also a teacher of Political Communications and Opinion Journalism at the University of Applied Sciences of Peru (UPC).