Securing the future of Protected Areas in Peru
Start & End Date: 2017-2024
Country/Countries: Peru
Multilateral Institution(s) Involved: World Wide Fund for Nature
The Amazon region hosts a vast amount of the world's remaining rainforests and an extraordinary variety of species. This biodiversity plays a critical role as part of global systems, influencing the global carbon cycle, climate change, as well as hydrological systems, and, thus, South American climate and rainfall. In recent years, threats like deforestation for agriculture and infrastructure development are on the rise that put the Amazon biome increasingly under pressure. Therefore, the concerned countries (Brazil, Colombia and Peru) and partner agencies have joined forces with the Amazon Sustainable Landscapes (ASL) Program to protect this globally significant biodiversity and implement policies to foster sustainable land use and restoration of native vegetation cover. At the country level, the ASL has implemented four national projects by the government agencies in partnership with local governments, research institutions, private organizations and civil society. It is funded through a commitment of $113 million in Global Environmental Facility (GEF) resources drawn from each country’s allocation, a programmatic financial incentive, as well as an expected $683 million leveraged in additional financing from countries’ budgets, NGOs, the private sector, and donors.
The Securing the Future of Peru's Natural Protected Areas project aims to promote long-term financial sustainability for the effective management of the National System of Protected Natural Areas of Peru for the protection of globally important biodiversity and ecosystem services in the Amazon Biome. It is implemented by the WWF via GEF and executed by the National Service of Natural Protected Areas (SERNANP) and the Peruvian Trust Fund for National Parks and Protected Areas (PROFONANPE). The activities include 4 components: i) Component 1 "Development of a multi-partner, public-private initiative for long-term financial sustainability of the Natural Protected Areas" includes the provision of strategic, technical, and financial support and legal advice to catalyze the development and institutionalization of a strategy for the financial sustainability of the Amazon NPAs under the “Project Finance for permanence” approach. The strategy involves creating a Transition Fund to be capitalized with resources committed by the government and private donors to finance the designed conservation and financial action plan and under the procedures established with project support. ii) Component 2 "Diversification of sources to increase NPA financing" includes providing technical and financial assistance to analyze the feasibility of innovative PA revenue-generating mechanisms, both at the national and local level, to diversify SERNANP's portfolio while also generating nature-based solutions that benefit local communities and the NPA's management. iii) Component 3 "Implementation of Patrimonio Natural del Perú - PdP - Action Plan Measures to consolidate and improve the effective management of Amazon NPAs" includes the capitalization of the Transition Fund designed with project support to finance activities in four selected NPAs. These activities improve protected area management, contribute to biodiversity conservation, and promote sustainable forest and natural resources management. iv) Component 4 "Project Coordination, Management, Monitoring and Evaluation" facilitates coordination among project partners involved in the implementation across national and local levels. Conducts project-level monitoring and evaluation and knowledge management activities aligned with other ASL projects.
On May 24, 2019, the government of Peru, through the Ministry of Environment and SERNANP and with the support of GEF, WWF, Profonanpe, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and the Andes Amazon Fund committed $140 million to effectively manage almost 17 million hectares of protected areas in the Amazon. The closing agreement for the PdP Initiative (Patrimonio del Peru) was the culmination of a year of technical work and negotiations, supported by the ASL project in Peru. SERNANP, with the support of the project, has identified a list of 16 financial mechanisms at the national and site level, currently in various stages of design and implementation. In 2020, the Peruvian government transferred US$ 5 million to the Patrimonio del Perú -PdP Amazonia Initiative's transition fund. The Work Plan and Gap Closure Funding for the four prioritized NPAs was approved in 2020. In November 2019, a knowledge exchange activity was developed with more than 16 participants from Peru, Brazil, and Colombia, representing government, communities and indigenous peoples to share experience in governance of protected areas.