Peru: New environmental policy guidelines

Peruvian ministries have adopted new environmental policy guidelines that facilitate additional public investment in biodiversity and ecosystems.

The Peruvian Ministries of Environment and of Economy and Finance adopted an environmental policy framework on 11 August for public investment in biodiversity and ecosystems. This new instrument will allow additional public funds to be invested in measures which will accompany the National Biodiversity Strategy.

The guidelines were prepared in conjunction with two projects supported by the International Climate Initiative (IKI) of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB).

On one of these projects the Biodiversity Finance Initiative (BIOFIN) of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) worked closely together with the ministries. Along with BIOFIN, the IKI project Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) in Mountain Ecosystems helped ensure that the guidelines also included climate change and ecosystem-based adaptation. Consequently, EbA measures are now part of the guidelines.

The project ProAmbiente, which was commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, also made a significant contribution to the ministerial resolution.

In the next step, the projects BIOFIN and EbA in Mountain Ecosystems will work with the community of Tomas to pilot public investments for ecosystem adaptation in the Nor Yauyos Cochas landscape reserve. In this way, approaches can be replicated that have already been successfully implemented as part of the EbA in Mountain Ecosystems project in the community of Tanta. This will allow other communities to benefit from these tried-and-tested approaches.

The BMUB is supporting BIOFIN through the IKI with EUR 17.3 million, making it by far the largest donor for this initiative alongside the EU, Switzerland, Norway and Belgium. 29 partner countries are in the process of drawing up a framework for improved funding for biodiversity. This information is being fed into the development of approaches to improve the long-term financing of biodiversity conservation, for example in drawing up national strategies for mobilising resources or revising national development plans. The IKI project EbA in Mountain Ecosystems is being implemented in Peru as well as Nepal and Uganda by the United Nations Environment and Development Programmes and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) with BMUB funding of EUR 11.5 million.