Fiorella Palmieri
Andina
The content of this news item has been machine translated and may contain some inaccuracies with respect to the original content published in Spanish.
In Peru, the indigenous communities of the Amazon have the potential to make key decisions on 65% of the Amazonian forests. For this reason, for the last decade, the Ministry of Environment (Minam) has been promoting that these communities play an active role in the preservation of the forests.
Thus, through the National Forest Conservation Programme (PNCB), through a mechanism of conditional direct transfers (TDC), Minam provides an economic incentive to Amazonian communities for each hectare of forest under their care.
What have been the results, contributions and challenges of this collaboration? To analyse and improve the scope of the PNCD, the PUCP is participating in the research "Good for the forests, good for the people? Conditions for the success of conditional cash transfers (CCTs) in Peru". This project is carried out in collaboration with the Michigan State University (MSU), USA.
This MSU-PUCP project, which will last 19 months, is being carried out with the support of a US$ 143,000 competitive fund of the Tinker Foundation.
Two PUCP professors and specialists are participating in this research: Dr. Deborah Delgado Pugley, sociologist, who was recently appointed director of the Master's Degree in Water Resources Management; and Mag. Cristina Miranda Beas, political scientist, professor at the School of Government and Public Policy and member of the Research Group on Forests and Reforestation of our University.
"Tinker is a well-recognised foundation in the United States for carrying out projects in Latin America. We work in partnership with MSU and we also have an agreement with the Minam to provide recommendations to improve the participation of native communities in the PNCB, which will be extended until 2030," said Dr. Delgado.
Faculty members from our Social Sciences Department team up with forestry specialist Lauren T. Cooper and anthropologist Rowenn Kalman, MSU researchers. Cooper and anthropologist Rowenn Kalman, MSU researchers.
Lecturer and researcher in the Department of Social Sciences
"We have to consider that our country has more than 60% of its territory made up of forests or lands with forest aptitude and that indigenous peoples have direct control over more than 65% of these forests," Miranda said. The political scientist considered that "it is key to value the participation of communities in the conservation of our biodiversity and the health of ecosystems".
From Lima, the two PUCP professors are coordinating the fieldwork carried out by a group of researchers from the regions of San Martín and Ucayali, linked to the Peruvian University Network. They will collect the data with the support of a group of communities that participated in the PNCB.
Lecturer and researcher in the Department of Social Sciences
In the last decade, this Minam initiative has directly involved 275 native communities in the preservation of 2.9 million hectares of forest. In some cases, this intervention has been successful, while in others there are aspects to improve, such as the management of the funds received by the communities, or the impact of the programme on their economic activities.
"The state is almost absent in our Amazon. So when a state conservation project comes along that involves the communities, it is highly valued. This type of programme is something that has never been done before. We go in to show what factors can be improved and how to relocate some resources," added Dr Delgado.
"The study will address a regionally and globally relevant need. Economic transfers to communities are one of the fastest growing conservation mechanisms worldwide," explained Miranda.
By 2030, the Peruvian government has proposed to extend the conservation area to 54 million hectares with the contribution of Amazonian communities. Through this research, PUCP and MSU will contribute to improving the participation of our communities in the titanic task of protecting the Amazon from illegal logging and other threats to this valuable ecosystem.