The Ministry of the Environment (Minam) will implement a project to adequately conserve the wild terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems of our Amazon, through the enhancement of biodiversity for food security and bio-business.
The project will receive a US$15,600,000 grant from the Global Environment Facility (GEF), as well as counterpart funding from Minam, Midagri, Produce, Mincetur, the regional governments of Loreto, Ucayali and Junín, and private companies, among others. The project has three implementing agencies: FAO, IFAD and UNIDO, and Profonanpe is the operating partner.
This initiative will directly benefit 11,000 people and will strengthen the protection and sustainable use of the Amazon forest in the intervention areas, promoting and generating environmental benefits such as conservation and improved management of 7,989,260 hectares, including the creation of 80,000 hectares of new protected areas.
At the launching ceremony held this morning, the Minister of the Environment, Albina Ruiz, stated that “Peru is a country of Amazonian forests and as a State we are committed to take measures to protect our Amazon”, she remarked.
She added that this project will make it possible to meet the commitments and challenges assumed by Peru at the Amazon Summit held in Belém do Pará, Brazil, an event in which Peru played an important role.
At the event, the FAO representative in Peru, Mariana Escobar, warned that “extreme weather conditions are threatening the food security and livelihoods of communities that have lived in harmony with these ecosystems for centuries, so any initiative for conservation and sustainable use requires the active and effective involvement of the local population”.
The representative of the United Nations International Fund for Agricultural Development in Peru, Juan Diego Ruiz, said that with IFAD’s technical and financial support it will be possible to finance business plans for rural producers’ organizations in the Amazon, prioritizing the participation of women, young people and indigenous communities.
As an operational partner of the project, Profonanpe has been designated to support the Ministry of the Environment in the joint execution of activities, guaranteeing effective technical, administrative and financial management of the project, as well as ensuring adherence to regulations and procedures.
In this context, Anton Willems, CEO of Profonanpe, mentioned that “at Profonanpe we are very proud to be this ally, we will accompany the challenges, the accountability that the implementing agencies demand from us each and every day that we work with them, but making sure, together with the Ministry of the Environment, that these resources and these activities get to where they belong.”
Landscape management
The implementation of this project will have a positive impact on the proper management of landscapes on 15,000 hectares and will make possible the restoration of 7,900 hectares. These five-year goals will contribute to improving soil, water and air quality, as well as ecosystem services.
The territories where intervention will take place are: Tigre Marañón Landscape in the province of Loreto (8 453 5 36 hectares) and Alto Ucayali Inuya Landscape, which covers the provinces of Atalaya, in Ucayali; and Satipo, in Junín (5,911,286 hectares). Together they total 14,364,823 hectares that will be adequately conserved.
The aim is to preserve ecosystems in healthy, functional and resilient conditions to climate change, maintaining important carbon reserves, avoiding greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and generating human welfare for the local populations of the Peruvian Amazon.
This project is part of the second phase of the Amazon Sustainable Landscapes (ASL) Program, a GEF-funded initiative to improve integrated landscape management and ecosystem conservation in priority areas of the Amazon (Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru and Suriname).
Source: Ministry of Environment
