Peru: Methodology

The annual report 2010: Transparency in the Peruvian forestry sector

In order to update and validate the guidelines drawn up in 2009, a Workshop entitled "Evaluation of, and Improvements in the Methodology for Formulation of the Annual Report 2010 on Transparency in the Forestry Sector" was held on 6 August 2010, with public institutions with competences in forestry sector administration, public institutions with an impact on the forestry sector, indigenous organisations, business organisations and civil society organisations.

One of the results of the process of reviewing the evaluation guidelines was the identification of the suitability of five of the guidelines. Each guideline has a set of criteria which are evaluated to determine both whether or not the public organisations comply with the regulations on transparency portals and access to public information, and the actual availability of the information on the forestry sector. The guidelines are detailed below:

1. Guideline on Transparency Portals for the Public Organisations whose activities have an impact on the management and conservation of Forests in Peru.
2. Guideline on Transparency Portals for the Public Organisations with competences in management and conservation of Forests in Peru
3. Guideline on Access to the Information in the Public Organisations with competences in management and conservation of Forests in Peru.
4. Guideline on Access to the Information on Participation in the Public Organisations with competences in management and conservation of Forests in Peru.
5. Guideline on Availability of Information about the Forestry Sector in the competent Public Organisations.

For the 2010 Annual Report, a few adjustments were made to the guidelines:

• The Regional Governments of San Martin, Ucayali, Loreto and Madre de Dios are included, given that, from 2010 onwards, they have functions in forestry matters. In addition, as a reference, there is also an evaluation of Regional Governments which still do not have competence, such as Piura, Junín and Amazonas, but which have large areas of forest which mean they may have an impact on the management and conservation of forests in Peru.
• As far as the evaluation of transparency portals is concerned, consideration was given to the provisions of Supreme Decree No. 063-2010-PCM, which the Peruvian State used to standardise the Standard Transparency Portals in Public Administration bodies, and which is detailed in Directive No. 001-2010-PCM/SGP (Guidelines for the implementation of the Standard Transparency Portal in Public Administration bodies, approved by Ministerial Decree No. 200-2010-PCM published on 24 June 2010).
• Also included in the evaluation were criteria allowing assessment of the quality of the information provided.

Despite these adjustments, in general the results obtained in 2009 are comparable with those for 2010, which allows us to look for evidence of whether there were any changes between the two years, either in terms of progress or deterioration in the levels of transparency and access to the information; an attempt is made to identify the reasons why there are no changes between the two years analysed in the reports.