Peru : Indicators

As far as National Forest Policy is concerned, there has been no major progress made on the third draft version produced in 2010. This version includes a guide for incentives but makes no explicit mention of REDD+. It is worth mentioning that the document recognises the participation of all the stakeholders involved and decentralisation; it also highlights fairness and social inclusion and respect for cultural diversity in management. Meanwhile, the National Forest Strategy, made official in 2004 as a precursor document for National Forest Policy, needs to be adapted for REDD+, not only because this is a new and emerging topic, but because it is linked to other sectors of management of natural resources.

In May 2012 the General Directorate for Forests and Wildlife in the Ministry of Agriculture presented a Guide to Methodology to the Participative and Decentralised Process for strengthening of the Forest Sector, which includes drawing up a National Forest and Wildlife Policy for which the participation process (receipt of contributions, drafting and approval) must last for approximately two months, and must be reviewed and validated by an inter-governmental Group.

Meanwhile, Law No. 27308, the Forests and Wildlife Law (still in force) and Law No. 29763, the Forests and Wildlife Law approved in June last year (which will come into force when there is a regulation to implement it), have been approved and/or promulgated without the explicit existence of a National Forest Policy, which has consequently had no influence on their implementation; however, the recent Forest Law considers the follow-up to a National Policy.

Finally, the documents which make up the implicit policy of the Forest Sector are drafted in Spanish, but have not been translated into other local languages, and are only accessible through publication in the Official Newspaper “El Peruano” (a newspaper which, though distributed nationwide, arrives with a few days’ delay and in smaller quantities) and the websites of each institution linked to the forest sector; this situation, added to the fact that the material is technically complex and large in size, means that access to the information is limited for community populations.