Peru—Prevent activity

Illegal activity, biodiversity loss, weak governance, and social conflict around natural resource management are threatening one of the world’s most ecologically and culturally significant ecosystems in Peru. Additionally, the lack of maintenance of these extraordinary areas has led to the country forgoing millions of dollars in tourism and thousands of job opportunities. On the other hand, Peru is home to a network of diverse, talented, committed local problem-solvers who are ready to apply creative new approaches—rooted in deep local knowledge—to address environmental crime.

The Prevent activity was designed to help Peruvian institutions and actors more effectively manage the country’s natural resources for future generations. Prevent aimed to sustainably transform the culture of rule of law and citizen stewardship when it comes to protecting Peru’s environmental assets.

Prevent supported Peru’s problem-solvers to work more effectively as catalysts, conveners, enforcers, and innovators, mobilizing locally driven solutions to some of the region’s most entrenched environmental governance challenges. Using a local systems approach, DAI worked to ensure that Prevent left behind strong environmental monitoring and enforcement capabilities; better, more widespread understanding of the shared value of natural resources and the extensive costs of their degradation; clearer, reinforced linkages demonstrating that effective environmental justice leads to tangible economic and social benefits for all; and an environmental justice system that more fully engages and represents the interests, capabilities, and contributions of women and indigenous communities.

Prevent strengthened the capacities 5,500 justice operators, helped formulate more than 30 regulations to tackle environmental crimes, and promoted local monitoring networks that contribute to the improved management of 200,000 hectares of forests.

Sample Activities

• Develop and promote a national framework on environmental crimes.
• Implement capacity-building plan for justice sector operators and collaborating administrative agencies.
• Build monitoring and reporting capabilities in and around protected areas.
• Leverage private sector resources to support artisanal and small-scale gold mining formalization efforts and timber traceability.

Select Results

• Contributed to the creation by the government of a High-Level Commission for the Prevention and Reduction of Environmental Crimes and the establishment of an Environmental Crimes Unit to improve inter-institutional coordination to safeguard the country’s natural heritage, led by the Ministry of Environment.
• Supported new technological solutions used by the national authorities to better supervise compliance of forest resource use in real time. More than 400 indigenous people have been trained in the use of drones and GPS to monitor and protect their territories from illegal logging in the Amazon.
• Helped publish a groundbreaking study on wildlife trafficking in the Amazon with the Peruvian government.
• Engaged millions of people to fight environmental crime in the Peruvian Amazon through a campaign called “Consecuencias.” With more than 140 media mentions, dozens of opinion leaders, celebrities, and media figures publicly endorsing it, and with the support of the private sector, the public sector, and civil society, the campaign reached an estimated 70 million views nationwide. The Orquesta Explosión band spearheaded the campaign with an original song and video, which has garnered approximately 800,000 views.
• Supported the development of the first Ministry of the Environment methodology to evaluate the impacts of illegal logging, illegal mining, and wildlife trafficking. The guide establishes a framework for the Ministry’s Specialized Environmental Crimes Attorney to determine the civil compensation to be paid by violators.
• With the Agency for the Supervision of Forest Resources and Wildlife (OSINFOR), launched the MiBosque app, a digital tool that allows users to report illegal actions in forest management areas, in real time.