Carlos A. M. Soria Dall’Orso, Ph. D.*
ABSTRACT
This paper examines unique opportunities provided by international discourses and practices of the Green Economy approach and valuation of ecosystem services (as promoted under the international climate change regime) on the sustainable management of indigenous forests and lands in Peru. It examines the influence of epistemological changes prompted by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) on the improved understanding and conceptualization of the role of forests and sound natural resource management; and how these changes at the international level have positively impacted traditional land rights in Peru.1 It also analyses how increased development and financing of Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) processes and projects have enhanced the incorporation of interculturality into indigenous peoples’ public policy in Peru. This paper discusses the Peruvian experience, most especially how international demands for greater transparency in forest management led to the evolution of the Prior Consultation Law and Forestry (FPIC) Law in Peru. It reviews the growing relevance and influence of the Peruvian FPIC law, its impact on sustainable forest management, and the opportunities and practical challenges it portends for sustainable commons management in Peru.
Keywords: Peru, forests, green economy, FPIC, REDD, indigenous
* MSc (Ecuador), PhD (Australia), international consultant, researcher, lecturer and activist on environmental and indigenous public policy since 1988. Dr. Soria Dall’Orso is the co-author of the Code of Environment and Natural Resources of Peru (1990); the General Environmental Law (2005), the Forestry and Wildlife Law 29763 (2011) and Regulation of the Forestry and Wildlife Law 27308 (2001). He is an Associate Researcher with the Institute for Nature, Territory and Renewable Energies Sciences (INTE) of the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru (PUCP). He teaches in the Master’s Program in Sustainable Development and Biocomerce at PUCP; Master’s programs of the Faculty of Forestry at the Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina; Faculty of Business Administration at the Universidad San Ignacio de Loyola; and at the Postgraduate School of the Pedro Ruiz Gallo University of Lambayeque. He supported the Amazonian indigenous peoples and the Peruvian government negotiations in 2001 and 2009. From 2012-2014, he returned to the World Wide Fund for Nature WWF-Peru as Senior Policy Specialist on issues of indigenous peoples in isolation, developing voluntary standards for palm plantations, development of forestry legislation, among others. As such, he was very instrumental to the activities of World Wildlife Fund and the Coordinator of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin COICA to develop the content of the proposed Amazonian Indigenous REDD in various projects. In 2014 he helped the dialogue around the development of the regulations of the Forestry and Fauna Law.
1. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) came into force in 1994 with the aim of reducing greenhouse gases (GHGs) emissions into the atmosphere. The UNFCCC COPs have been organized since 1995 as part of the commitments of the UNFCC. The Kyoto Protocol, although failed to come in to force, was, nevertheless, an important milestone whose failure to achieve still haunts us. The Kyoto Protocol ended in 2012 and the world seeks to establish a new solid and binding agreement climate change measures. For a list of UNFCCC COPs, see accessed June 15, 2015.