Project seeks to safeguard Peru’s biodiversity
WASHINGTON, Sept. 11th, 2015 – The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors today approved a US$5.5 million grant, from the Strategic Climate Fund, to support Indigenous communities in their efforts to protect the Peruvian Amazon. This is the second of the country-level projects under the Global DGM umbrella framework approved by the Bank’s Board of Directors in March 2015.
Peru’s rate of deforestation is climbing, especially in areas without legally assigned rights to land. According to Peru’s Forest Investment Plan, the main drivers of deforestation are migration, agricultural expansion, and infrastructure such as road construction and unregulated timber extraction. At the same time, territorial reserves, including those designated as indigenous lands and natural protected areas, have shown the lowest deforestation rates.
This project, one of the first to be prepared directly with indigenous leaders and beneficiaries, seeks to facilitate the physical and cultural survival of the communities that depend on these resources. This will be achieved through increasing security of land tenure and supporting sustainable use through native land titling in the Amazon, indigenous forest management, and governance and sustainability.
Alberto Rodriguez, World Bank Director for Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela, stressed that “this effort can have a significant impact on diminishing poverty and vulnerability as communities with secure tenure tend to have better access to traditional sources of food, medicine and higher levels of participation in national social protection or safety net programs.”
The “Saweto Dedicated Grant Mechanism for Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities Project” supports climate change mitigation and inclusive growth by enhancing legal protection and recognition, as well as capacity building, necessary to empower Peruvian Amazon communities living in and caring for the forests. Their continued and protected stewardship of this land is essential, as it represents one of the most important land based carbon sinks for greenhouse gases in South America.
Expected results include: i) recognition of 310 native communities in the Amazon in the National Registry of Native Communities; ii) land demarcation, titling and registration with the National Superintendence of Public Registries (SUNARP, in Spanish) for 130 native communities representing at least 780,000 hectares of land; and iii) satisfactory implementation of 50 food security, 20 income generating and five sustainable timber productive subprojects.
This US$5.5 million grant has an implementation period of five years.
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Last Updated: Sep 11, 2015
