Agroforestry Concessions (ACtion)

General

Main Outcome 1: In priority areas, AC contracts are registered and related GHG emissions reduction is estimated by appropriate national and subnational authorities.: This first outcome will address the current lack of institutional and technical capacity to implement the AC provisions by providing provide strategic advice, information and technical protocols that ensure that government agencies involved in its implementation have a clear direction and attainable goals and manage ACs governance tools such as a zoning tool, a registry system and an aligned cadaster. Main Outcome 2: Family Farmers in AC areas implement sustainable land management options (AC SLM and SSF) tailored to local socio-ecological contexts and comply with AC requirements including zero deforestation with the support of relevant GoP stakeholders. In targeted areas farmers will be encouraged to enroll in AC and adopt AC relevant practices to support the transition towards zero deforestation and agroforestry-based livelihoods through the implementation of co-designed and context-specific land use practices. They will receive support from subnational authorities and NGOs trained by the project. Main Outcome 3: Financial institutions support new sustainable practices of agroforestry farmers under AC. This third main outcome addresses the need for incentives that promote more sustainable production practices by small-scale farmers in the Amazon. The positive incentive approach is a pillar of the project; it focuses on helping the government and the private sector develop tailored incentives packages that will ensure farmers’ engagement with the ACs system, their timely enrollment, and sustained compliance with their new environmental obligations. Integrated and inclusive financial and non-financial incentive schemes to support sustainable practices will be co-designed with government agencies, financial institutions and farmers, thus capturing their needs.

Objectives

In 2011, the Government of Peru (GoP) instituted the Agroforestry Concessions (AC) scheme as part of the new Forest and Wildlife Law. It is a major and innovative legal and policy measure aimed at formalizing the tenure of smallholders currently occupying public forest land and at incorporating them into the forest sector under the assumption that the legal conditions associated with ACs will reduce deforestation and secure restoration of degraded state forest land. The regulations for the AC scheme were promulgated in 2015, and legal procedures and guidelines issued in 2017. The AC scheme can significantly reduce deforestation while improving livelihoods of vulnerable, small-scale Amazonian farmers. We describe its potential positive impacts in Section 11.2.2. In short, previous work by GGGI and ICRAF demonstrates that successful roll-out of the AC scheme could reduce GHG emissions of Peru’s Land use, Land Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF) sector by about 20.3%, while improving the livelihoods of >100,000 vulnerable smallholder families. The objective of the proposed project — ACtion — is to realize the Agroforestry Concessions scheme by working with the Government of Peru (GoP) to build the legal, institutional, technical and financial enabling contexts for successful implementation at scale.