Peru Environmental Management and Forest Governance Support Activity

Project Dates: July 2011 - December 2016
With deforestation threatening the Peruvian Amazon and communities that rely on forest-based employment, forest management must be improved.

The Peruvian Amazon is a tropical rainforest covering more than 270,000 square miles, and its vast collection of plant and animal species make Peru one of the world’s most biologically diverse countries. Many Peruvians rely on forest-based livelihoods to feed their families, but a deforestation crisis has jeopardized their jobs. The USAID Peru Environmental Management and Forest Governance Support Activity (Peru Bosques) improved forest governance and environmental management, conserved the rainforest’s biodiversity, and increased forest-based economic opportunities. The activity coordinated with national, regional, and local actors to promote private investment in the Peruvian Amazon’s indigenous and other rural communities. In support of the U.S.-Peru Trade Promotion Agreement, Peru Bosques boosted conservation of sustainable tropical forest landscapes and created forest-based jobs. Activities addressed the most influential drivers of deforestation and forest degradation, including illegal logging, lack of forest governance, land-use conversion, informal mining, and weak timber industry.