SENACE course participants Photo credit: Verónica Villarreal Serpa, SENACE

In 2014, Peru’s Ministry of the Environment (MINAM) established guidelines for environmental compensation with the goal of achieving zero net loss of biodiversity and functionality of ecosystems for infrastructure and resource extraction projects. The National Service of Environmental Certification for Sustainable Investments (SENACE) is charged with evaluation of all compensation plans for development projects, and contracted CSF and The Nature Conservancy (TNC) to provide training on the subject.

In March 2018, in collaboration with TNC, we delivered a three-day course for SENACE on environmental compensation issues in wetland ecosystems. The training was designed to provide the institutional and legal framework of the instrument, a methodological approach to apply the mitigation hierarchy and design a consistent compensation plan, and finally to use this information to evaluate and discuss two projects of interest to SENACE. We also discussed a number of relevant examples from the Amazon region as well as other ecosystems and projects, with a focus on projects such as the Hidrovia Amazonica and its potential impacts.

Instructors for the course included CSF’s Annie Escobedo and Jose Carlos Rubio, as well as guests from MINAM, TNC Colombia, the Peruvian Society of Environmental Law (SPDA), the Center for Ornithology and Biodiversity (CORBIDI), The Biodiversity Consultancy, and World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

We’d like to thank our partners and collaborators, and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation for their financial support.