With generous support from the Andes Amazon Fund, CSF completed a cost-benefit analysis of the proposed Yaguas National Park in northeastern Peru for SERNANP, Peru’s national protected areas agency. Located in a remote part of the Amazon basin, the park will extend over 800,000 hectares.
CSF estimated the main economic benefits that the proposed park will generate including carbon storage, existence values, saved hunting time of neighboring indigenous communities, and the prevention of deforestation and mining impacts. The study demonstrated that these benefits are greater than the implementation and management costs of the proposed protected area by almost 23 million soles (approximately $7.7 million), of which 17 million soles ($5.7 million) are captured by local communities who will benefit from the park.
SERNANP is required to conduct similar cost-benefit analyses for any future proposed protected areas, and decisions about new protected areas are made by the full Presidential Cabinet of Peru, with the Minister of Economy and Finance a key player in these deliberations. CSF has presented the results of this analysis to the Minister of Economy and Finance. SERNANP is now in the process of creating the park.
CSF's working paper for this project can be found here. (Publication in Spanish).