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LIMA, Peru (11 December, 2013) — Peru’s Ministry of the Environment (Ministerio del Ambiente, or MINAM) and the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) will sign a formal agreement to increase cooperation on research into forestry and sustainable development. The agreement is intended to produce targeted research that better informs the development of government policies as well as practices on the ground by the private sector and civil society organizations for the sustainable development of the forests of the Peruvian Amazon. Peru’s forests extend for nearly 800,000 square kilometers and are home to more than 3 million people.
“To sign an agreement with CIFOR involves seeing how research results support the formation of public policies, which is what a Ministry has to do — especially on an issue such as forestry, given the role of forests as a mechanism to mitigate the consequences of climate change,” said Peru’s Environment Minister, Manuel Pulgar-Vidal, who will sign the agreement with CIFOR on Tuesday, 10 December.
CIFOR’s Director General Peter Holmgren said, “Protecting the Amazon requires national commitment, and Peru is demonstrating its commitment to supporting research and policies that manage the trade-offs between conservation and development. It is also an auspicious time, because next year Peru will host the annual UN climate change conference. This new agreement is a major step in further strengthening our cooperation with Peru’s government” concluded Mr. Holmgren.
”We see plenty of opportunities for both CIFOR and MINAM to work jointly to inform forest policy through sound research,” said Manuel Guariguata, CIFOR’s Principal Scientist and Latin America Science Coordinator. “For example, a new forest law is in place in Peru. There are currently intense consultations with many different actors for drafting the norms and regulations that will back up the official text contained in the law. Many of our results and publications can provide guidance in this process.”
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ABOUT CIFOR
Headquartered in Bogor, Indonesia, CIFOR is an intergovernmental research organization that operates in more than 30 countries across Latin America, Asia and Africa. Its research on forestry helps ensure that decision-making is based on solid science and principles of good governance, and reflects the perspectives of developing countries and forest-dependent people.
Its presence in Peru dates to 1998, when a small project office was established in the Amazonian town of Pucallpa. For 10 years, CIFOR’s work there focused largely on implementing collaborative research on sustainable forest management in primary and secondary forests in the Peruvian Amazon. CIFOR’s growing emphasis on climate change research prompted it to expand to Lima, where since 2011 it has been based at the International Potato Center (CIP). CIFOR’s presence in Peru has increased dramatically since, with 10 researchers and support staff now in Lima.
MINAM is a natural partner for CIFOR. The Ministry of the Environment leads Peru’s strategies for biodiversity and climate change, as well as the country’s readiness preparation for the implementation of REDD+, a UN-backed scheme that would see developing countries compensated for reducing deforestation and forest degradation — and which has been an intense focus of CIFOR’s research in recent years.
For further information:
Center for International Forestry Research
CIFOR’s Website: cifor.org
Forests News blog: forestsnews.cifor.org
Los Bosques en las Noticias: forestsnews.cifor.org/es
Lecciones del Amazonas: forestsnews.cifor.org/es/amazon
Maria Isabel Torres Llacho/Teresa Solís
Ministerio del Ambiente (MINAM)
T: +(51) 1 611 6000 | Annex 1641 | RPC: 980533048
E: tsolis@minam.gob.pe | www.minam.gob.pe
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