Living in Peru : your everyday companion

In 2007 the total forested concession areas in the jungle were of 20 million hectares. A recent survey done by Inrena indicated that this year there has been a 3 million hectare reduction as a result of unlawful tenants and the growing of coca plants. In an interview the chief of the Inrena, Jose Luis Camino, discusses other issues such as the Legislative Decree 1090 which promotes the reduction of protected wooded areas.

What do you think of decree 1090?

It is a good decree but it has some errors which are being modified by congress. It is a document which tries to apply norms and regulations in the most technical manner possible to the mechanism with which natural resources are utilized and forest activity is developed. 
 
One of those modifications was to take away the nationally protected area title from non wooded regions which are still capable of being forested.

That was one of its errors. I think every norm has its controversial side. Everything depends on how you look at things. The people who are constantly analyzing the issue of the state of the forests pointed out that it might promote the deterioration of the woods and their opinion was taken into account. 

Would it promote deforestation?

We understood it might have that effect and so we decided to modify the decree. Regrettably some people and organizations are looking at the issue from a different point of view. Many are interested in these issues.

There is also interest from wood developers or investors who are betting on the production of biofuel such as “palma” or “caña brava” in the jungle on a massive scale.

Yes, but only in eroded areas with no commercial value…

How will those areas be identified if there is no registry or study of the regions?

Those areas must be studied and then registered first. If the area does not offer judicial stability then there can be no investment.

Will the study take place this year?

I doubt it. That is the job of the Cofopri, but they are not doing it because their budget was reduced and they had a job cut of 1.200 employees. Therefore no one has started the work which needs to be done. The registration will start next year with the new budget. The task is calculated to take around 5 years if we have the appropriate resources.

So then investments will have to wait.

Yes, if not everything will become disorganized.

How much progress has there been in the verification and control of things?

The state does not have the capacity to control the forests. Last year alone 4.200 permissions were granted for the extraction of wood from local forests. For this kind of permit (in areas of less than 3000 hectares) all that is necessary is the approval of the regional managers. They do not have control over the wood which is meant for the local community, but it ends up being exported anyway. There isn’t a big enough disposition in the regional managers to administrate the wood appropriately. The corruption in the Inrena is worse than that to do with the “Petro-recordings” or any other situation in the country at the moment. The level of corruption reached is astounding.     

But we have been exporting wood illegally for years. Those dealing in illegal trafficking do it to benefit the international market and not the national one.

Of course but at least wood from local forests isn’t being exported anymore since forest guides aren’t being handed out anymore.

How has progress been made in the past?

So we can get an idea. In Loreto there are 192 concessions; of those 168 are still valid. Only 72 of these have presented plans of extraction. That is 40% less than the usual. This is because they know that we are going to check each of the concessions. Now they cannot tell us there is so much Cedar when there really was none to begin with. This has hurt industrialists. In Loreto there is no wood to work with.

More than hurt wouldn’t it be that they do not want to admit they have been working with illegal products for years?

Everyone looks at things differently. It is true that industrialists working with wood had a supply mechanism which was far from ideal, but they said the wood they bought had all necessary paper work stamped by the Inrena.

If the corruption in the system was public knowledge then the business owners and buyers could have found out if the product they were buying had an illicit origin.  

The problem was the lack of sanctions. Laws have changed now.

Wasn’t corruption going to be fought by holding public elections for the regional positions?

Yes but 90% of those who participated had administrative positions within the Inrena. That is why I had to disqualify all of them. 

News source: El Comercio - click here to read the original article

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Once again, a sad story about the corruption in a government institution of Peru. Here even with the important issue of the future of the management and conservation of natural resources, like protected natural areas, forest, water, etc… Particularly the management of the forest resources of the country, concessions and the inability of “INRENA” up today to control the illegal logging in the Amazon region of Peru, should be a matter of high concern.
Here at present the first Minister for the Environment Dr. Antonio Brack is traveling around Europe to search for funds for his new Ministry: “Peru aims for zero deforestation”:http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7768226.stm

According to this article, the Peruvian government says it can reach zero deforestation in just 10 years with the help of funds from Western governments. The Peruvian government has done nearly nothing up to now to control the illegal logging and trading of wood, mainly because of lack of commitments and the corruption inside of “INRENA”, etc…. Here it will be interesting to see in which way the new Minister of Environment will manage this issue!! 

¡Not everything can be solved with financial resources (donations) from outside, which hopefully are well managed, controlled and evaluated! ¡But, this important task depends particularly on a high-motivated, well-paid and non-corruptive staff! ¡Not only in elegant offices Lima, but particularly in the provinces and remote areas in the Amazon region as well! 

 ¡Good Luck, Dr. Antonio Brack!

Recently this past December 2008 in Peru, We came face to face with this ever growing problem of Illegal Loggers, INRENA, and Fiscal, both on the Province level and National Level. Our Concession is in the Ucayali Region and we were made aware that there was illegal activities going on in the Concession. To our surprise, this was not just some illegal logging, this was a massive well planned illegal extraction of over 1,000,000 bd ft. These types of Illegal Extractions are not easily accomplished without corruption help from within INRENA and the legal authority of Province Fiscals. We were fortunate at the time to have caught this in the beginning and notified authorities. Here is where the problem lies, we notified INRENA and we were given the run around, we notified the province attorney and he already knew why we were there and who we were accusing of being the Illegal Loggers. First and foremost we had not even filed a Civil Complaint or even mentioned the illegal loggers. The Fiscal gave us the cold shoulder and that he was busy. This continued on for days, until we demanded that he listen up and that were taking this issue to Lima's INRENA and Fiscalia de la Nation. During this time we were able to obtain certified testimonies from witnesses that they were present when a "payoff" was made from the Illegal Extractors to the Province Attorney to take care of the matter and delay it while they continued to move forward in our Concession.

The Province Fiscal looked at us and gave us a classic routine, 2 minutes and that he has to leave for a meeting. It cost us time and money, but the money part was the least of our concerns as the time lost cost us the opportunity to apprehend the responsible illegal loggers. Yes, we had their names as they were pointed out by their workers who had not been paid for months. Yes, they also work for the now jailed Pucallpa Mayor and his milling companies in Pucallpa. Nevermind the fact that we took pictures, had recovered the illegal lumber ,were pointed out by the illegals workers that there were approximately 30-40 Cat 518's hauling lumber from our 46,000 acre Concession and that workers had not been paid for months..but the Province Attorney had no intentions of helping us. INRENA's Director finally gave in after losing our complaint and fortunately we had our copy and proceeded with him and advised him that we were going to deal with this issue on a grander scale involving INRENA and Fiscal in LIMA as well as notify the US Embassy. Yes I am American-Mexican and my partners are Peruvian, but having the rights to this Concession for the last 5 years we have not extracted due to the fact that even on the first year of License approval we were already being victims of Illegal Extraction. I was not to going to allow this grand of a scale go without a fight. The act alone of these illegal loggers said to me that they don't care if they get caught or not. One of them approached us in a bribe for $/30,000 soles and that he would have the Legal Complaints lifted in INRENA and the Province Attorney. This individual made me realize that it doesn't matter if you are running your business within the law, in the end the Illegal Extractor will end up winning. This was not some illegal extraction of 10,000 bd ft, this was over a 1,000,000 bd ft where we caught them in the act. With all the proof we had it still took 2 months for action to be taken. We were fortunate enough to have a Congress Person lobby for us a meeting with INRENA Director/Intendente and with Peru's Attorney General. Meeting with INRENA we were painted as the Criminals as their attorney asked us for more proof and concrete evidence. This was a bureaucratic joke. Meeting with Fiscal de la Nacion was some help, but a little too late. The Attorney General was disgusted in the way this was handled by her Province Attorneys and took charge of the case itself. In the end time had passed and when we returned to our Concession this past week, 90% of the lumber was gone. Vanished while we were given the run around. When we were given the priviledge to run a Concession in Peru several years ago, our plan was to be an example to other Concession owners that logging was not the only viable business in the Forest. Their are many benefits, medicinal, green products, alternatives to mainstay species, Agriculture and Marine benefits. We are dismayed at the process, but we will not render to the corruption and the illegal loggers. To some extent the US Trade Agreement with Peru enhanced the LACEY ACT and offered Severe Legal Punishment and Prison time for illegal loggers, but unfortunately in my view, this is only going to cause more Corruption and payoffs. As for regionalizing all of INRENA province operations into one central office in Peru, good luck as the new Director in Pucallpa is none other than the Regional Presidents Family Member. As long as corruption remains in INRENA their will still be washing of illegal lumber, Human rights violations for logging workers who are not paid and environmental concerns.

We will continue to stand up to this corruption on all fronts and will still move ahead with our goals in being a leading example of proper and legal Forest Management.

Thank you.

ICM@aol.com