Process of Consensus Making with Related Organizations
on San Martin Region
Milagros Sandoval (Conservation International (CI), Peru)

Session 2

Process of Consensus Making with Related Organizations on San Martin Region
Milagros Sandoval (Conservation International (CI), Peru)

I would like to thank the organizers for the invitation to present on behalf of my CI colleagues in Peru.
I will try to present in these few minutes the work that we have been doing not only in Conservation
International in Peru, but different types of organizations and different individuals that have been working
on the REDD+ process in Peru throughout the sub-national level and also the national level in my country.
I will guide you through a story of about ten years of work that has been done in my country in Peru.

I

will also like to give a few key messages of what the lessons learned of what we have been experiencing in
Peru related to REDD+ implementation.

In general, as my other colleagues have mentioned, it issometimes difficult to start thinking about what we are going to present now, and definitely reachingconsensus is an issue that is very difficult considering different types national or sub-national circumstances.
Regardless, I would like present in general the work that civil society organizations have been moving
forward as well in coordination with the government of Peru both at that sub-national and national level.
Reaching consensus is definitely a challenge, especially with issues that are very new.

REDD+ has beendeveloping itself at the international level, and definitely there were no specific messages or clarity before
we had the Warsaw Framework.

Therefore, before the Warsaw Framework, we were experimenting withhow these issues were going to be established on the ground.

Probably this is one of the main challenges

that we have faced in countries like mine.
I think that one of the key messages I want to convey is that, in order to promote consensus topromote participatory processes, it is very important to have technical information.

I think that in the firstin the morning session colleagues have presented the different types of technical expertise that is being
done on the ground, the information that is being done in many countries and that is helping us takedecisions.

However,

this information has to be accessible.

This information has to be easy tounderstand.

Probably this is one of the main challenges because there is a diversity of stakeholders thatare important.

Also, the need to understand not necessarily the specificities of all the technical issues, butSession 2
general issues of our information that is being presented on the ground.

I think that this is a key element,

and part of the safeguards process that many of our countries are now engaged with.
Background Information on Peru

I would first like to present a little bit more on my country, and probably some background information.
I would like just to highlight this specific information related to the diversity of Peru.
approximately 25% of its population that are indigenous peoples.
people groups, and we have 47 languages.
among us.
Spanish.

Peru hasFrom that 25%, there are 55 indigenous

Therefore, sometimes it is very challenging to communicate

We do not necessarily speak the same languages.

For example, in my case, I only speak

I do not speak any other traditional language from my country.

This is something to take inconsideration when we start promoting participatory processes in a country so diverse and so multicultural
as mine.
Evolution of REDD+ Processes in Peru

Let me start by explaining how we started getting engaged in the REDD+ process.

More or less 10

years ago, in October 2008, many institutions, many civil society organizations, many sub-national
governments and national government, we were all eager to start understanding what REDD+ was.
Obviously, if we look back, probably what we were understanding in that moment has changed to what weProcess of Consensus Making with Related Organizations
on San Martin Region
Milagros Sandoval (Conservation International (CI), Peru)know now of what REDD+ is, but we were eager to learn together.

Session 2

We were eager to know all of these

new issues, so we decided to create these roundtables.
This is the Tarapoto Declaration.

Tarapoto is a city in San Martin that we actually work a lot with. So

in this city we decided to establish a REDD roundtable to establish diverse platforms to start discussing allof these issues related to REDD+.

At the national level, roundtables have been facilitated by civil society

organizations where the national government such as the Ministry of Environment or the Ministry ofAgriculture participate but do not lead the roundtables.

This is very different from the sub-national

government roundtables where, yes, the regional governments or sub national governments are leading theprocess.

It is important to highlight the opportunity these REDD roundtables have given many colleagues

from civil society organization and other stakeholders.
First of all, these roundtables have been a possibility to disseminate information regarding the FCPF
process, the FIP process, and the declaration of intent between Norway, Germany, and Peru.

In theseroundtables, the government has been able to receive information from the roundtables and to promoteparticipatory process thanks to these roundtables.

However, as I mentioned before, there is definitely a very important stakeholder in my country which
are indigenous peoples, and indigenous peoples were very eager not only to learn, but to make their voices

Session 2
be heard.

They made their voices be heard through different instruments.

This is one declaration fromone of the national federations that established the main requisites that the FCPF process should have in
Peru.

This was very interesting because, in general, the indigenous proposals established a historical claim

to implement or design REDD+ in Peru, which is the titling of their communal lands.
Therefore, this is another message I would like to convey.
indigenous peoples.

REDD+ has supported giving a voice to

REDD+ includes these types of co-benefits for us in my country, that REDD+ canbe seen by different stakeholders through different ways.

This is something to consider.

REDD+ issupporting the titling of lands right now, and some of the funds that are being disbursed to my country arebeing used now for the titling of lands, to secure the rights of indigenous peoples.

That is somethingimportant to convey, and this has been a very interesting way in which indigenous peoples have used theREDD+ process to get this information and historical claims that they had over their lands.
Conservation International Activities in San Martin

I am going to now talk a little bit more about the region where Conservation International works.

We

have focused our works since about 10 years ago in the San Martin region, which is in the northeast of Peru.
In general, the information that I would like to convey related to this region is that this is one of the regionsthat has the highest historical deforestation rates in the country.

The main driver of deforestation in thissub-national area is small agriculture because there are many routes in this region, and there has been
migration from different parts of Peru to this region, which has started the cut and slash of many areas offorests.

Many people of the highlands have been moving to this region.

they needed some type of access to some resources.

Obviously, because of poverty,

Therefore, they have settled in these lands and haveestablished agricultural crops such as coffee, cocoa, and rice among other agricultural products.

Process of Consensus Making with Related Organizations
on San Martin Region
Milagros Sandoval (Conservation International (CI), Peru)

Session 2

Due to these high levels of deforestation that I mentioned that are in this region, many citizens are very
interested in implementing projects at a small and medium scale.

What you see here are four of what the

government of Peru has named ‘early initiatives’, which are projects in small or medium scale that identified
REDD+ as a mechanism, and I called mechanism because some negotiators do not like to say that REDD+
is a mechanism.

It is the mechanism that could become a way of securing funding to avoid deforestationfrom expanding, and supporting conservation, conserving important ecosystem services in this region.
Therefore, many of these initiatives throughout Peru have been implemented in protected areas, which isvery interesting because it is away in which the National Authority of Protected Areas in my country has
secured funding for the implementation of the management plans of these protected areas.
These REDD+ projects or early initiatives started being designed since 2008.
guidelines for this.
standards1

What did these projects do?

There were no general

They started implementing.

The VCS and CCB

were implemented by these projects, so many of these have already validated and verified morethan two or three times this work.

Therefore, this is also a third message that I would like to convey,

which is that REDD+ in the early times in 2008 or 2009 was thought as small project initiatives.
changed throughout the years, as we have seen, and as the previous presenter indicated.
throughout the years after the Warsaw Framework, and also after the Paris agreement.

1

http://www.climate-standards.org/ccb-standards/

This hasThis has changed

Session 2

At this sub-national level, there is also the REDD roundtable, which is the San Martin REDD
roundtable.

This is a platform that is very different from the national one because this platform, what it

did is it has been led by the regional government of San Martin.
cooperation around REDD+.

What it has promoted is technicalMany situations including the projects that are being implemented in theregion are promoting activities, are promoting cooperation between them to support this REDD+ process
at more jurisdictional or sub-national levels.
As for some of the work that they have done, first of all, they decided to establish a structure in which
to take decisions or to establish cooperation.
process.

They had more than 20 organizations participating in this

They had also an advisors’ committee established by institutions that knew a little bit more about

REDD+, and could support capacity building efforts.

They also established two technical groups.

This

first technical group was related to more technical issues, for example reference levels, baselines, MRV,
etcetera.

This second technical group was more related to social issues.

What I would like to highlight here in this structure that during the first years a technical liaison withthe ministry of environment, which is the REDD+ authority., was hired.

This is so that the all of theactivities or the cooperation that was being done under this process could have input to the national
government, and so that also the national government could establish certain guidelines that the REDD+
roundtable should follow.

Process of Consensus Making with Related Organizations
on San Martin Region
Milagros Sandoval (Conservation International (CI), Peru)

Session 2

These are some of the activities that the first technical group did, for example the deforestation
baseline for 2000, 2005, and 2010, a carbon stock inventory of the region, as well as future deforestation
modeling.

Much of this work have been done, and methodologies that have been done in this process

have already been used by the national government to design the national reference level.

Therefore, thisis very important because many of this cooperation has gone and has giving inputs to the national processThis second technical group is more a social group and one of the main results of this group is theSession 2
establishment and the creation of a safeguards committee for REDD+, which is the first of its kind in the
country, and which convenes 11 representatives of different stakeholders in the region.

This type of committee was established by a regional decree, in other words by a specific regional
legislation that was enacted by the regional government, and that gives sustainability of the mandate of thissafeguards committee, but also of in general how they interact with the national government.
mentioned, is the first committee of its nature in Peru.

This, as I

It definitely brings me to a fifth message that I

would like to convey, which is that REDD+ implementation can include the design of new legislation, andestablish new institutional arrangements that are needed to be implemented on the ground.

This is very

important because we sometimes say that we need a lot of technical issues, but we also need to understandthere are many legal issues and many institutional issues that have to be addressed in order to givesustainability to this process at the national and sub-national levels.

Process of Consensus Making with Related Organizations
on San Martin Region
Milagros Sandoval (Conservation International (CI), Peru)

Session 2

After this process, also around 2014, the REDD+ strategy started being designed in Peru.

It is very

important for me to say that the region of San Martin was the one that gave a lot of inputs to this process
because most of the work that was done under the cooperative work through the REDD+ roundtable wasbrought to these discussions at the national and sub-national levels.

Therefore, it was very important all

the capacity building process that was made throughout this REDD+ roundtable.
Key Challenges

I would like to now identify some of the challenges that we have been working on, some of which still
continue to exist, as many have mentioned.

I would like to focus on some of them.

Session 2First of all, as I mentioned, with more clarity on the legal framework at the international level, or on thecommitments of Peru related to the Warsaw Framework and the Paris Agreement, our national contribution,
the NDC, there is a shift from projects to landscape approaches or to more jurisdictional approaches in the
country.

This is still not clear, but I would like to explain that, in our case, from the organization I workwith, we are now working more on the landscape approach because we believe that this is a model that can
support a bigger area, and that can help out different types of local governments or provincial governmentsthat arein the region.

This is a type of work and the type of challenge that has to be addressed duringin the following is related to how we not only work in small projects, although small projects do havespecific benefits to people that are part of the projects, but how we also support bigger areas of work, andhow the Government of Peru is promoting this also under the REDD+ strategy.

A second challenge is related to private partnerships.

How do we continue encouraging private sector

initiatives to continue investing in sustainable practices and sustaining or conserving our forests?

Process of Consensus Making with Related Organizations
on San Martin Region
Milagros Sandoval (Conservation International (CI), Peru)

Session 2

Here, I am including the example of what do we have inside the Alto Mayo Protected Forest which is a
REDD+ project and our main partner or our main supporter is Disney.

Disney has supported giving

funds to conserve the forest, but now is also interested in buying the coffee that is being produced by thepeople that or are settled inside the protected area, and that are conserving this forest.
good, has increased in quality, and has increased their yields.
deforestation.

Their coffee is very

That is also a coffee that causes zero

Therefore, how do we continue promoting this type of engagement of private sector

investment in these types of projects or activities?

It is quite an interesting challenge.

These are otherfacts that I will leave in the presentation in case you have other questions I can also answer after.

Another challenge is related to the engagement of local stakeholders including indigenous peoples.
This is not only related to co-benefits or to recover or transfer traditional knowledge, but also working
together with indigenous peoples on ways to support their livelihoods and their sustainability.

Here, I have

put an example of the work we are doing with the awajun indigenous group in San Martin. They aim toreach domestic markets with herbal teas made by indigenous women respecting their traditional knowledge.
They will receive income for that traditional knowledge by selling herbal teas.

Therefore, the idea is that

also how we promote opportunities for both men and women under the benefits that we are going to give
under REDD+.

Also, how do we engage the different stakeholders including the indigenous groups* andSession 2
not focusing on activities that they are not necessarily acquainted with, or they do not feel comfortable
with,?
Another challenge is related to institutional arrangements, and I mentioned this issue a little while ago.
REDD+ is challenging current institutions.

Some mandates probably are going to change some of ourinstitutions, some mandates have to be modified, but we need to establish new institutional arrangements insome of our existing institutions.

This is an example of the support that Conservation International gave to subnational government topromote private sustainable investment in the region.

How does this office facilitate private investment

within the region and interact with a private sector?

What are the indicators of sustainability that thesetypes of private companies have to do in the region in order for them to start working in this area of Peru?
This is something that is also one-of-a-kind in the Amazon.

Other regions of Peru have it, especiallythose related to mining and oil activities, but not necessarily in the Amazon.

This is the first office of its

kind in the Amazon.

This is our former minister, Manuel Pulgar-Vidal.
COP president.

Most of you have probably met him.

He was theProcess of Consensus Making with Related Organizations
on San Martin Region
Milagros Sandoval (Conservation International (CI), Peru)

Session 2

Key Issues
I would just like to talk here about some of the key issues that I think are very important related to this.
These frameworks at the national level already exist.

In the case of many developing countries, we havealready engaged with several commitments related to reducing deforestation bilaterally or through othertypes of agreements.

These small and medium initiatives have to nest within the national NDC processes

and have to nest within what the commitments that the Peruvian government has made.

Therefore, this isquite an interesting challenge, and I think Peru is definitely one of the countries that has very important
challenges to nest this type of projects within their national framework.

Therefore, we have to develop

some language related to this at the national level so that the private sector does not feel that it is risky toinvest in our country, but also that we are establishing specific safeguards for them to come so that they do
not feel that there is no political will from our country.

This is ongoing work that we are doing now in the

country related to the nesting processes, and how these activities are going to continue being promoted.
The private sector continues to be welcome in the country, but definitely there are quite a few
challenges related to that.

These are not necessarily at the technical level, but probably more at thepolitical level because there is a need to take political decisions related to this issue, and this is notnecessarily something just for Peru.

It is probably for many, many countries that are going through thesame process.
Key Messages
I would just like to finish up by indicating some of the key messages that I would like to indicate.

One

is that stakeholder participation is a key to working on initiatives relating to reducing deforestation.

There

are different ways to participate.
space to participate.
participate.

Not everybody will want to participate, but there is a need to open the

There is a need to build capacity or strengthen capacity for people to effectively

Definitely, that is something that changes within each country.

Second is that legal frameworks and institutional arrangements are fundamental to establish clear
positions and can reduce risk.

We can have a perfect reference level or a perfect MRV system, but if there

is no legal framework that supports that type of technical information, then things will not necessarily work.
Therefore, we have to start looking at these legal issues more thoroughly and identify what things have to bedone in each of our countries.
A third message I would like to indicate is related to the impact on livelihoods.

We have been talking

about REDD, about the technical issues, and about the legal issues, but we also have to start speaking about
what the impact of this type of project is.

That can be from the small scale, or the medium scale, or thenational scale, but what is the impact to the livelihoods of the people that are living in the forests?

If we

do not have some type of monitoring system, or if we do not measure our impacts or the impact of these
activities, then we will probably not be able to achieve the objectives of reducing deforestation.

If there isno direct impact to the people that are related or that are living in the forest, probably these measures will
not be sustainable throughout time.

Session 2
The fourth and last message I will like to say is related to private participation on these initiatives.
have to be creative, and definitely I think that lawyers have a lot of challenges here.

We have to be creative

considering the needs of developing countries to fulfill commitments under the NDC.
necessarily a process of just of each country at the national level.
presenters have already indicated.

We

This is not

This is what I think many of theThis is a process that is being discussed at the international level.

Therefore, until there is no clear guidanceat the international level, many countries will be uneasy to makedecisions to implement or to establish certain legal frameworks on the ground that do not necessarily reflect
the guidelines of what is being discussed at the international level.

Thank you very much.