PERU - The Peruvian Government intends to allocate in 1980 eight million hectares of forests to private investors for sustainable projects that include forest concessions for timber extraction, ecotourism and conservation and use of ecosystem services.

This is stated in the plan presented by the National Forest and Wildlife Service (Serfor) to reduce persistent deforestation in the country and combat illegal logging.

The concessions are estimated to be granted from April according to a series of requirements where the technical and financial solvency of the applicants will be taken into account.

Another axis of the plan will seek to curb migratory agriculture, causing 95% of deforestation in Peru and practiced by some 125,000 families occupying about 1.3 million hectares. For this, Serfor needs the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) to approve an investment program of 426 million soles (USD 127 million) agreed with the German bank KfW.

"These resources will allow the launching of projects that generate conditions to attract private investment in timber resources, in the development of forest plantations in natural forests in a sustainable way, as well as in zoning," said Alberto Gonzales-Zúñiga, director of Serfor.

According to Serfor, 40% of the wood produced by the country is of illegal origin, although other state institutions such as the Forest Resources Supervision Agency (Osinfor) point out that this figure is higher and reaches 66%.

Deforestation in Peru reached 154,766 hectares in 2018 and since 2001 it has lost about 2.3 million hectares due to different causes such as migratory agriculture, illegal logging, illegal mining and drug trafficking.

With an area of 68.5 million hectares, the tropical forest of Peru is the fourth largest in the world and one of the regions with the greatest biodiversity on the planet, which can also play a decisive role in the fight against climate change.