Conservation for Peace 1st Quarterly Progress Report

The project focuses on strengthening environmental governance mechanisms and institutionalizing dialogue spaces to improve natural resources management strategies and enhance participation and conflict mitigation processes. The RAC ANPCH is characterized by a diverse and unique ecosystem, rich in natural resources. However, the existence of legal loopholes and the lack of spaces for dialogue and clear and participatory decision-making mechanisms facilitates the rise of conflicts over the use of natural resources, impacting the management of such resources and the quality of life of local communities. SPDA will achieve its goal by implementing a strategy that focuses on two levels of intervention: at the local level with communities, the RAC ANPCH Management Commission, and other conflict stakeholders, and at the regional level with the Loreto Regional Government's directorates responsible for managing socio-environmental conflicts and relevant civil society organizations. The project's implementation strategy seeks to achieve four results. The first result focuses on generating information on environmental conflicts related to the RAC ANPCH and the situation of local and regional capabilities for managing them. The second and third results aim to strengthen the capacities of local actors and regional authorities to prevent, analyze, and transform conflicts related to natural resources management within the RAC. The fourth result addresses specific relational, communicational, and cultural factors behind the conflicts to be prioritized. During the first quarter of the project, SPDA met with authorities at different government levels, civil society institutions, and relevant local stakeholders to gather valuable information about the situation of prevention and management of environmental conflicts in Loreto and the RAC ANPCH. The team also met with communal authorities of the four prioritized communities and the Alto Nanay's District Municipality to socialize the project objectives and gather preliminary information on the main environmental conflicts and dynamics between the various actors. The methodology and information gathering tools for the socio-environmental conflicts baseline were developed during this quarter. The process took into account the information collected during the first visit to the prioritized communities, when data about access facilities, existing infrastructure, population density, educational level of its inhabitants, social dynamics, among other key aspects for logistics and methodological development of the baseline was collected. SPDA participated in the meeting held on November 15, 2014, for approval of the area's Master Plan, allowing the collection of information about the rules in place for use of natural resources within the area and socialization of the project's objectives among the committee's members. The visit in December to the area of influence of RAC ANPCH enabled the collection of useful preliminary information on the roles and skills of local people to manage conflicts, resulting in a better design of the methodology and information gathering tools for developing training plans of the RAC ANPCH's Management Committee and the "peace agents". In the context of the recent creation of the Regional Office for Dialogue, Prevention, and Management of Social Conflicts, SPDA held a series of meetings with officials of various Loreto's Regional Government offices to strengthen cooperation and include the prevention and management of conflicts among the issues on which technical support is provided under the interagency cooperation agreement. The document "Preliminary legal diagnosis of mechanisms and instruments for managing environmental conflicts in Loreto" was prepared, analyzing the competences of the various national and regional authorities related to the prevention and management of environmental conflicts in the region. The prioritization of conflicts to be addressed through the proposed activities will be based on the findings of the conflict assessment to be developed under result 1. Strategic alliances with key stakeholders to achieve the expected results were generated, and the methodology and information gathering instruments for the development of the socio-environmental conflicts baseline and training plans are in place. However, the electoral context meant a change in the political agenda of the region during the last quarter of 2014, hampering coordination with authorities, who prioritized preparing for the transfer of functions to the new authorities.