Milagros Salazar

Legislative decree 1090, which modifies Peru’s forest policy, is worrying US trade authorities because it contravenes environmental clauses of the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) that is to enter force between the two countries in January 2009. The decree, which in June amended the Forestry and Wildlife Act, leaves 45 million hectares — or 60 per cent of Peru’s jungles — out of the Forestry Heritage protection system — a step that runs counter to the FTA forestry annex.

That was one of the 10 observations made by the Office of the US Trade Representative, Susan Schwab, in a meeting with delegates of the Peruvian government earlier this month in Washington, according to Sandro Chávez, president of the non-governmental Ecological Forum. It was a point of concern particularly for US authorities, Chávez said, as was the elimination of the National Forestry Commission, which ensured citizen participation in forest management and was stipulated in the unmodified version of the law. At the meeting, the US delegates stated that in order to implement the free trade agreement, a public consultation mechanism for forest issues was essential, he said.

Decree 1090 is one of the 99 adopted by the executive branch under special legislative powers granted it by Congress for the implementation of the FTA. The 10 observations voiced by the Office of the US Trade Representative were based on challenges from the Ecological Forum, Chávez said. Sources with the US Embassy in Peru said that the Peruvian government sent a letter on Oct. 20 responding to the concerns of the US Trade Representative. But the content of the letter was confidential, they said. Peru’s Foreign Trade Minister Mercedes Aráoz assured that it is a matter of “conversations that we need to polish” as part of the implementation of the trade agreement.

Another aspect that worries environmentalists is that the decree opens the possibility that illegally cut timber that is seized could be sold and legalised. The ombudsman’s office warns that Article 41 of the decree “would permit the legalisation of timber of controversial origin, which could be an incentive for illicit activities.” Chávez said that as of 2009, timber trafficking will be blocked by the United States because of a rule adopted by that country that will require

certificates of origin for all imported lumber products.

Of the 99 decrees approved for the implementation of the FTA, 25 involve agriculture and most are aimed at boosting corporate investment, activist Laureano del Castillo, of the Peruvian Centre for Social Studies, said. “Here they are promoting corporate interests over those of local communities or small farmers,” he said. Another decree, 1064, which overturned the Land Law, fails to closely regulate zoning rules that define agricultural lands and eliminates the requirement to obtain prior agreement from local communities and farmers before launching mining or oil drilling projects.

“The US observations are proof that things have been poorly done,” sociologist Alejandra Alayza, coordinator of the Peruvian Network for Equitable Globalisation, said.

But “the mechanism for implementing the FTA itself paves the way for overturning and modifying those decrees that affect local communities and environmental management,” she said.