Assessing Peru’s Land Monitoring System Contributions towards Fulfilment of Its International Environmental Commitments

Land use change (LUC) is recognized as one of the major drivers of the global loss of biodiversity and represents a major threat to ecosystems. Deforestation through LUC is mainly driven by fire regimes, logging, farming (cropping and ranching), and illegal mining, which are closely linked with environmental management policies. Efficient land management strategies, however, require reliable and robust information. Land monitoring is one such approach that can provide critical information to coordinate policymaking at the global, regional, and local scales, and enable a programmed implementation of shared commitments under the Rio Conventions: the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), and Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Here we use Peru as a case study to evaluate how a land monitoring system enables environmental policy decisions which appear in the country’s international commitment reports. Specifically, we synthesize how effective the ongoing land monitoring system has been in responding to current and future environmental challenges; and how improvements in land monitoring can assist in the achievement of national commitments under the Rio Conventions. We find that Peruvian policies and commitments need to be improved to be consistent with the 1.5 °C temperature limit of the Paris agreement. Regarding the Aichi targets, Peru has achieved 17% land area with sustainable management; however, the funding deficit is a great challenge. Even though Peru commits to reducing GHG emissions by reducing LUC and improving agricultural and land use forestry practices, it needs policy improvements in relation to land tenure, governance, and equity. Potential explanations for the observed shortcomings include the fragmentation and duplication of government roles across sectors at both a national and regional scale.