Anti-environmentalism in Peru (II)

In a previous article we pointed out how the business sector opposed the ratification of the Escazú Agreement. And for a few months a new campaign has been started, this time to weaken environmental institutions and develop hydrocarbon activities in protected areas, among other proposals that put our natural heritage at risk. A narrative that -we hope- the Executive and Legislature have not yet bought because it is not efficient to make legal changes just to attract investment.

The prevailing discourse offers to get out of the economic crisis, take advantage of the resources we have, reduce the delays in approval of environmental impact studies to attract or expand investments that could mean short-term benefits. For this, extractive activities are proposed in national parks such as Sierra del Divisor, Manu, Bahuaja Sonene, and other biodiverse and vulnerable areas, which are the last barriers that stop the advance of illegal activities; and with it, the deforestation and degradation of the Amazon forests.

Attempts like this to weaken institutions or affect natural heritage have occurred in the last 20 years. The Law of the Jungle (2008) and the Law of Environmental Packages (2013 and 2014) are some of the situations in which environmental regulation was weakened and brought consequences.

The business sector has yet to demonstrate how environmental institutions supposedly impede investments; how their proposals will attract more investment if they materialize, and how they have evaluated in their analysis, the increase in conflicts, costs and delays that environmental management would be diluted, that hydrocarbons take precedence in any protected area, that the decisions of the authority in charge of these areas (SERNANP) depends on what the Ministry of Energy and Mines decides, or that citizen participation in environmental assessments disappears.

For example, environmental viability combines a technical evaluation of the projects, social legitimacy with citizen participation, and finally a political and legal decision by the administrative authority. If one of them ends up prevailing, especially receiving influences from the power of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, do not doubt that we will have more cases like the “Baguazo”, more mistrust and more problems to solve. The private sector should also test whether these possible changes are convenient for all Peruvians. After the Odebrecht and “Lavajato” scandals, no company has been audited and there has been no act of constraint to restore our confidence in the “doing business”.

Thinking only about short-term gains does not help to get out of the problem we are in. If we really want to think in the long term and promote investments, it is important to strengthen the administration and promote compliance with regulations, as well as hire and improve their work with available resources that allow them to approve quality environmental studies in less time. Taking resources away from them or eliminating them only increases the risk of further negative impacts. Let’s remember the recent pollution accidents on the Peruvian coast by Repsol, the historical oil spills in Loreto, the San Juan de Lurigancho floods, among other investment accidents that occur when adequate preventive studies are not carried out. If we want a modern country that is consistent with environmental protection, we must comply with our environmental commitments, such as those derived from the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between Peru and the United States (2006), climate financing agreements such as the DCI (2014) and those necessary to support Peru’s candidacy to the OECD.

Putting ourselves on the stage of weakening the State to prioritize our particular interests is an unacceptable risk. We must not deny that we need change. Peru needs to change and environmental management to improve. That is the debate that we must have and not the same business refrain against environmental law. It is as if they were still living in the times of global warming, in nineteenth-century times.

[CONTENIDO PATROCINADO]