Ecosystem Services Remuneration Law N° 30215

• The document approves the Regulation of Law No. 30215, which pertains to the Mechanisms of Remuneration for Ecosystem Services.
• This regulation is established via Supreme Decree N° 009-2016-MINAM.

Constitutional and Legal Basis

• Article 67 of Peru's Political Constitution tasks the State with determining the National Environmental Policy and promoting the sustainable use of natural resources.
• Article 94 of Law N° 28611, the General Environmental Law, recognizes that natural resources and environmental components maintain ecosystem conditions and generate benefits without compensation.
• The State is responsible for establishing mechanisms to value, remunerate, and maintain these environmental services, conserve ecosystems, biodiversity, and other natural resources.
• Legislative Decree N° 1013 created the Ministry of Environment to design, establish, execute, and supervise national and sectorial environmental policy.

Role of the Ministry of Environment

• The Ministry of Environment, through the Vice-Ministry of Strategic Development of Natural Resources, sets up mechanisms to value, remunerate, and sustain environmental service provision.
• Article 12 of Law N° 30215 designates the Ministry as the governing body for environmental services, responsible for designing, regulating, and promoting policies, norms, and procedures for developing, implementing, and supervising remuneration mechanisms for ecosystem services.

Regulatory Framework

• The Supreme Decree approves the Regulation of Law N° 30215, which is attached as an Annex to the decree.
• The Supreme Decree takes effect the day after its publication in the official journal "El Peruano".

Purpose of the Regulation

• The regulation aims to promote, regulate, and supervise the design and implementation of Mechanisms of Remuneration for Ecosystem Services (MRSE).
• MRSEs are derived from voluntary agreements that establish actions for conservation, recovery, and sustainable use to ensure the permanence of ecosystems.

Scope of Application

• The regulation applies to all natural or legal persons, both public and private, that promote, design, and/or implement MRSEs.

Key Definitions

• Agreement of MRSE: A manifestation of will between contributor and recharger where the contributor agrees to conservation, recovery, and sustainable use, and the recharger agrees to recognize these actions economically.
• Ecosystem established by human intervention: An ecosystem created by human intervention, developed from minimal ecological conditions.
• Ecosystem recovered by human intervention: A degraded, damaged, or destroyed ecosystem that begins or accelerates its recovery of integrity and functionality through determined human actions.
• Financing strategy: The best alternative to obtain resources to finance the remuneration, under a financial arrangement, and conditions of the delivery to the contributor.
• Functionality of the ecosystem: A dynamic and interrelated process between ecological communities, their space, and humans in which different components, cycles, and flows of matter, energy, and information are linked to guarantee ecosystem integrity.
• Forestry Clean Development Mechanism (MDL): A voluntary mechanism within the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (CMNUCC) and the Kyoto Protocol for forest ecosystems created by human intervention.
• REDD+: A policy approach to reduce emissions from deforestation, forest degradation, conservation of carbon reserves and sustainable forest management.

Functions of the Ministry of Environment

• The Ministry is the governing body of the environmental sector, encompassing ecosystem services, and exercises this role through functions such as:
  • Designing, regulating, and promoting policies, norms, and procedures for MRSE development and implementation.
  • Providing technical assistance in MRSE design and implementation.
  • Promoting the participation of individuals or corporations in the MRSE design and implementation process.
  • Promoting the formation of Good Governance Platforms for MRSE.
  • Strengthening the capacities of regional and local governments for MRSE implementation.
  • Administering the Single Registry of MRSE, including the administrative processes for registering MRSE agreements.
• Supervising actions established in MRSE agreements registered in the Single Registry.
• The Ministry of Environment coordinates with national, regional, and local government entities to develop these functions, acting within the law.

Retribution Mechanisms

• MRSEs are schemes, tools, instruments, and incentives used to generate, channel, transfer, and invest economic, financial, and non-financial resources.
• An agreement is established between contributor(s) and retributor(s) to conserve and sustainably use ecosystem services.
• MRSEs can be designed based on one or more ecosystem services.

Ecosystem Services

• Ecosystem services are all direct and indirect economic, social, and environmental benefits that people obtain from well-functioning ecosystems.

Examples of Ecosystem Services that can form part of and MRSE

• Hydrological regulation.
• Biodiversity maintenance.
• Carbon sequestration and storage.
• Scenic beauty.
• Soil erosion control.
• Provision of genetic resources.
• Air quality regulation.
• Climate regulation.
• Pollination.
• Regulation of natural hazards.
• Recreation and ecotourism.
• Nutrient cycle.
• Soil formation.
• Ecosystem services can be generated in natural, recovered, or human-established ecosystems.

Contributors and Retributors

Contributors

• Natural or legal persons, public or private, who contribute to the conservation, recovery, and sustainable use of ecosystem service sources.
• E.g. landowners, titleholders of land use, the SERNANP, holders of administration contracts of protected areas, Peasant and Native Communities, regional governments, local governments, etc.

Retributors

• Natural or legal persons, public or private, who obtain an economic, social, or environmental benefit.
• They provide retribution to contributors for the ecosystem service

Obligations

• Actions of contributors and retributors do not exempt them from fulfilling obligations in environmental regulations or those stemming from administrative and penal sanctions, abiding to Law N° 30215, Article 8.

Actions of the Contributors

• Conservation of natural spaces.
• Recovery of deteriorated spaces or spaces that have suffered environmental degradation.
• Sustainable use of the sources of ecosystem services.
• Traditional practices of conservation and sustainable use of ecosystems.

Retribution Value

Determination

• The economic value of ecosystem services, based on the National Guide for Economic Valuation of Natural Heritage.
• The costs incurred by contributors for the actions described in Article 8.
• Other considerations agreed upon by the parties.

Modalities

• Financing of specific actions, direct and indirect, for the conservation, recovery, and sustainable use of ecosystem service sources.
• Financing actions for sustainable productive development and basic infrastructure, directly benefiting the involved population.
• Other modalities freely agreed upon by the parties.

Financing Strategy

• The modalities consider the financing strategy adopted.
• They are adopted with an intercultural, equitable, and gender-focused approach, considering the cultural, geographical, ecological, and socio-political diversity of each region.
• Private retributors can establish common funds. Public resources are managed according to budget, expenditure, and public investment norms.

Voluntary Agreement

• Contributors and retributors voluntarily bind themselves through an agreement.

Content

• Location and description of the ecosystem area where the MRSE is implemented.
• Identification of ecosystem services, encompassing the expected social, environmental, and economic benefits.
• Economic recognition to contributors and modalities of retribution.
• Strategy for financing.
• Specific actions for monitoring compliance with the agreement.

Dispute Resolution

• Rights, obligations, and/or controversies are governed by the dispositions in the referenced agreements and the applicable legal regulations.

Good Governance Platform

• The platform is a space for dialogue and agreement involving public and private entities.
• The entities monitor compliance with agreements and supervise transparency in retribution, under the established financing strategy.

Functions

• Those participating in the platform may invite individuals or entities to provide advice on MRSE management and support the fulfillment of its objectives.
• The Ministry of Environment provides technical assistance for establishing and operating good governance platforms and utilizing governance structures; if it doesn't the public entities participating in the platform acting within their respective domains.

MRSE by Public Organizations

• Public entities can participate in a MRSE within their competencies.
• Public investment projects aiming to implement actions for the conservation, recovery and sustainability of ecosystem services may be subject to retribution.
• Public entities, can carry out the return to environmental contributors, through financing investment projects.

Role of Regional and Local Governments

• Regional and local governments promote and facilitate the implementation of MRSE.
• They participate in the MRSEs and the good governance plans.
• The Ministry of Environment acknowledges regional and local entities that develop successful MRSE experiences.
• They also comply and implement the guidelines and procedures that are developed by the Ministry of Environment to design and implement MRSEs.

Protected Natural Areas

• The MRSEs generates and improves ecological services within the national administration and reserve zone, contributing to the financial stability of those areas.
• The MRSEs align with the master plan and will develop in agreement with the guidelines and procedures developed by the Ministry of Environment.

Promotion of Investigation in Environmental Sustanability

• The Ministry of Environment promotes different types of agreements with educational, scientific, and governmental institutions.
• The different agreement helps encourage investment and promotion of scientific and technological development in the country.

Single Registry of Mechanisms of Remuneration for Ecosystem Services

• The registration is of a declarative nature and is made up of sub-registries according to the details described in Article 6 of this law.
• The Ministry of Environment evaluates and approves the registration.

Validation

• It validates the existence of the MRSE, indicating that it generates, maintains, improves, or increases the distribution of environmental service.
• The information is used to complement the database regarding the environment.

Single registry inscription procedure

• The inscription, which will be previously evaluated, consist of the following steps:
  • Presentation of application form.
  • Revision of the provided documentation, including the formulation of observed statements.
  • Presentation of a fix to those observed statements and revision.
  • Inscription form.

Requirements

• The contributors and retributors must present the application form and an additional information:
  • Geo referenced map of the ecosystem.
  • A document that describes funcionality of the ecosystem.
  • Legalized copy of the agreement.

Additional Requirements

• If one part correspond or is related to and Indigenous community, they must present an act from the General Assembly to establish a conformity with the registry.
• The Ministry of Environment can establish requirements according to the ecosystems.

Deadlines

• Once they receive the application form, the Ministry of Environment will have fifteen (15) business day to formulate their observed statements.
• Once they receive the subsanations, the Ministry of Environment will have fifteen (15) business day.

Fortuitous Event

• If a partial, total, temporal, or definitive event occurs and generates an affectation of actions related to the Registry, members of both sides must inform the Ministry of Environment.
• If a solution to the issues isn't found, the Ministry of Environment will proceed to require the members to modify the agreement, or otherwise cancel the inscription of the registry.

Registry Modification

• If there is any modification regarding the registered agreement, members are obligated to ask for a change in the registration form within a period of no more than forty (40) business days.
• According to the change, deadlines established in Article 19 will apply.

Inscription Cancelation

• The inscription will be canceled because of causes due to a member of either side, if they incur in one of the following causes:

  • If actions regarding the environment are no longer performed.
  • If members provide false information to the registry.
  • If members do not fulfil a request to change the information.

• The inscription will cancel if causes do not impute the work of a member of either side, or there's an impossibility to continue performing actions and procedures needed for the registry.

Registration Benefits

• Contributors and retributors that are part of the Single Registry will have access to the following benefits:
  • Environment compliance.
  • Ministry of Environment promotion.
  • Specialized technical assistance.
  • Publication of achievements.

Ecosystem Information Sharing

• The Ministry of Environment shares information about the registry in the National System of Environmental Information (SINIA).
• The Ministry will make an annual report of the MRSE, which is contained in the agreement in the registry to improve the management of the ecosystems.

Supervisions

• the Ministry of Environment will monitor the process of the registration to make a right implementation to protect the eco system.

Sanctions

• if one of the actions doesn't comply with the requirements, the Ministry of the Environment is in the obligation to proceed against those who will not comply.

Title IV: Retribution Mechanisms

Chapter I: Regulation

• Article 26: regulation of the ecosystem in areas such as water, and other energy resources.

Chapter II: Companies

• Article 27: sanitation companies are retributors for the ecosystems, regarding services of improvement and sanitation.

Water Investments

• Article 28: operator companies will invest in any water improvement actions, may subscribe agreements with the contributors and promote ecological regulation.
• The MRSE for carbon, are all actions developed to maintain/generate the C02 on the planet.
• The MRSE are related to the forests, wetlands and the vegetation.