The Platform of Services (PS) for biocommerce is, like its name indicates, an innovated set of services, promoted by BIODAMAZ, which will be offered gradually since October 2005, for the improvement of the managerial situation in the Peruvian Amazon, looking for the development of biotrade and biocommerce.

With this facility, a person that is interested, for example, on initiating a business using biodiversity resources of the Amazon guided by the concepts of sustainable use, and wishes to know what steps and procedures he needs to do, or what national legislation (or international) is important for the theme, or to who could he call to receive some special line of finance, etc. will have the opportunity to access to that information via Internet.

The PS will have SIAMAZONIA (Information System of the Biological Diversity and Ecosystem of the Peruvian Amazon) as “support”, at first it will offer informative type of services, but with time its users attention services will increase incorporating the “helpdesk”, to which you could have access by different communication means as the telephone or e-mail and later, the denominated “kiosko”, that provides personal assistance those who search for specific help for their initiatives about biotrade and biocommerce.

This service, that is not very common in Latin America and even less common in Peru, will be the first in its type that will be offered in the Peruvian Amazon, and its being built in an Internet background with high quality information, consolidated on themes presented with a high level of clarity. In the same way, it will be linked with other information services of the Amazonia and will be implemented with personnel trained in information handling and in personal services.

At the beginning, the PS will provide information related to four productive lines representatives of four Amazon regions: ornamental fish in Loreto, orchids in San Martin, wood with added value in Ucayali and organic Brazilian nuts in Madre de Dios. Later it will be added more lines of uses or biological diversity resources.

The PS is being promoted with the purpose of fulfilling the mandate of the Regional Strategy of the Amazon Biological Diversity ERDBA and the National Strategy of the Biological Diversity – ENDB.

In this context, the work had been carried on in cooperation with the regional amazon governments, ONG’s, biobusiness persons, CONAM and Amazon universities, which final goal is to contribute to the conservation and sustainable use of the biological diversity en the Peruvian Amazon.

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By mid July the results of the design of the socioeconomic component for the Ecological – Economical Macro Zoning of the Peruvian Amazon, were presented, the project BIODAMAZ is promoting it since 2004. The socio-economic knowledge systematized and incremented has as an objective to provide information to the decision makers (central government, regional governments, local governments, investors, social actors, scientific community) about the environmental and socioeconomic reality of the Amazon, specially about the opportunities of territorial ordering and management of natural resources. Just like the environmental values sustain it’s self on diverse thematic studies (and maps) resulting on a map of environmental zoning, the socioeconomic values must sustain it’s self on diverse thematic studies (and maps) resulting on a map of socioeconomic zoning.

The methodology proposed by the Organization of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty OTCA for the ZEE, suggests to take into account the following socioeconomic variables: In social aspects: population; quality of life; equipment for basic services including health, education, recreation, culture, commerce, public well-being,. In economic aspects: type of economic activity and territorial equipment for marketing and trade; actual use of the territory: land uses types; type of land ownership, type of ownership and areas under special regimen, protected areas, etc. These variables have been taken into account and some others were added for better approach to the Amazon reality, using available actual data as much as possible.

We call up the attention about some of the presented results: in first place, the limit of the Amazon with ecological criterion, which separates the Amazon from the rest of the national territory, indicates that this last one compromises 61% of the national surface. Just as the graphic annexed, which is a result of the studies, indicates that five departments surfaces are entirely in the Amazon (Amazonas, Loreto, Madre de Dios, San Martin and Ucayali), including forty provinces and 233 districts. But juts like that, it also indicates that forty-one provinces and 154 districts are partially in the Amazon, and those provinces and districts are part of the departments of Cajamarca, Huanuco, Pasco, Junin, Ayacucho, Cusco, Puno and also Piura and La Libertad. In other words, the Amazon takes over more departments, provinces and districts than what one could imagine.

There are also graphics that report data about population and populated centers, urban and rural, (this last national census 2005 must confirm the realized projections); graphics about the distribution of big sociocultural conglomerates (indigenous, river people and colonists); of productive economic fronts (agriculture, cities); extractive (wood, minerals and hydrocarbons); of conservation (protected areas and territories of indigenous people) and other graphics that BIODAMAZ has available for the incumbent persons.

These results have been obtained based on data available from other studies of ZEE realized in the Peruvian Amazon that have contributed antecedents at a level of variables and used indicators. However, we have to remark that an added value of the actual socioeconomic zoning of the Peruvian Amazon is the increased use of multiple social and economical variables to characterize the reality, just like contributions and innovations in the used methodology, each time that an specific methodology was not available to allow the determination of which socioeconomic variables must be considered in this type of study and how to put them in thematic maps.

The socioeconomic zoning of the Peruvian Amazon is a contribution to the big challenges that we confront over territorial management in the region. The produced information also indicates the big potential that the ecological economical zoning could offer to guide the formulation of development policy. Other institutions support this initiative, IIAP as the leader, regional governments, INRENA, CONAM, INGEMMET, amazon universities, among others.

 

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We must emphasize that the communities are working more than half a year in the management of these resources, for them are the most important economically and socially for them. To facilitate the application and adoption by the community of these adaptive management plans, the Project has systematized the experience and the measures applied in a document of easy reading that soon will be distributed among people of the community in the form of a manual.

In another hand, to formalize the harvesting of these important resources before INRENA, in concordance to what is established in the Master Plan of the RNAM, the Project has also elaborated the paper work in order to obtain the permits to harvest irapay and poles from varillales considering those as “minor activities”, because of being eventually harvested and in small quantities by the community to generate income for basic needs. The paper work is already complete and filed to the Headquarter of the RNAM for approval. Paper work has also been elaborated, with the Community of Anguilla; to request authorization for the use of seedlings with purposes of reforestation and to sale the remaining seedling for the Project’s component of forest management (Component 2) that is taking place in San Miguel, a community close to Iquitos City.

After a year of work in the RNAM, we can affirm that community management of natural resources is a viable alternative for conservation of biological diversity and for the development in the Amazon, and through the recovery of traditional technologies, the introduction of innovations carefully adapted to the local reality of each zone, the empowerment of the local organization structures and the constant attendance by professionals very well capacitated and motivated, the management of natural resource can be significantly improved and, by this, promote local development and conservation.

 

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The BIODAMAZ Project, through the Component 2 “Methods, guidelines and rentable alternatives for the sustainable use of biological diversity resources in the low lands of the amazon” is developing an alternative of management for the biological diversity of the flooded ecosystems, to complement the agrarian use of the land made by the rural population. The idea is not to change their activities, but to strength them, including other productive activities which benefits are for the short, medium and long term.

For that purpose BIODAMAZ has selected a representative area of the flooded ecosystems of the Peruvian low land, located between the villages named Once de Noviembre and Dos de Mayo on the banks of the Amazonas River, approximately at a distance of 10 km. from the city of Iquitos. In this zone, denominated Pilot Area, population is of approximately 1600 people grouped in 9 villages, their main productive activity is the short term agriculture (greens, vegetables, yucca, banana and papaw).

The novelty of the offer is the ecosystemic focus, with deals with three objectives:

1. The sustainable use of its components.
2. The conservation of biological diversity.
3. The fair and equitable participation of the population in the benefits derived from the use of the biodiversity resources.

To achieve these objectives it is necessary to have in mind: the ecosystemic focus ins integrative, restate the forms that traditionally resource management was conceived, adopt a long term vision, includes the people and maintain the productive potential of the unities.

The villages where work is taking place are: Once de Noviembre, Cañaveral, Canta Gallo and Mazanillo. In those villages by means of community workshops, the priority activities were identified: to enrich their plots with forest species such as the capirona, cedar and mahogany, among others; and the management of fishes that are consumed by people lakes and ponds that are in process of heaping up. An important aspect is the productive capacities of the soil and diversity of the resources which have the floodede ecosystems that during decades have maintained the forest industry in the Amazon and the seasonal production of rice.

From the ecological point of view, the flooded ecosystems have an important roll: concentrate the mayor part of the population and the agroforestry production; they contribute to the conservation of the basin, of the quality of the water and the diversity of habitats that have temporally migratory austral and boreal birds.

During the flood the fish invade the forests searching for food, shelter and places for the egg putting, while in the unflood offers the same, but to the terrestrial animals, turning this in a trade between the firm soil and the aquatic ecosystems.

“It will be the first time that in the Peruvian Amazon, ecosystemic management or more than one isolated natural resource will took place with aims of profits...”.

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The strengthening of the organizations and institutions is needed because these have to face the challenge that the changes in the social frame are putting to them. In this way, from BIODAMAZ perspective, we conceive the strengthening as an intentioned and committed process in which relationships are build to achieve a clear identity and position to face reality, as well as the decision to have an impact on reality.

It is also very need that the bonding are strengthen with a very precise organizative strategy, in which the leadership, the conflicts, the planning, the evaluation and monitoring of the goals are aimed to the good use of the resources in the best possible way. We all know that were organization lacks, resources, efforts and even money are wasted. The strengthening of the organizations and institutions mean the development of capacities, visions, abilities and attitudes to improve the quality of the organization and the fulfilling of their goals. Having in mind these basic principles, the process was oriented to define and to implement strategies to capacitate, to advice and to technically assist, to strength the local management of 22 communal organizations and for intercommunal organizations for the management of the natural resources and to obtain the property rights of the communal lands in the area of work of the Project BIODAMAZ, Component 3, (National Reserve Allpahuayo Mishana RNAM and the Botanic Garden Arboretum El Huayo - JBAH).

Actually the work that we are jointly executing with organizations and institutions linked to the RNAM and JBAH and with the communities is being conducted developed in four proposed lines: resources management, productive alternatives, environmental education and organizations strengthening, for each one of them are available well defined strategies that will lead to achieve favorable results for the local population, the organized representative institutions, the community participation, and leaders and authorities representativeness. This must lead to the improvement of the management and the empowerment of communities; those are previous steps in order to provide more precise answers to other forms of organizations, like the one linked to the market.

To consolidate the organizations to secure their permanence in time and provide answer to the problems from their own context is the central objective of BIODAMAZ. In this way, the strengthening of the organizations are conducted accordingly with the plan of work, and the realization of activities. Sometimes, there are fast improvements, as well as delays, because of the level of understanding of a population that is only educated at the level of elementary school.

Strengthening of the regional environmental management

We wish that at the end of the year we can have available 5 important management documents, which will contribute enormously to the realization of priority actions of technical, political, legal and economic perspective, that are specific for each region and developed by the same regions. These actions are also being strengthened at the institutional level by the Regional Technical Groups of Biological Diversity, those groups comprises important institutions that work with biological diversity, and are responsible of achieving this process and to review the offers.

All this process that was initiated in 2004, in despite of political inconvenience in some regions, and was supported by the interest of the population. By now it is being facilitated by the Project BIODAMAZ, in coordination with the Managers of Natural Resources and Management of Environment of the Regional Governments, the Executive Regional Secretaries of the CONAM, the Regional Environmental Commissions, and with the participation of the Amazon Universities, the INRENA, the environmental ONG’s, the social organizations, indigenous communities, between other.

An important part of this result is the support with information technologies through the Information System for the Biological and Environmental Diversity of the Peruvian Amazon SIAMAZONIA, by which, in a virtual way, by Internet the advances of the process are informed, just like the results of the workshops and the presentation of them, which makes possible that this information reaches to everyone at every time.

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