7 December 2014: The Peruvian Environment Ministry, represented by Minister Manuel Pulgar-Vida, and the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), represented by Director-General Anthony Simons, have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for inter-institutional cooperation. The MoU: builds on existing collaboration between the two institutions on themes such as land-use planning for low-carbon development, and climate change adaptation and mitigation; and is expected to spur an intensification of work in such areas as the detection and rehabilitation of degraded land.

Pulgar-Vida said that Peru is focusing on sustainable forestry management, including rehabilitating already degraded landscapes, and that the landscape approach is the only way to deal with the drivers of deforestation. The MoU was signed on the sidelines of the UN Climate Change Conference in Lima, Peru.

ICRAF, which has been active in Peru since 1993, maintains a regional office for Latin America in Lima, and provides the base for a multidisciplinary group of scientists to work with partners there as well as in other countries and regions. [ICRAF Blog Post]