Mainstreaming biodiversity into local coastal development: Key findings for the Paracas Bay Area, Peru

This policy brief summarizes the key findings from our study: “Biodiversitymainstreaming into decision-making processes within the Paracas Bay Area (Peru)”. It highlights the existing opportunities and critical information gaps for sustainable development in the area. This project was carried out by the following partners: Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, Heriot-Watt University and Planeta Oceano, thanks to the funding provided by the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) from the Scottish Funding Council to Heriot-Watt University. The project chose the Paracas Bay Area (PBA) as a case-study due to its relevance as an ecologically and culturally rich site for coastal Peru, and because it is an expanding urban setting where multiple key economic activities overlap. Despite the importance of nature and biodiversity in Paracas, there is an ongoing lack of biodiversity mainstreaming into the multiple decisions taken by the local, regional and national authorities, jeopardizing local sustainability. Hence, we believe this study provides critical insights into why and how to mainstream biodiversity within the Paracas Bay Area in an effective way. The main findings presented here are divided into four dimensions: legal, institutional, social and information availability. We selected these dimensions based on (1) the literature review by Karlsson-Vinkhuyzen et al (2017)1, (2) the draft on the Action Plan for Biodiversity Mainstreaming by the CBD (2020) and(3) the adaptation of such information to the context of the case study by there searchers. It is worth noting that the criteria were subsequently validated by15 experts external to the project.