The Indigenous Peoples' Platform to address Climate Change in Peru, supported by EUROCLIMA+, aims to revalue indigenous knowledge (IK) based on ancestral knowledge and practices that contribute to their country's actions in confronting climate change, while respecting their livelihoods.

The indigenous peoples of Peru have a space that manages, articulates, disseminates and monitors the proposals for adaptation and mitigation measures of indigenous or native peoples in confronting climate change, valuing their traditional and ancestral knowledge, practices and wisdom.

The Indigenous Peoples’ Platform to Confront Climate Change (PPICC) of Peru, was born out of a request from the organisations representing the country's indigenous peoples in the process of prior consultation of the Regulation of the Framework Law on Climate Change.

“We proposed the creation of the platform because public policies have to come from the countryside to the city. From our own lives, our own feelings, from our culture, biodiversity, because we women are guardians of the earth and Pachamama"
Aurora Coronado, alternate member of the platform and member of the National Federation of Rural Farmer, Artisan, Indigenous, Native and Salaried Women of Peru (FENMUCARINAP).

This space began with the creation of its driving group on 22 December 2019, which had among its tasks to define the functions of the platform and its articulation with other spaces, as well as to draw up a roadmap for its implementation and operations.  However, after holding four face-to-face sessions, the work of the driving group was interrupted due to the state of national emergency decreed for Covid-19. As a result, the following sessions had to be held virtually, which posed a challenge for the representatives of the indigenous organisations.

In this regard, Aurora says that the process of adapting to virtuality was complicated, as many indigenous women were not familiar with videoconferencing tools, and this was compounded by poor internet connections in rural areas.

"Some of us had to climb to higher places to get the signal. It has been a difficult process but not impossible, because I believe that when we women make up our minds and want something, we want to be part of it too. This is how we have continued to contribute.”

In this way, the steering group carried out its functions until July 2020, holding 14 sessions in total, both face-to-face and virtual. As a result of these sessions, the steering group drew up the platform's roadmap, which contains four prioritised topics: strengthening the management of the PPICC, implementing measures on climate change management, communicating and disseminating its proposals, and strengthening the financing mechanisms for its operation.

Setting up and working on climate change management processes

The PPICC was established by Ministerial Resolution No. 197-2020-MINAM, which approved its composition and functions. The platform is made up of two representatives from each of the seven national organisations representing indigenous and native peoples of Peru, two representatives from the Peruvian Ministry of Environment and two representatives from the Peruvian Ministry of Culture.

The seven indigenous peoples’ organisations are:

• Asociación Interétnica de Desarrollo de la Selva Peruana - Inter-Ethnic Association for the Development of the Peruvian Jungle (AIDESEP)
• Confederación Campesina del Perú – Rural Farmer Confederation of Peru (CCP)
• Confederación Nacional Agraria - National Agrarian Confederation (CNA)
• Confederación de Nacionalidades Amazónicas del Perú - Confederation of Amazonian Nationalities of Peru (CONAP)
• Federación Nacional de Mujeres Campesinas, Artesanas, Indígenas, Nativas y Asalariadas del Perú - National Federation of Rural Farmer, Artisan, Indigenous, Native and Wage-earning Women of Peru (FENMUCARINAP)
• Organización Nacional de Mujeres Andinas y Amazónicas del Perú - National Organisation of Andean and Amazonian Women of Peru (ONAMIAP)
• Unión Nacional de Comunidades Aymaras - National Union of Aymara Communities (UNCA)

The platform, since the creation of its driving group, has been participating in climate change management processes carried out by the Peruvian Ministry of Environment.

During 2020, the indigenous peoples of Peru, through the PPICC, participated in the methodological and participatory process of socialisation of the National Adaptation Plan, in the process of developing guidelines for the identification and classification of REDD+ actions, and the development of the inventory of Adaptation and Mitigation measures.

And in 2021, the PPICC is ensuring the participation and input of indigenous peoples in the process of updating the National Climate Change Strategy to 2050, as well as the proposed procedure for the National Registry of Mitigation Measures.

In this regard, Aurora stresses the importance of indigenous women's participation in these processes.

"We have always been guardians of the land, guardians of the seed, because we are like the land, because the land produces, and we women also produce”.

She therefore hopes that the platform will consolidate its work and strengthen the capacity of indigenous women in confronting climate change. "We want to have a different perspective in the future, a perspective of conservation, and for Peru to be a reserve of water and biodiversity for the conservation of the planet," she emphasised.

EUROCLIMA+ is a programme funded by the European Union to promote environmentally sustainable development, specifically fostering mitigation, resilience and climate investment in Latin America, meeting the targets set in the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) in coherence with the Paris Agreement (PA) and UNFCCC decisions. Among them, of relevant importance, the decisions reached in relation to the establishment of a Platform of Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples for the exchange of experiences and best practices on mitigation and adaptation in a holistic and integrated manner, (Decision 1/CP.21).

EUROCLIMA+ works in 18 Latin American countries, particularly for the benefit of the most vulnerable populations. The Programme is implemented under the synergistic work of seven agencies: the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID), the French Development Agency (AFD), the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ), Expertise France (EF), the International and Ibero-America Foundation for Administration and Public Policy (FIIAPP), and UN Environment.

The International and Ibero-America Foundation for Administration and Public Policy (FIIAPP), has supported the constitution, development and installation of the Indigenous Peoples' Platform for Climate Change (PPICC) in Peru. This work is being carried out under Action Line 6: Gender and Vulnerable Groups. This work is the result of a process of accompaniment since 2019 by FIIAPP to the Ministry of Environment (MINAM of Peru), enforcing the conclusions obtained through the participatory process of Prior Consultation of the Regulations of the Framework Law on Climate Change, which indicated the need to create a National Indigenous Climate Platform uniting for the first time the 7 Indigenous Organisations (OOII) formally recognised in Peru, breaking cultural, generational and gender barriers and uniting for a common interest: confronting the impacts of climate change.