Saving Sachamama Through BioTrade: Peru’s Export of Native Biodiversity-Based Products

Abstract

Two decades ago, the Peruvian government introduced the National BioTrade Promotion Program to support the production and export of agricultural commodities that comply with UNCTAD’s principles and criteria for BioTrade. This article takes stock of some of the program’s achievements over the past 20 years and discusses the challenges that remain to scaling up biodiversity-friendly approaches to agriculture in Peru. We find that the rapid increase in export during the first ten years of the program, which drove the initial optimism about BioTrade’s potential for economic development and biodiversity conservation, has given way to a more cautious assessment as the second decade has seen the expansion of markets for Peruvian biodiversity-based products slow down considerably.