International Cooperation

EPA Collaboration with Peru

The U.S.-Peru Trade Promotion Agreement (TPA) entered into force in February 2009. Recognizing that cooperation is the principal means for ensuring that trade and environmental policies are mutually supportive, the Parties also signed an Environmental Cooperation Agreement (ECA) to promote the best use of resources with the objective of sustainable development. The ECA establishes a framework to enhance bilateral and/or regional environmental cooperation.

Explore our work with Peru:

Highlights
Activities
- Environmental Governance
- Megacities
Past Activities
Agreements and Relevant Documents
Key Partners
Learn More About Peru

Highlights

March 2020: EPA Region 9 staff participated in a successful webinar with more than 20 representatives from Peru’s Agency for Environmental Assessment and Enforcement (Organismo de Evaluación y Fiscalización Ambiental- OEFA) Exitto discuss environmental impact and inspections reports for the Raura Mine in Peru. OEFA is the Peruvian entity responsible for enforcement of environmental laws and requested this exchange to improve their capacity in inspections and enforcement. During the webinar, OEFA staff made various presentations providing more context for the situation in the mine and following these presentations, and based on prior review of inspections documents for the mine, EPA staff provided recommendations for improvements in OEFA’s processes.

August 2019: A judge and two senior attorneys from EPA’s Environmental Appeals Board (EAB) presented a course concerning adjudication of environmental cases to an audience of approximately 30 participants from various Peruvian agencies with environmental responsibilities, including judges from the judicial branch. The workshop touched on areas such as: environmental principles, common tools, and administrative and judicial proceedings in the U.S., among others.

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Activities

Environmental Governance

EPA works with Peruvian Ministries and Agencies, such as the Agency for Environmental Assessment and Enforcement (Organismo de Evaluación y Fiscalización Ambiental- OEFA) Exit and the Ministry of Environment, Exitto strengthen environmental enforcement and compliance of environmental laws and regulations. Activities include:

Creating online training materials to support OEFA’s training web platform on environmental enforcement and compliance.
Coordinating and delivering a train-the-trainer program on environmental compliance inspections to strengthen OEFA’s training capabilities.
Collaborating with Peruvian inspectors in conducting an inspection of a regulated facility to add an “on-the-job” component to the inspection training program.
Designing and delivering a Public Participation workshop.
Delivering a workshop to Peruvian adjudicators and environmental officials to increase their capacity to adjudicate environmental cases.

Megacities Partnership for the Lima-Callao Region

In September 2019, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Peruvian Ministry of Environment (MINAM) launched the Megacities Partnership for the Lima-Callao region. The Megacities Partnership is designed to enhance, adapt and share climate and air quality management tools, to help improve air quality, protect the climate and provide important public health benefits.

Given the impact of the transportation sector on air quality in the Lima-Callao region and the suite of related policies considered by the Government of Peru, EPA and MINAM have agreed to more closely evaluate control measures in this sector. In addition to conducting economic analyses of air quality management policies related to this sector, the Megacities team aims to build upon current analytical capacity for conducting emissions inventory and benefits analyses by providing guidance in these areas, using resulting analyses as reference cases. Options for analysis include:

An analysis on expanding existing capabilities to measure motor vehicle emissions to improve the accuracy of emissions inventories for the Lima-Callao region and to determine compliance with existing and proposed future standards and regulations;
A burden analysis that estimates the current health and economic burden associated with emissions from the transportation sector; and,
An in-depth benefits analysis for one transport-sector policy (policy options include emissions testing requirements, scrapping programs for older vehicles, emissions standards for new vehicles, modifications to the vehicle import taxes, and implementing heavy-duty diesel retrofit programs (e.g. freight trucks at ports or throughout region; public buses; private mini-buses)).

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Past Activities

Through the years, EPA’s collaboration with Peru has resulted in a number of achievements. Some significant results from recent years include the following:

June 2019: Workshop on Promoting Environmental Compliance. EPA presented theories and practices used to promote compliance and dissuade non-compliance, as well as calculate civil penalties. EPA also described model practices for communicating environmental actions and decisions, and for responding to emergency situations. (June 2019)
August 2018: Workshop for OEFA on the use of the Water Quality Analysis Simulation Program (WASP) and AQUATOX models for water quality management. The discussion focused on introducing the models and how they can be used with different types of substances, and discussion of case studies.
April 2018: Training on public participation and crisis communication to participants from OEFA. EPA demonstrated tools for consensus building and discussed the importance of building trust and using neutral facilitation, and emphasized the need to work with other stakeholders to create early opportunities for public participation.
December 2017: Public-private stakeholder workshop. During the session, participants collaboratively developed priority action plans which have contributed to Peru’s Minamata Convention National Implementation Plan, particularly regarding the directives on mercury supply and trade, mercury storage, and mercury waste. Also in December 2017, a capacity-building workshop was organized for Peruvian adjudicators and environmental officials on adjudication of environmental cases.
September 2017: Training on environmental compliance inspections to enhance OEFA’s capabilities. The inspection training program included an “on-the-job” component through the inspection of a regulated facility.
September 2016: Pilot project in partnership with Peru’s Ministry of Environment, the Province of Chincha, local NGOs and community organizations, and the private sector to reduce and prevent marine litter using EPA’s Trash Free Waters approach. EPA partnered with Battelle and Peruvian NGO Ciudad Saludable to help the municipalities of El Carmen and Tambo de Mora prevent the entry of trash and litter into the ocean and waterways through increased recovery of recyclable materials.

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