The European Commission supports the Sierra del Divisor National Park

The European Commission reaffirms its support for the PNSD

During his visit to Sierra del Divisor National Park (PNSD), European Commission representative Pablo Villanueva, a member of DG INTPA (International Partnerships), visited the site to meet with the teams responsible for implementing the program.

His visit provided an opportunity for an interview. Pablo explains why the project, a pilot in the development of the Nature Credits market, is of great importance to the European Commission.

This program, funded by RESTORE and implemented by SERNANP (Servicio Nacional de Áreas Naturales Protegidas por el Estado) and FRONTERRA, with support from Peru’s Ministry of the Environment (MINAM) and the European Commission, is a first in terms of international public-private collaboration for the creation of biodiversity credits.

This project is groundbreaking in several ways:

it uses a national framework (the Peruvian MERESE) to bring private funding into public biodiversity policy;
it shows that a project implemented outside the European Union can still be an example of the application of EU principles, through the international flexibility mechanism discussed within the expert group, of which RESTORE is a member, for the development of the European nature credit market;
finally, this project is an example of concrete and robust cooperation between public authorities (MINAM), public protected area managers (SERNANP), project developers (FRONTERRA), financial facilitators (RESTORE – Biodiversity, Together) and private Western investors, with the common goal of experimenting with innovative financing methods that protect biodiversity and living organisms.

The PNSD is one of the most biodiverse areas on the planet, located in the heart of the Amazon rainforest, but it is not immune to global biodiversity loss due to climate change, land use changes, and overexploitation of natural resources.

However, like many protected areas around the world, it faces a structural funding deficit. This pilot project shows how biodiversity outcomes (measured, verified, and monitored) can become a sustainable source of funding for conservation, in full alignment with:

the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework,
the nature credit roadmap published on July 7, 2025, by the European Commission,
and international cooperation objectives.

As Pablo explains, this type of public-private partnership requires long-term funding to translate the political ambition of conserving and restoring biodiversity into real impact.