Peru: Executive declares Ministry of the Environment to be undergoing reorganization

Today, the Executive Branch gave the country some worrying news: through Supreme Decree No. 012-2026-MINAM, it declared the “modernization and reorganization of the Ministry of the Environment (MINAM), its programs and special projects, and the public agencies attached to the Environmental Sector, for a period of one hundred and twenty (120) calendar days”. Will the protection of the Amazon continue to be subordinated to accelerated industrial reactivation?

Dire precedents: environmental packages

Public concern is not unfounded, since the country has experienced previous sector “reforms,” such as the so-called “environmental package” implemented through Law 30230 in 2014. Under this, the government of Ollanta Humala reduced the capacity of the Agency for Environmental Assessment and Enforcement (OEFA), limiting its sanctioning authority to “corrective measures”; it also removed its jurisdiction over the National Territorial Planning Policy and increased regulatory gaps in ecological zoning.

Likewise, between 2024 and 2025 (with the current governing party (Fuerza Popular) in Congress), the so-called “Anti-Forest Law” was created, legalizing illegal deforestation by making changes in land use for agricultural purposes more flexible. This reform was carried out without prior consultation with the Indigenous peoples of the Amazon, who are the main ones affected by uncontrolled parceling in native forest areas.

Today, the government of Keiko Fujimori, through its request for legislative powers and the current “reorganization”, intends to reduce the environmental assessment periods for investment projects (from years to months), in addition to allowing productive activities in buffer zones; and the territorial rights of native communities are expected to be affected. What will the current government prioritize: biological conservation or industrial reactivation? Will our Amazon and Indigenous peoples once again withstand the “reforms”?

Severe environmental risks

The Amazonian region of the country currently faces severe environmental risks such as illegal mining and deforestation (due to the use of mercury, which poisons water sources, destroys tropical forests and generates artificial toxic pools for the environment and society); in addition to water shortages and a critical resurgence in burned areas due to high temperatures.

The Ministry of the Environment is the national body responsible for promoting the conservation and sustainable use of natural resources, enhancing the value of biological diversity and environmental quality for the benefit of people, within the framework of green growth and environmental governance.

But despite being a key sector for the sustainable use of natural resources, it has undergone various reforms that have progressively weakened its institutions since 2008, when it was created.

Redacción Perú