Vivid Peru: Remote mapping and socio-economic valuation tool to support planning and implementation in land-use interventions in Peru The project addresses two of Peru’s most acute
development challenges: reducing the rural
population in poverty (currently 3 million), and
preventing deforestation from its current rate of
250,000 hectares per year. The two challenges are
closely linked in a number of ways. Unregulated
land use is a major cause of both, facilitating
encroachment on forests by the subsistence farmers
who are responsible for 75% of losses, while also
stemming flows of investment that could improve their
productivity and incomes. However, solutions to the
problems often require balancing trade-offs between
them: for example, new infrastructure that can improve
livelihoods might also accelerate deforestation.
The overall objective of this project is to contribute
to efforts to reduce poverty and protect forests by
developing satellite-based data tools that help policymakers
to understand and address these linkages.
The tools developed by the project, and the
engagement with government in the adoption and
application of the tools, will assist decision-making in
four key areas of policy activity: land use (‘zoning’)
regulation; infrastructure provision; land permitting;
and sustainable production and irrigation.
The project tools support this aim by providing three
layers of information:
• Land use inventory that classifies and differentiates
physical surface cover types.
• Economic-ecosystem valuation tool that improves
zoning rules and regulations, prioritises planned
investments, and focuses enforcement and
incentive mechanisms to improve effectiveness.
This will integrate the land-use inventory with other
economic information to map the value of land
under different uses and the risk land faces of
unauthorised exploitation.
• Plot-level mapping and technical specifications
to improve titling, enforcement of land-use rules,
supporting programmes and technical assistance.
This will map areas identified as high-risk in greater
detail using Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV)
surveys, providing information on forest thinning
needed to enforce restrictions on deforestation and
support certification of sustainable production. Using a range of publicly available satellite imagery, Vivid will develop economic valuation and small-plot mapping tools for the Peruvian region of San Martin. The project will use high resolution Earth Observation images and digital elevation mapping in deforestation-prone areas to enable the implementation and certification of sustainable agricultural production and to reduce barriers to small-scale irrigation systems. This will improve the income of subsistence farmers.