Learning from local knowledge in Peru-Ideas for more effective biodiversity conservation

Recent publications and political assessments point to the ongoing loss of global biological diversity. Identifying entry points for improved biodiversity policies requires us to improve our knowledge on the complex, anthropogenic factors that lead to biodiversity loss. This article approaches this challenge by analysing the causes and effects that experts from Peruvian political regions connect to biodiversity loss. In four workshops, 219 experts from 20 Peruvian political regions were asked to discuss the problem in focus groups. Besides observing the focus group discussions, meaning and context of mentioned aspects was further clarified in individual interviews.Performing a qualitative content analysis the aspects collected in focus groups have been clustered into groups of causes (environmental changes, economic land use issues, human expansion, ignorance and unawareness and weak political structures) and effects (environmental effects, loss of ecosystem services, economic effects and negative feedback effects). The results section presents all causes and effects in their local socio-economic context. Discussing the relevance of the results for policy making, I propose structuring the assessment of the biodiversity governance process in political output, social outcome and ecological impact to both highlighting the causal linkage of those dimensions and tracking the step-wise progress. This way, I break down the complex problem of biodiversity loss into tangible aspects and relate them to specific processes of economic development. I conclude that learning from regional experts and practitioners can help finding local approaches to improve policy processes under given capacities and conditions.