As the Third UN Ocean Conference drew to a close in Nice in June 2025, Peru is showing how countries are beginning to align marine conservation goals with enhanced maritime security efforts.

While the UN Ocean Conference 2025 made headlines for its political declarations and global pledges, Peru is quietly turning words into action through its maritime and riverine security strategy. Though known for its biodiversity efforts, Peru’s environmental leadership is tightly intertwined with its evolving homeland security architecture, particularly across its coastal and Amazonian frontiers.

Maritime security anchored in enforcement

At the centre of Peru’s coastal and river protection efforts is the Peruvian Coast Guard (DICAPI), the maritime arm of the Navy. Tasked with enforcing both environmental and navigational law across seas, rivers, and lakes, DICAPI operates with a diverse fleet that includes river patrol boats, lake patrol craft, and coastal ships—backed by two Sea King helicopters and a Twin Otter seaplane for aerial surveillance.

The agency’s dual focus on environmental stewardship and homeland security is illustrated by their swift response to the 2024 Puinahua River oil spill. Within 12 hours, containment barriers, aerial surveillance, and coordinated clean-up efforts helped avert wider ecological damage in the Amazon basin. DICAPI also took part in Resolute Sentinel 2024, a bilateral training operation with the US Coast Guard, to strengthen pollution control and emergency response capabilities along inland waterways.

Securing river borders in the Amazon

Beyond the coast, Peru faces a uniquely complex security landscape along its 14,000 km of navigable rivers, including 3,000 km of porous borders with Brazil and Colombia. This region—especially the so-called “Tres Fronteras” zone—is a hotspot for drug trafficking, illegal mining, and wildlife crime.

To tackle this, the Peruvian Navy operates four Amazon naval detachments under the Amazon Operations General Command, supported by river interdiction boats, mobile control posts, and the Border Surveillance System. These assets allow for real-time monitoring and inspection of vessel traffic on key waterways such as the Putumayo and Amazon Rivers.

Meanwhile, elite tactical police units such as Los Sinchis de Mazamari play a crucial role in jungle interdiction missions. Originally created for counter-narcotics and counter-insurgency, their operations against smuggling networks, illegal logging, and wildlife trafficking now also reinforce Peru’s biodiversity goals—especially around newly created conservation zones.

Combatting IUU fishing through technology

Recognising the link between illegal fishing and transnational crime, Peru has also stepped up enforcement in its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). In partnership with WWF-Peru, DICAPI launched a digital platform in 2023 to track industrial and artisanal fishing vessels—logging departures, returns, and catch records. This move is not only helping curb illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing, but also enabling Peru to align with global transparency standards in sustainable fisheries.

Overlapping priorities

Several of these enforcement efforts intersect with environmental conservation goals. Recent examples include increased patrols around newly protected areas like the Grau Tropical Sea National Reserve and the Medio Putumayo-Algodón zone in the Amazon. While biodiversity protection is not the primary role of Peru’s security forces, their presence contributes to deterring illegal activities that impact natural ecosystems.

As the world watches how countries translate ambition into action, the true test of the UN Ocean Conference’s legacy will come not from declarations made in plenary sessions, but from decisions implemented on the water before the next Ocean Conference—set to be hosted by Chile and South Korea in 2028.

Overall, Peru’s maritime and riverine security operations reflect a growing need to manage overlapping environmental, criminal, and geopolitical pressures—particularly in border regions and key conservation areas.