PRODUCE flexibilizes fisheries environmental obligations in the face of extraordinary El Niño

The Ministry of Production (PRODUCE) approved exceptional and temporary provisions to ensure the continuity of fishing and aquaculture activities during the El Niño phenomenon 2026-2027, when it reaches a strong or extraordinary magnitude. The measure is contained in Ministerial Resolution No. 00356-2026-PRODUCE, signed on October 7, 2026, and published on Friday, October 9, 2026, in the official newspaper El Peruano, and it flexibilizes environmental obligations for holders who have an approved Environmental Management Instrument.

The regulation is based on Supreme Decree No. 012-2026-PRODUCE, which declared the Fishing and Aquaculture Subsectors in emergency for one hundred and twenty (120) calendar days, and Supreme Decree No. 124-2026-PCM, which declared a State of Emergency in several districts of twenty-one departments and the Constitutional Province of Callao due to imminent danger from intense rainfall associated with the same phenomenon. Likewise, it develops activity 3.7.2 of the Emergency Plan for the Fishing and Aquaculture Subsectors, approved by Ministerial Resolution No. 00322-2026-PRODUCE.

The technical support is Official Communiqué ENFEN No. 17-2026, dated September 28, 2026, in which the Multisectoral Commission in Charge of the National Study of the “El Niño” Phenomenon (ENFEN) maintains that Coastal El Niño (Niño 1+2 region) would remain at an extraordinary magnitude until January 2027 and would reduce its intensity toward the autumn of 2027. The Ministry of the Environment (MINAM) issued a favorable opinion through Official Letter No. D000620-MINAM-VMGA-DGPIGA, considering that the project is consistent with Law No. 27446, Law of the National Environmental Impact Assessment System, and its Regulations.

Scope and validity

The provisions apply to holders of ongoing fishing and aquaculture projects and activities that have an approved Environmental Management Instrument. Its application is temporary and governs while the phenomenon reaches a strong or extraordinary magnitude, according to official ENFEN information, and remains in effect as long as the exceptional conditions supporting them persist.

Monitoring, citizen participation, and closure plans

• Holders unable to carry out the environmental monitoring planned in their Environmental Management Instrument are covered by the liability exception grounds of Article 236-A of the Single Ordered Text of Law No. 27444, approved by Supreme Decree No. 006-2026-JUS.
• Rehabilitation, recovery, or adaptation measures for affected components, facilities, or systems will not be required to undergo the environmental evaluation process, provided they are directly linked to the mitigation of the phenomenon’s negative effects.
• Citizen participation mechanisms may be carried out through digital or alternative means, and holders are exempt from the deadlines of the Citizen Participation Regulation approved by Supreme Decree No. 017-2022-PRODUCE.
• Holders with an approved Developed Closure Plan may suspend the execution period of their schedule without modifying the Environmental Management Instrument; when the phenomenon is moderate, weak, or neutral, they shall resume the approved schedule.

In all cases, holders must communicate and justify to the competent environmental authority and the Environmental Enforcement Entity the activities carried out and the circumstances that justify them. Permanent measures that modify the conditions of the Environmental Management Instrument must be incorporated into the nearest environmental evaluation procedure.

Background and sectoral response

This flexibility is added to Ministerial Resolution No. 00298-2026-PRODUCE, dated August 24, 2026, which established measures under an adaptive management approach facing warm or cold oceanic and atmospheric conditions associated with El Niño or La Niña events. ENFEN also forecasts the availability of bonito and species associated with equatorial waters such as the sierra fish and samasa, as well as oceanic species such as the perico, barrilete, melva, and yellowfin tuna near the coast.

The resolution seeks to prevent the extraordinary conditions of the phenomenon from interrupting the fishing and aquaculture production chain, without distorting the approved environmental obligations or reducing environmental protection standards. Its application extends to fishers, aquaculture farmers, and processing plants with current environmental instruments, who must justify each exception before the competent authorities.

Source: El Peruano, Legal Norms, Friday, October 9, 2026, p. 28 (official reference: 2562851-1).