Social enterprises are known to be agents of change that use entrepreneurial means to contribute solutions to environmental and social challenges while seeking financial sustainability. While social enterprises awakened interest in academia a few decades ago, today our knowledge about the determinants of their formation, success, and subsistence is still very limited. 

An example of a social enterprise is Arbio Peru. This is a Peruvian NGO, led by women, founded in Madre de Dios in 2010, dedicated to managing and caring for 916 hectares of the Amazonian forest, and which seeks to implement forest conservation actions by involving civil society and the private sector (Arbio Peru, 2023). As part of its financial sustainability, Arbio Peru has programs such as "Adopt a tree," "Protect the forest," and conservation expeditions.

Social enterprises, such as ArbioPeru, which provide environmental services, have great potential to join efforts in the face of the great challenge we face globally: mitigation and adaptation to climate change. We know that various efforts have been made to develop policies at the governmental level to address this challenge; however, little progress has been made and environmental problems persist. In particular, Latin America and the Caribbean need to multiply their efforts to meet Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The challenge is great; therefore, it requires a level of collective action never seen before. It is in this context that my project arises, which proposes to study the factors of generation and development of NGOs/social enterprises that offer or can offer environmental services in Peru, and that these in turn have great export potential, their contribution, and possible policies for their promotion.