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Vol. 2, No. 2: March 14, 2007
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The Ecosystem Marketplace's Community Forum
Connecting people to ecosystem markets
This issue of the Community Forum from the Ecosystem Marketplace examines questions that many of us working at the community level must confront: What defines payment for ecosystem service programs? What types of programs have preceded and contributed to the development of payments for ecosystem services? What lessons can be learned from these earlier programs? In our Around the World section, we take you to Namibia, Pakistan, and Brazil for a look at three innovative approaches to providing economic incentives for community-based conservation. In our Resources and Tools section, we review a manual that helps you determine whether an economic incentive program is right for your community and, if so, what kind. In our Profiles section, we give you a before and after snapshot of a payment for ecosystem service program in Guatemala and a look at how the program has evolved over time. Finally, in our Viewpoint section, we link to an article providing one definition of what payment for ecosystem services is and is not and an application of that definition in an examination of economic incentive programs in the Andean region.
We hope you enjoy this issue of the Community Forum!
See Your Project Featured in the Community Forum
Link the communities you work with to the community of people around the globe involved in implementing payment for ecosystem services projects. The Community Forum is looking for projects to feature in our Around the World section of the newsletter and on our website. Gain recognition for your project and join in a dialogue with others worldwide by sending a short paragraph describing the project and some of the issues faced in implementing it to: communityforum@ecosystemmarketplace.com. We will then ask for a more detailed description from those projects we select to feature in the Community Forum.
– Elizabeth Shapiro, Community Forum
For comments or questions, please email: communityforum@ecosystemmarketplace.com
Interested in more payments for ecosystem services (PES) news and activities?
The Katoomba Group is working through two distinct regional groups, East and Southern Africa and Tropical America, to build capacity with diverse groups of stakeholders and support the development of PES activities in these regions. If you are interested in learning more about the Katoomba Group’s activities in either region or would like to sign-up for the listserv and receive a periodic newsletter, please contact Alice Ruhweza (aruhweza@forest-trends.org) for East and Southern Africa or Carina Bracer (cbracer@forest-trends.org) / Rachel Miller (rmiller@forest-trends.org) for Tropical America.
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Namibia - What Can We Learn From Community-Based Conservation?
The Ecosystem Marketplace traveled to southern Africa to investigate what lessons might be learned from community-based wildlife conservation programs in the Kunene region of Namibia. Communities in this area are often in direct conflict with the wildlife, from the cheetahs that prey on livestock to the elephants that compete with people for scarce water supplies. The Namibian conservancy programs give communities rights over wildlife that allows them to make contracts with private ecotourism and trophy hunting companies. There are currently fifty government-registered, community-based wildlife conservancies in Namibia with total earnings of about US$3 million. While the communities must reinvest some of these funds in wildlife conservation efforts, they have chosen various options for distributing the remaining money - from direct payments to each community member, to employment programs and social welfare funds. The Namibian wildlife conservancy programs provide a useful model for how direct monetary incentives, such as those from payment from ecosystem service programs, can be used to promote community-based biodiversity conservation.
Contact: Brian T.B. Jones
– Read the full article
Pakistan – Ecotourism Funds Livestock Insurance for Snow Leopard Conservation
The communities of the Baltistan province of Pakistan rely heavily on livestock production. One of the primary threats to livestock in this region in the Himalayas is snow leopards. Not surprisingly, local herders are often quick to shoot at leopards. While this antagonistic relationship has been maintained in balance for centuries, a decrease in the population’s natural prey as well as hunting for the fur trade has put snow leopards on the IUCN’s Red List of endangered species. In 1999, the economist, Shafquat Hussain, came up with a brilliant scheme to help increase the snow leopard population while decreasing the resulting economic hardship on the herding communities. In coordination with community representatives, he developed an insurance scheme, called Project Snow Leopard. Through the program herders are compensated when a snow leopard kills livestock. In return, the communities who join the scheme promise not to hunt the leopards. Half of the funding for the insurance program comes from a small, per animal contribution that each herder makes to the general fund. The other half is derived from an ecotourism venture, called Full Moon Trekking. Though the Snow Leopard Project has been hurt by the political unrest in Pakistan, the fact that it is still growing is a testimony to the ability of such schemes to provide incentives for local communities to conserve.
Contact: Shafqat Hussain
– Description and a video of the project
– Project Snow Leopard
– Full Moon Night Trekking
Brazil - Many Paths, No Destination for Brazil's Tourist Industry
Ecotourism has long been lauded as one of the most promising means of capitalizing on the ecosystem service of "scenic beauty" in order to promote community-based conservation. The Ecosystem Marketplace’s Gisele Texeira uses the case of Brazil to examine some of the potential perils of ecotourism and what that country is doing to address them. The idea that ecotourism can provide both environmental and social benefits is undergoing heavy scrutiny in Brazil. As the tourism industry in the country grows, so does the impact it has on the people and environment of tourism destinations. A number of studies have shown that local people often receive only a very small portion of the economic benefit from increased tourism. There can be associated environmental costs as well, such as overuse of local infrastructure and the degradation of the very natural resources the tourists have come to see. Since the early 1990s, Brazil has instituted a number of programs to provide some guidelines for what constitutes sustainable ecotourism, but none has had lasting impact. However, the recent adoption by the Brazilian government of the Hospitality Institute's Certification Program for Sustainable Tourism has already made promising advances in defining and regulating ecotourism. For more detailed information about the challenges facing ecotourism in Brazil, follow the link below.
– Read the Ecosystem Marketplace article
Brasil – Muchos Caminos sin Destino para la Industria Turística de Brasil
Por mucho tiempo el ecoturismo ha sido promovido como una herramienta para capitalizar el mercado de belleza escénica con el motivo de incentivar conservación ambiental al nivel comunitario. El concepto que el ecoturismo puede lograr los beneficios ambientales y sociales ha recibido mucha crítica en Brasil. Mientras crece la industria turística, también crece su impacto. Algunos estudios han mostrado que muchas veces la gente de los lugares de desarrollo turístico solo recibe un porcentaje pequeño del beneficio. Además, el desarrollo turístico puede tener impactos ambientales, como sobre explotación de la infraestructura y la degradación de los mismos recursos que han atraído los turistas. Desde el principio de la década noventa, Brasil ha implementado muchos reglamentos sobre el ecoturismo, pero ninguno ha tenido impacto de largo plazo. Sin embargo, la adopción reciente por parte del gobierno de Brasil de la Certificación de Turismo Sustentable del Instituto de Hospitalidad ya ha fomentado avances en definir y reglamentar el ecoturismo.
– Link al articulo en el Ecosystem Marketplace (English)
– Link al articulo 'Turísmo responsável - muita teoria e pouca prática' (Portugués)
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Interview with Oscar Brenes and Oscar Núñez – Sierra de las Minas Biosphere Reserve Water Fund
In 2002, the Rainforest Alliance conducted an interview with Oscar Brenes and Oscar Núñez, coordinators of the Las Minas Biosphere Reserve Water Fund in Guatemala. The project, still in its early stages, was attempting to establish a payment for watershed services program that would negotiate contracts for payments from downstream users and then apply the funding to conservation projects in the upstream Sierra de las Minas Biosphere Reserve. The Reserve protects over 70% of the biodiversity in the country, but is also the origin of 60 rivers that are the primary source of water for 13 downstream municipalities. In 2002, the two men spoke of what they had already accomplished – contracts with both hydroelectric companies and an irrigation users association – but also of what more they wanted to accomplish and how they planned to do it. Follow the links below to read the 2002 interview and then a report on the project’s current status to see how their plans have evolved.
Contact: Carlos Morales
– Read the 2002 interview with Oscar Brenes and Oscar Núñez
– Current information on the Sierra de las Minas project
Entrevista con Oscar Brenes y Oscar Núñez - Fondo del Agua de la Reserva de la Biosfera Sierra de las Minas
En 2002, el Rainforest Alliance hizo una entrevista con Oscar Brenes y Oscar Núñez, coordinadores del Fondo del Agua de la Reserva de la Biosfera Sierra de las Minas de Guatemala. El proyecto, que estaba todavía en las etapas iniciales, intentó establecer un programa por servicios hidrológicos que negociaría contratos con los usuarios en la parte baja de la cuenca y utilizar los fondos recogidos para financiar proyectos de conservación en la Reserva Biosfera de la Sierra de las Minas, ubicado en la parte alta de la cuenca. La Reserva protege más que 70% de la biodiversidad del país, pero además, es el origen de 60 ríos que son la fuente principal de agua para 13 municipalidades en la parte baja de la cuenca. En 2002, los dos hombres hablaban de lo que ya habían logrado – contratos con empresas hidroeléctricas y una asociación de usuarios de agua para riego – pero además, de lo más que querían lograr y como pensaba lograrlo. Sigue los "links" que se encuentra abajo para leer la entrevista de 2002 y, luego, un reporte del estado del proyecto de 2007 para ver como se ha evolucionado.
Contacto: Lorena Calvo
– Link a la entrevista con Oscar Brenes y Oscar Núñez
– Link a más información sobre del proyecto de Sierra de las Minas
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Between Purity and Reality: Taking Stock of PES Schemes in the Andes
by Sven Wunder
Many people talk about payment for environmental services (PES), but what kind of projects qualify as true PES programs and how much is actually going on out there in the field? Sven Wunder, Senior Economist at the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) in Belém, Brazil, tells The Ecosystem Marketplace what he found in their survey of field initiatives in the Andean countries of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela. He begins by providing a very clear definition of PES: a voluntary, conditional agreement between at least one buyer and one seller over a well-defined environmental service (or a land use likely to produce the service). He then describes the types of projects he and his collaborators found in the Andean region countries and whether or not they qualified as true PES schemes. The results will surprise you!
– Read the full Ecosystem Marketplace article
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Community-Based Incentives for Nature Conservation
by Lucie Emerton
This well written and concise manual takes you through every step of designing an economic incentive program for community-based conservation and is an important tool for anyone involved in payment for ecosystem service programs at the community level. It starts with a step-by-step analysis of the natural and socio-economic factors that lead the community to either degrade or conserve their environment. Using this information, it takes you through the decision-making process to determine if an economic incentive program will serve as an effective component of your conservation strategy. If the answer to this question is yes, the manual then leads you through the process of deciding what type of economic incentive program will best fit your particular case. The manual ends with examples of different types of economic incentive programs using case studies from East Africa.
– Download the manual (pdf)
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