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Vol. 2, No. 5: July 9, 2007
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The Ecosystem Marketplace's Community Forum
Connecting people to ecosystem markets
Welcome to the Community Forum, a newsletter dedicated to providing information on community-based payment for ecosystem services from around the world!
Payment for watershed service initiatives are some of the most common but least documented forms of ecosystem service payment schemes. In this edition of the Community Forum, we focus exclusively on payment for watershed services – who's doing them, what people think about them and some tools to make them work. Though the fact that the buyers and sellers of water services must live in the same watershed may seem to make these types of programs easier to arrange than those for carbon or biodiversity, this is not always the case. As we showcase in our Around the World section, pre-existing customary or national laws and practices concerning water management can serve as barriers, or in some cases aids, to the development of payment programs. In our Profile section, we include an interview with a Sandra Postel, who gives her views on the importance of both the monetary and the non-monetary values of fresh water. In our Viewpoint section, we include two pieces, the first by a scientist who claims that more trees don't always equal more water, and the second by an activist from Slovakia who writes a strong appeal for the conservation of fresh water and tells us how it can be done. Be sure not to skip the Resources section of this edition where we share everything from policy building tool kits to newsletters to downloadable movies, all on the topic of payment for watershed services!
In the next issue of the Community Forum, we plan to concentrate on payment for ecosystem service projects that focus on the conservation of biodiversity. Please email us at communityforum@ecosystemmarketplace.com if you have any information you would like to see featured in the next edition.
We hope you enjoy this edition of the Community Forum! If you do, please forward it on to friends and colleagues. We hope to be able to share this forum with the many people around the globe who are involved in community-based payment for ecosystem services.
– Elizabeth Shapiro, Community Forum
For comments or questions, please email: communityforum@ecosystemmarketplace.com
Sign up to receive the Community Forum on a regular basis
Sign-up for the Tropical American and East & Southern Africa Katoomba Group Newsletters
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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Indonesia – Saving Forests with Funding for Feast Days
In the Segara River Basin on the island of Lombok, payment for hydrological services is nothing new. Through a number of long held relationships, downstream communities support the work of upstream communities to protect the water sources that are of vital importance to them both. In six separate cases within the watershed, downstream farmers with irrigated land make annual payments to the water associations of upstream communities to ensure that water sources are protected and the necessary infrastructure is well maintained. In two other cases, downstream communities provide financial support for ceremonies held by upstream communities in which one of the primary activities is a meditation on the well being brought on by conserving their forested land and its role in preventing disaster and disease. Recently, further payment for hydrological services initiatives have been built upon these existing institutions. The Lombok Inter Rafting Company, which benefits from the protection of water flows on the Segara River, has started to make payments to upstream communities for tree plantings and other environmental activities, but also for meetings of the inter-community council. The regional drinking water company, PDAM, has also developed a payment system to support the salaries of forest guards in upstream communities as well as the process of reviving and codifying traditional laws concerning environmental protection. For all of these reasons, the Segara River Basin provides a fascinating case study of ways in which traditional laws and traditions regarding environmental management and the long standing relationships between downstream and upstream water users can be built upon in the construction of new payment for hydrological services initiatives.
Contact: James Mayer, Forestry and Land Use Programme, International Institute for Environmental and Development.
– Read the report on the Segara River Basin Project (pdf)
– Read the report on this and other PES initiatives in Indonesia (pdf)
France – The Vittel Company Payment for Watershed Services Program Evolved from Conflict to Compromise
Since 1882, the Vittel Company has been bottling the spring waters of the "Grande Source" spring of northern France and selling it with the promise that it is of the highest purity. A hundred years later, in the 1980s, Grande Source waters were threatened when the intensification of agriculture in upstream farms began to lead to the seepage of nitrates into the groundwater. Vittel, by then a subsidiary of Nestlé Waters, one of the largest mineral water bottling companies in the world, knew that they had to be proactive in finding a solution. Though they considered many options, including buying the land directly from the upstream farmers, they finally settled on creating a payment for ecosystem service initiative. In 1989, Vittel teamed with the National Agricultural Research Institute to conduct a four year study focused on methods to decrease agricultural contamination of the water source that were also culturally and economically acceptable for the farmers involved. After the study was complete, ten more years were to pass before negotiations were finalized with the farmers. In a new report by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), the Vittel case is examined in detail and provides many lessons that can be applied for the creation of payment for ecosystem service initiatives. The report stresses that the institutional context was crucial for the development of the Vittel payment for hydrological services initiative. It outlines the way in which the stringent regulations on mineral water quality, the strong legal framework under which the contracts between Vittel and the farmers were formed, and the legal and cultural protection of the upstream farmers' property rights all played important roles in both making a payment for environmental service initiative the most viable option and in ensuring that both sides were equally invested in making it work. The primary take home message from the report is that the creation of effective payment for ecosystem service initiatives requires long term negotiations that take into account the complexity of not only ecological conditions, but of institutional, economic and social realities as well.
Contact: Danièle Perrot-Maître, Forestry and Land Use, Natural Resources Group, International Institute for Environment and Development
– Read a short summary of the IIED report
– Read the full IIED report
Francia – El Programa de Pago por Servicios de Cuencas de la Compañía Vittel Evolucionó desde Conflicto a Compromiso
Desde 1882, la Compañía Vittel embotella las aguas del fuente "Grande Source" de la región norte de Francia y vendiéndolas con la promesa que sean del mayor pureza. Pero las aguas del Grande Source fueron amanezadas durante los primeros años de la década de1980 cuando la intensificación del manejo agrícola de las fincas de la parte alta de la cuenca fue causa de la infiltración de nitratos hacia el acuífero. Vittel, ya una subsidiaria de Nestlé Waters, la embotelladora de agua mineral más grande del mundo, tuvo que buscar una solución para el problema de contaminación. Aunque la compañía consideró muchas opciones, incluyendo la posibilidad de comprar todo los terrenos agrícolas de la parte alta de la cuenca, al fin decidió crear una iniciativa de pago por servicios ambientales. En 1989, Vittel colaboraba con el Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Agrícolas para conducir una investigación de cuatro años enfocada en buscar métodos para disminuir la contaminación de las fuentes de agua por residuos agrícolas que estuvieron a la vez aceptables al nivel cultural y económico para los agricultores involucrados en el proyecto. Después que terminó la investigación, pasó diez años más para finalizar las negociaciones con los agricultores. En un nuevo reporte del International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), el caso de Vittel está examinado con detalle y provee muchas enseñanzas que pueden ser aplicadas por la creación de iniciativas de pago por servicios de ecosistemas. El reporte da mucho énfasis que el contexto institucional fue clave para el desarrollo del iniciativa de pago por servicios hidrológico de Vittel. Se da un resumen de la manera en que las regulaciones fuertes sobre calidad de agua mineral, el marca legal bajo de que los contratos entre Vittel y los agricultores fueron formados, y la protección legal y cultural de los derechos de propiedad de los agricultores jugaron papeles importantes en la formación exitoso de la iniciativa y en asegurando que los dos lados tuvieron una inversión en su éxito. El mensaje principal del reporte es que la creación de iniciativas efectivos de pago por servicios de ecosistemas requiere negociaciones de largo plazo que toman en cuenta no solo la complejidad de las condiciones ecológicas, pero también del contexto institucional, económico y social.
Contacto: Daniéle Perrot-Maître, Forestry and Land Use, Natural Resources Group, International Institute for Environment and Development
– Link a un resumen corto del reporte de IIED
Guatemala – Watershed Protection Project Stirs Debate: Traditional Management vs. Payment for Ecosystem Services
The approximately 1,110 springs that originate in the mountainous Los Altos de San Miguel Tontonicapán Regional Park are the direct source of water for forty-eight downstream communities. The local indigenous communities have been the stewards of this forested area for over 400 years, but during the 36 years of the Guatemalan civil war, the community institutions that had protected and managed the forest were severely weakened. In the early 1990s, the Ulew Che' Ja (meaning "earth, tree and water" in the local Quiche language) community association was formed to jointly manage the 21,000 ha of forested land. The governing council of Ulew Che' Ja is made up of members elected from the fourteen local communities who are the legal owners of the park. However, the assembly council that must ratify all major management decisions has members from the water committees of each of the forty-eight communities that are the beneficiaries of the water produced within the park.The beneficiary communities are also responsible for forming committees that contribute to the protection of both forest and water sources by patrolling the forest against illegal activity, cleaning water sources, reforesting denuded areas, and maintaining fence lines.
When the idea of establishing a payment for watershed services program was first presented to the governing council of Ulew Che' Ja, they were highly skeptical. The upstream communities had formed a reciprocal relationship with the communities downstream and they had no wish to endanger this with a demand for money. They also saw their stewardship as a moral responsibility that would be undermined by turning it into an economic transaction. However, in their work with the non-profit EcoLogic, they came to believe that payments for watershed stewardship is not always such a bad idea. In August of 2005, Ulew Che' Ja participated in a meeting on watershed management that was attended by community and civil society organizations from throughout Mexico and Central America. The group wrote and adopted the "Atitlan Declaration Water for Life", which stresses the importance of community management of water resources in the region and states that, "The values, ideas and rights that indigenous communities hold about their lands must be recognized, as well as their valuable role in the contribution to the conservation of natural resources and water management." At the same time, the Declaration calls for the development of payment for watershed service initiatives that will support these goals. The case of Ulew Che' Ja illustrates that tensions can exist between the pre-existing complementary relationships and practices between downstream and upstream communities and the idea that economic incentives are necessary to ensure that these ecosystem services are maintained.
Contact: Pedro Rosales Xuruc, President, Asociación Ulew Che' Ja
– Parks Watch profile of program
– EcoLogic profile of program
– View the text of the Atitlan Declaration Water for Life
Guatemala – Proyecto de Protección de Microcuencas Fomenta Debates: Manejo Tradicional vs. Pago por Servicios de Ecosistemas
Las aproximadamente 1,110 fuentes de agua originarias del montañoso Parque Municipal Los Altos de San Miguel Tontonicapån mantienen directamente 48 comunidades de la parte baja de la cuenca. Las comunidades indígenas locales han sido los guardianes de esta zona boscosa por más de 400 años, pero durante los 36 años que duró la guerra civil de Guatemala, las instituciones comunales que habían protegido el bosque fueron fuertemente debilitadas. Durante los primeros años de 1990, la asociación de Ulew Che' Ja (que significa "tierra, árbol y agua" en la lengua indígena Quiche) fue formada para manejar los 21,000 ha de tierras boscosas. El comité encargado del Ulew Che' Ja es compuesto de miembros elegidos de las comunidades quienes son los dueños legales del parque. Sin embargo, la asamblea que tiene la responsabilidad de ratificar todas las decisiones mayores contiene miembros que vienen de los comités de agua de cada una de las 48 comunidades quienes son los beneficiarios del agua producida dentro del parque. Las comunidades beneficiarias son responsables también para formar comités que contribuyen con la protección de los bosques igual como las fuentes de agua por brigadas de vigilancia contra extracción ilegal, limpiando las fuentes, y reforestando áreas degradadas, y manteniendo los cercos.
Cuando la idea de establecer un pago por servicios de cuencas fue presentado al comité de Ulew Ché Ja, ellos tuvieron muchas inquietudes. Las comunidades de la parte alta de la cuenca habían formado una relación de intercambio mutuo con las comunidades de la parte baja de la cuenca y ellas no querían poner en peligro esté vinculo con una demanda para recompensa monetaria. Además, ellas pensaban que el cuidado con el bosque fuera una responsabilidad moral que podía ser dañada si fuera cambiado a una transacción económica. Sin embargo, dentro de su trabajo con la asociación civil EcoLogic, ellas empezaron creer que recibir un pago por cuidar las cuencas no siempre es mal. En agosto del 2005, Ulew Che' Ja participó en una reunión sobre manejo de cuencas que fue asistido por organizaciones comunitarios de la sociedad civil de todos las regiones de México y Centroamérica. El grupo escribió y adoptó la "Declaración de Atitlán. Agua para la vida", que da un énfasis en la importancia del manejo comunitario de los recursos hidrológicos de la región y dice que, "Se deben reconocer los valores, cosmovisión y derechos de los pueblos indígenas sobre sus territorios y su valioso aporte, para la conservación de los recursos naturales y manejo del agua." A la vez, la Declaración incluye una demanda para el desarrollo de pago por servicios de cuencas que apoyan aquellas metas. El caso de Ulew Che' Ja muestra que conflictos pueden existir entre las relaciones y prácticas de beneficio mutuo entre las comunidades de las partes altas y bajas de cuencas y la idea que incentivos económicos son necesarios para asegurar que estos servicios de ecosistemas son mantenidos.
Contacto: Pedro Rosales Xuruc, Presidente, Asociación Ulew Che' Ja
– Link al reporte de Parks Watch sobre Ulew Che' Ja
– Link a una presentación sobre Ulew Che' Ja (pdf)
– Link a la Declaración de Atitlan - Agua para la vida
International – WWF, CARE-International and IIED Join to Sponsor Payment for Watershed Services Pilot Programs
In mid-2006, a coalition of international conservation and development heavy hitters – the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), CARE International, and the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) – launched a new program that aims to create equitable payment for watershed services (PWS) at sites around the globe. The watersheds were selected according to three criteria: high levels of biodiversity; high levels of poverty; and rapid land use change that directly affects hydrological services. A total of ten watersheds were chosen from within Guatemala, Peru, the Philippines, Tanzania, Indonesia and Eastern Europe. The founding organizations have stated that the program, "aims to bring substantial benefits to the rural poor", in the form of direct benefits at the community level, such as funding for school or hospital construction, or at the household level in the form of direct payments. They also claim that indirect benefits will include improved land tenure security, conservation of communal natural resources and community empowerment. During the first eighteen months of the projects, the focus is on establishing "business cases" for the payment scheme by working to convince both the buyers and sellers of watershed services that such initiatives will be environmentally and economically sustainable. If all goes well, the result of these negotiations will be signed memos of understanding between all parties concerned. In the second phase, lasting three to four years, the program focus will be on establishing public-private partnerships to develop self-sustaining payment for watershed service initiatives. The project is noteworthy both for its scale and for its explicit emphasis on ensuring equity for the rural poor in the establishment of payment for ecosystem service initiatives.
Contact: Julio Tresierra, Global Coordinator, WWF-CARE-IIED Equitable PWS Program
– Read the WWF factsheet on PWS program (pdf)
– Read the full report on PWS program (pdf)
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Sandra Postel: A Life Aquatic
by Cameron Walker
Sandra Postel, founder of the Global Water Policy Project, has been studying international freshwater issues for over twenty years. In that time, she has become one of the world's most respected scientific communicators and water-policy strategists--authoring three books, publishing a multitude of papers, inspiring a PBS documentary and garnering numerous awards. Of late, Postel has turned her attention to valuing and preserving the services provided by healthy freshwater systems. In doing so, she has started to stress that the true value of fresh water is not always reflected in its market price. The Ecosystem Marketplace profiles Postel's inspiring, innovative and practical approach to managing the world's water.
– Read the full Ecosystem Marketplace article
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Watershed Markets get a Dose of Myth-Busting Science
by Virginia Gewin
Does more forest mean water? Can forest cover decrease the intensity of flooding? From Mexico to Malaysia, payments for watershed service schemes, largely based on the assumption that increased forest cover equals increased ecosystem services, are at a critical juncture as watershed managers work to transform them from publicly funded pilot programs into privately funded markets. Will watershed markets be able to make this all-important leap? The Ecosystem Marketplace looks at this question and highlights the importance of getting the science right when it comes to markets for watershed services.
– Read the full Ecosystem Marketplace article
Appeal to Stop Drying Out the Earth
by Ing. Michal Kravcík, CSc.
Michal Kravcik, 1999 Goldman Prize recipient and Community Forum reader, has been fighting to find more sustainable means of managing fresh water for more than two decades. This hydrologist from Slovakia began a non-profit organization, People and Water, in 1993 that has since successfully fought against big dam projects and for democratic and decentralized management of watersheds in his country. In this opinion piece, he provides a detailed and inspirational account of some of the human actions, including deforestation, which can lead to changes in the water cycle and to water scarcity, and explains some of the ways that communities in Central Europe have found to counteract these problems.
Contact Michal Kravcík
– Read the opinion piece
– People and Water's website
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Challenges to Establishing Markets for Watershed Services: Learning from Country Diagnostics
During 2001-2002, the International Institute for Environment and Development conducted studies of the potential for the development of market-based mechanisms for watershed conservation in four regions – the Caribbean, Indonesia, India and South Africa. This short report very clearly details findings from each region as well as the way in which the findings in these countries lead to conclusions about the potential for the development of payment for watershed service initiatives in other regions. They point to some of the challenges and dangers inherent in the construction of these types of initiatives and describe four possible approaches that they feel offer the greatest potential for success. This report offers very thought provoking reading material for the coffee or tea break of anyone involved in designing or implementing payment for watershed services programs.
– Read the full IIED report
DIGITAL NEWSLETTERS
W.E.T. Newsletter
The Ecosystem Marketplace recently launched a new newsletter, WATER/ENVIRONMENT/TRADING (W.E.T.) which reports on issues related to markets and market-like instruments being used around the globe to address environmental issues related to water. The newsletter includes feature articles on relevant topics, profiles of the movers and shakers in this movement and clips from the latest news on water trading and markets.
– Subscribe to WET here
FLOWS Newsletter
Published by the International Institute for Environment and Development, FLOWS is a newsletter dedicated to reviewing information on the effectiveness of payment for watershed services schemes from around the world. Aside from feature articles that profile specific initiatives, it also includes sections on resources pertinent to that edition's main topic, readers' commentary and announcements of upcoming events. FLOWS newsletter is available in English, Spanish and Bahasa Indonesia. To subscribe for the English version, send an e-mail to: join-flows@list.flowsonline.net, for Spanish to subscribe-spanish@flowsonline.net and for the Bahasa Indonesia version, send an e-mail to subscribe-indonesian@flowsonline.ne
– Download back issues of FLOWS
Revista Digital de FLOWS
Publicada por el International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), FLOWS es una revista digital con la meta de revisar información sobre la eficacia de iniciativas de pago por servicios de cuencas por todas las regiones del mundo. Además que los artículos principales que revisan iniciativas especificas, se incluye secciones sobre recursos que pertenecen al asunto principal de la edición, comentarios de los lectores y anuncios sobre eventos en el futuro. La revista FLOWS está escrito en Inglés, Español y Bahasa Indonesia. Para recibirla en Inglés, envíe un correo electrónico a join-flows@list.flowsonline.net y para la de Español a subscribe-spanish@flowsonline.net, y para la de Bahasa Indonesia a subscribe-indonesian@flowsonline.net.
– Link para bajar las ediciones anteriores de FLOWS
FILM RESOURCES
Lake Matters: Paying to Protect Watersheds
Bhopal city, capital of Madhya Pradesh, India, is considering assisting rural communities in the catchment of the Upper Lake (Bhoj Wetland) to change land management practices and reduce the flow of pollutants. Winrock International and the Lake Conservation Authority of Madhya Pradesh are collaborating to facilitate the change. "Lake Matters: Paying to protect watersheds" looks at the potential and problems of securing a supply of clean drinking water for the citizens of Bhopal. The film was made by the International Institute for Environment and Development in collaboration with Earthcare Films. The video is best viewed over a broadband connection of 300kbps or above. Instructions are provided for downloading the software that will allow the video to be viewed on your computer.
– View Film
Shed Loads - Paying to Protect Watersheds
The International Institute for Environment and Development, in collaboration with Television Trust for the Environment, produced a 26 minute film on watershed services broadcast on BBC World on 10 September 2005. This documentary, comprised of four short segments, looks at the potential and problems surrounding payments for watershed services in Africa, Asia and the Americas. The video is best viewed over a broadband connection of 300kbps or above. Instructions are provided for downloading the software that will allow the video to be viewed on your computer. The film is available for download from IIED's website in English and Spanish. To request a copy in Bahasa Indonesia, e-mail forestry@iied.org.
– View Film
Compartir los Costos – Pagando para Proteger Cuencas
El International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), colaborando con el Television Trust for the Environment, produjo una película de 26 minutos sobre servicios de cuenca que fue transmitido por BBC Mundo el 10 de septiembre del 2005. Esta película documentaria, compuesto de cuatro secciones cortas, examina el potencial y problemas que pertenecen a pagos por servicios de cuencas en África, Asia y las Americas. Es más fácil ver el video con conexiones de DSL de 300 kpps ó más. Indicaciones para bajar el software que se permite ver el video por su propia computadora están dispuestas en el sitio de Internet. Se puede bajar el video en las lenguas de Inglés y Español desde el sito de Internet. Para copias del video en el lengua Bahasa Indonesia, manda un correo electrónico a forestry@iied.org.
– Ver la película
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