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Potential
for Payment for Environmental Services (PES) approaches to contribute
to equitable and sustainable management of soil and water in upper
catchments
Nairobi inception Workshop
Water and People in Catchments (Theme
2) of the Challenge Program on Water and Food (CPWF)
and The African Network for Soil Biology and Fertility (Afnet)
hosted the inception workshop for a new initiative on "Payment
for environmental services (PES) approaches to contribute to equitable
and sustainable management of soil and water in upper catchments"
at ICRAF headquarters in Nairobi on June 27-29.
In a watershed context, PES is a mechanism for
rewarding upstream land users for adopting land management practices
that improve water quantity and/or quality for people living downstream.
The purpose of the CPWF initiative is to assess whether the soil
and water conservation practices currently being developed to
improve farm-level crop and water productivity also have landscape
scale benefits, and if so, whether PES mechanisms can act as an
additional incentive for their adoption by farmers. The initiative
brings together social and biophysical scientists from the CPWF
and from the three regional soils consortia, Afnet,
MSEC
and MIS.
Funding is provided by SDC.
Key results from workshop
State of the Art of PES in Watersheds: Opportunities
and Challenges
A series of presentation by PES experts (Sylvia
Tognetti, Brent
Swallow, Hamish
Cresswell, Alonso
Moreno, Marcela
Quintero) helped the group to come closer to consensus about
what PES means, how its concepts can be applied to soil and water
management, and what the key challenges are for research and implementation.
The ability to quantify off-site soil and water
impacts is a challenge for effective PES schemes, however a supportive
institutional environment was also identified as critical for
generating and maintaining the long-term support that such schemes
require. Successful PES schemes will need appropriate technologies
and efficient and transparent governance mechanisms. Policy makers
and the public need to have a basic awareness of the biophysical
processes that underlie the environmental services, as well as
confidence in the institutions that oversee the payments. The
challenge for researchers is not only to produce research results
but also to communicate them effectively to a wide range of stakeholders.
Photo
Gallery
Pilot case studies identified
The potential of PES will be assessed empirically
in a series of case studies involving CPWF research projects and
soils consortia partners. Draft work plans for the case studies
were developed at the workshop and are now being finalized with
a broader range of project partners in each region.
- The Rainwater and Nutrient Use Efficiency project
(PN5)
and Afnet
- The Quesungual Agroforestry System project (PN15)
and MIS
- Upper catchment rice landscape management Project
(PN11)
and MSEC
Beyond the Case Studies
Partners agreed that in addition to the case studies,
there was a need for capacity building related to PES, with a
special focus on Africa, and for a communications strategy that
will allow researchers to share their ideas and findings, and
at the same time tap into the growing body of experiences with
PES concepts practice around the world. Developing a training
and communications strategy will be the among the first task of
Ms. Freda Maina, a Kenyan economist and member of the Afnet social
science advisory committee who will join Theme 2 of the CPWF as
PES initiative coordinator on September 1, 2006.
For more information on the workshop or the initiative
contact: waterandpeople@cgiar.org
Other sources (some links about PES)
- Global
Event on Payments/Rewards for Environmental Services ( Lombok,
22-27 January 2007). All presentations and other materials are
NOW AVAILABLE Online
- IFOAM,
Environmental Benefits of organic agriculture
- IFOAM
fact sheet on Organic Agriculture and desertification
- ESA
factsheet on Carbon Sequestration in soils
- Carbon
Sequestration, Co-Benefits, and Conservation Programs
In: Choices, The magazine of food farm and resource issues, 3rd
quarter 2004, by Hongli Feng, Catherine L. Kling, and Philip W.
Gassman
- FAO
on-line publications on Carbon Sequestration
- African Conservation
Tillage Network
- Robertson, G.P. and S.M. Swinton 2005. "Reconciling
Agricultural Productivity and Environmental Integrity: A Grand
Challenge for Agriculture." Frontiers in Ecology and
the Environment 3(1): 38-46.
- -------
Archive of
the Flows bulletin which provides news about payments for watershed
services
- NSF-
Sponsored National Workshop on Valuation of Ecosystem Services
in Agriculture October 27-28, 2005MSU PES workshop website
- Sustainable
sloping land and watershed management 12-15/12 2006; Luangprabang
Lao PDR
The "International Conference on Sustainable Sloping Lands
and Watershed Management" has been held from 12 to 15 December
2006 in Luang Prabang, Lao PDR. It was hosted by NAFRI, the National
Agriculture and Forestry Research Institute of Lao PDR. The presentations,
posters and book of abstracts presented at this conference are
now available here.
- Environmental
Services at the International Center for Agro Forestry
- The
Katoomba Group is an international working group composed
of leading experts from forest and energy industries, research
institutions, the financial world, and environmental NGOs, all
dedicated to facilitating strategic partnerships that can launch
green forest products in the marketplace.
- The
ecosystem market place
- iiied
project Developing markets for watershed protection services and
improved livelihoods. This project aims to promote the maintenance
of watershed services that support local livelihoods.
- Papers
from iied about PES
- FAO
forum about PES, in English and Spanish
- WWF
payment for ecosystem services web page (Other
Link)
- Worldbank
environmental economics and indicators
- World
Bank projects and initiatives in PES
- To
share lessons learnt in PES
- Environmental
services program of Costa Rica
- Payment
for hydric services Costa Rica
- Environmental
Services in Oaxaca Mexico
- The
digital library of the commons
- CATIE
program on design and implementation of PES schemes in Nicaragua
(in Spanish)
- The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA)
is an international work program designed to meet the needs of
decision makers and the public for scientific information concerning
the consequences of ecosystem change for human well-being and
options for responding to those changes.
- CSIR/IIED/DFID
Project Developing Markets for Watershed Protection Services and
Improved Livelihoods in South Africa Initiative
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