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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
Background
Land degradation is a global problem affecting both favored and marginal areas. Improving the land and water management is particularly complex in upper catchments of tropical watersheds because of the presence of both significant land use externalities and high levels of poverty. Externalities occur when biophysical processes such as soil erosion, nutrient runoff or loss of water regulation function affect people living downstream. Internalizing externalities requires appropriate institutional arrangements that provide the incentives –the carrots and/or sticks—for individuals to change the way they manage their land and water resources. To be successful, the institutional arrangements must be consistent with both social values and the realities of catchment hydrology. Because of the key role that upper catchments play in maintaining hydrologic function, and because of the uncertainty surrounding the impacts of different land uses, it is tempting to manage upper catchments primarily for conservation. However, upper catchments in the tropics are often home to large numbers of people, many of them poor. Upper catchment communities are often marginalized economically, politically and culturally, and their limited livelihood options center on exploitation of natural resources such as land, water, and forests. Therefore, equitable management of upper catchments must include productive use of resources by local populations. Achieving this requires appropriate productivity-enhancing technologies and land use options. In reality, a combination of both productivity enhancing technologies and institutional arrangements that compensate the providers of environmental services offers the best chance for achieving sustainable and equitable management of upper catchments. Much of the basic knowledge for designing technologies and institutions already exists from past biophysical and social science research. What is required now is their application and adaptation to the specific biophysical and social conditions of individual catchments via participatory action research at multiple scales, together with comparative analysis across sites to derive generalizable lessons about what works where and why.
In implementing its agenda, Theme 2 serves as a link between the CPWF and the broader research community working on issues relevant to equitable and sustainable resource management in upper catchments. The linkages are two-way, bringing knowledge and lessons into the CPWF and at the same time helping to scale out the findings of CPWF-funded research. To fulfill this role, T2 forms links with other organizations working outside the CPWF projects and benchmark basins. The purpose of the project was to enhance provision of environmental goods and services in upper catchments through improved soil, water and nutrient management. The objective of the case studies in the first phase is to determine the potential for introducing PES schemes in some CPWF study sites. In Africa, the project also seeks to build capacity of researchers involved in soil, water and nutrient management research in identifying are hotspot areas for erosion that results in lowered water quality and quantity. Using Payment for Watershed Services (PWS) schemes as means of conserving upstream water sources may not be as widespread in Africa as in other continents.
Three regional consortia, part of those formed under the System-wide Program on Soil, Water and Nutrient Management (SP-SWNM), are made up of primarily national Research and Development (R&D) organizations doing cutting edge research for development on critical aspects of land and water management in hillside areas, and are the main link in implementing these PES case studies. They present an opportunity for strategic link between the CPWF and the broader R&D community. The consortia are the African Network for Soil Biology and Fertility (AfNet) in Africa, Integrated Soil Management (MIS: Manejo Integrado de Suelos in Spanish) in Central America, and Managing Soil Erosion (MSEC) in SE Asia. These regional consortia and T2 have common objectives and outputs, and they share research principles such as commitment to participatory, interdisciplinary research with an equity focus. The Centre for Applied Social Sciences and the Waternet in Zimbabwe are also involved in understanding the potential for payment for environmental services schemes in Zimbabwe. Linking these regional consortia to T2 provides benefits to both. T2’s strengths in poverty, landscape scale, and policy and institutional analysis complement the consortia’s historical focus on more plot and production-system level research for development. T2 benefits from the expertise of the consortia in technical issues relating to soil, water and nutrient management, as well as their experience in the effective management of broad regional networks and capacity building. Most importantly, the south-south links between the consortia and T2 will help to disseminate research findings and to institutionalize research processes and partnerships.
Publications and Documentation
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