7-8 october, 2010 workshop-seminar payment for ecosystems services in kazakhstan: best practices and...
TRANSCRIPT
7-8 October, 2010
Workshop-seminarPayment for Ecosystems Services in
Kazakhstan: Best Practices and Lessons-learned in Watershed
Management in the U.S. and Central Asia
Simon Charré and Mariya Genina
Payment for Ecosystem Services is based on the concept of
Ecosystem Services
• Definition of the United Nations: “ES are the benefits that ecosystems provide to humans”.
• 4 types of ES have been identified, they concern:– provision (production of food and water)– regulation (control of climate and disease)– Support (nutrient cycles and crop pollination)– Culture (spiritual and recreational benefits)
Forests
Agricultural lands
What are the ES provided in the case of water resources?
Upstream land uses can be: • agriculture • Industry• forestryThey affect the quantity, quality, and timing
of water flows.
Downstream beneficiaries can be:
• Domestic water use• Irrigated agriculture• Fisheries• Recreation• Downstream ecosystems
Outcomes of this situation:• Upstream land are beneficiaries
from the situation. Their practices are not sustainable but they are the
less expensive for them.
• Downstream population face problems with water resources, which impacts their standard of living.
Benefits to land users
Costs to downstream populations
Current situation New practices
→ A change in practices affects positively downstream populations, but decrease the benefits of upstream land users, that’s the reason why they are often not really willing to change without incentive.
How to solve this situation?
The Payment for Ecosystem Services mechanism is a win-win answer to this
situation. A financial relation between ES providers (sellers) and beneficiaries (buyers) is
developed on a voluntary basis:
Buyers pay an incentive to the sellers if they commit themselves to change their practices toward more sustainable ones.
Upstream land users = Ecosystem Services sellers
Downstream water users = Ecosystem Services buyers
Ecosystem Services flow
Ecosystem Services flow
Payment flow
Payment flow
Agricultural landsForests
The Payment of the PES can have different natures according to the situation: mainly cash or in-kind. In any case, to be sustainable, it must:• Be affordable for the buyer• Covers the cost of changing practices and provide an incentive for the seller• Be repeated every year, as long as the Ecosystem Services are provided
Benefits to land users
(sellers)
Costs to downstream populations
(buyers)
Current situationNew practices +
payment
Payment
…and those involved in the mechanism itself, i.e. buyers, sellers and the intermediate organization
can be:• Governmental bodies• Private companies• The population, from small farmers to inhabitants
of important cities
The stakeholders designing and implementing the PES scheme can be…
• Non-governmental organizations such as NGOs or associations
• Governmental bodies, at the local or national level
• Private companies
Types of PES
Depending on the stakeholders involved as buyers and sellers, the PES is considered as:
• Public-Publice.g., a state-owned hydropower plant pays the national forest
agency to increase reforestation in a watershed;
• Public-Privatee.g., a city administration pays farmers to adopt environmentally
friendly practices in order to ensure a good quality of water;
• Private-Privatee.g., a private company that needs clean water pays private land
users to encourage them to change their practices.
The essential role of governmental bodies
To be implemented and work efficiently, the PES needs to be developed in a favorable institutional framework. Thus, governmental bodies have to act at global or local level in order to:
• Allow the creation of a fund thanks to the money collected among sellers
• Allow the financial transaction buyers/sellers• Allow the establishment of a contract
between public and private stakeholders
– The institutional framework allows this type of mechanism
– The payment is affordable for buyers and covers sellers expenses (opportunity cost): need to conduct scientific assessments
– Transaction costs are as low as possible– The financial support is mainly provided by buyers and
other local organizations and not by NGOs or external donors
– The conditions of the PES are established after a multi-stakeholders negotiation and are written down in a formal contract
– Capacity building and awareness raising for stakeholders
These conditions must be met to ensure the sustainability of the PES scheme.
STEP 1
• Identification of a pilot territory where:– The geographic situation allow the
implementation of this kind of mechanism– Local authorities are involved in the local
development – Economic activities are highly dependent
of the furniture of one or several ES – Populations are willing to pay for the
provision of ES
STEP 2
• First discussions with local stakeholders:– Presentation and clarification of the concept of
PES– Discussions on the interest of the mechanism in
the territory– Creation of a coordination committee to lead the
design of the PES
The awareness of local stakeholders and their willingness to be involved in the scheme is crucial for having positive results
STEP 3: Identifying Ecosystem Services
ES Demand:• What specific services? • Type of measurement?• Who benefits from these services?• How much benefit do they receive?
ES Supply:• How are these services generated?
• How much more or less of these services would they receive if land use changed?
• Who generates these services?
Need a multidisciplinary work
ES have to be evaluated at several levels
• What is the influence of the land uses on water resources?
• What is the link between water resources and the welfare of downstream population?
• What new land use practices could improve the welfare of downstream population?
The answers to these questions need the intervention of specialists in: biology, hydrology, economy, sociology
These assessments, because they are objective, strengthen the trust of local stakeholders in the scheme
Finally, scientific assessments have to show the two limits of the possible payment:
Benefits to land users
Costs to downstream populations
Current situation
New practices New practices + payment
PaymentMinimum payment
Maximum payment
• The Opportunity Cost (minimum acceptable payment for sellers)
• The Value of Benefits (maximum acceptable payment for buyers)
The monitoring has two impacts on the PES operation:
• Ensures confidence in the system• Allows to adjust the scheme if the
environmental situation or the relation between buyers and sellers change
This monitoring is a key point for the sustainability of the system and has to be
elaborated before the implementation of the scheme, in consultation with all the
participants.
STEP 4
• Training activities:– Disseminate new practices and monitoring
among the upstream land users– Give them important information for the next
activity, i.e. the negotiation of the contract (price of change of practices, different natures for the payment)
Example: Training to disseminate new pasture use practices among farmers.
STEP 5
• Negotiation of the contract:This step establishes the relation
between buyers and sellers (conditionality, payment, monitoring)– It brings together buyers, sellers
and the intermediate organization– The output is the agreement and
signature of the PES contract
Content of the PES contract
• Nature, amount and recurrence of the payment
• Conditionality of the payment
• Nature and recurrence of the monitoring
• Conditions for the extension or renegotiation of the contract
STEP 6
• Monitoring:The monitoring, realized by independent
experts, aims to:
– Show the effectiveness of the chosen practices: Do changes in land use generate the desired services?
– Show the Impact on participants: is the welfare of participants improved?
– Verify that ES sellers are following the conditional practices
STEP 7
• Extension or reevaluation of the contracts:
– The monitoring shows whether the characteristics of the contract are adapted to the local situation
– After the end of each contract, a meeting present the results of the monitoring
– During this meeting, according to the results of the monitoring and the remarks of the participants, the contract can be amended
– Contracts can be extended as long as ES are provided
Conclusion
• The PES tool is adaptable to a large range of natural, economic and social contexts
• It deals both with nature protection and development of economic activities
• It ensures a long term provision of Ecosystem Services beneficial for buyers
• It ensures long-term incomes for sellers
• It relies on multistakeholder cooperation
The PES tool is therefore an interesting opportunity for Central Asia to protect natural resources and
support rural development