Your search found 11 records
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H047763)
This study examines the institutional design and actual performance, of payments for ecosystem services (PES) in Vietnam. Taking Payments for Forest Environmental Services Program (PFES Program) implementation in Da Bac district, Hoa Binh province as a case study, it brings to light how PES program design and implementation contributed to the central government's objectives to: (1) involve stakeholders in forest management; (2) reduce the government's budget burden for forest protection; and (3) maintain political control over forest resources. In Vietnam, the PFES Program is implemented in a top-down manner. Participating households act as government-induced forest guards rather than forest owners. Incomplete design at the central-level results in poorer performance at lower levels and, the lack of strategic management makes it difficult to know whether the program has actually improved ecosystem services and forest management. While the PFES Program complements other institutions at the national- and local-levels, some institutional incompatibilities exist in terms of customary practices. It is unlikely, however, that these will develop into an institutional conflict.
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H047782)
In this study, we focus on water quality as a vehicle to illustrate the role that the water, energy, and food (WEF) Nexus perspective may have in promoting ecosystem services in agriculture. The mediation of water quality by terrestrial systems is a key ecosystem service for a range of actors (municipalities, fishers, industries, and energy providers) and is reshaped radically by agricultural activity. To address these impacts, many programs exist to promote improved land-use practices in agriculture; however, where these practices incur a cost or other burden to the farmer, adoption can be low unless some form of incentive is provided (as in a payment for ecosystem services (PES) program). Provision of such incentives can be a challenge to sustain in the long term, if there is not a clear beneficiary or other actor willing to provide them. Successfully closing the loop between impacts and incentives often requires identifying a measurable and valuable service with a clear central beneficiary that is impacted by the summative effects of the diffuse agricultural practices across the landscape. Drawing on cases from our own research, we demonstrate how the WEF Nexus perspective—by integrating non-point-source agricultural problems under well-defined energy issues—can highlight central beneficiaries of improved agricultural practice, where none may have existed otherwise.
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H047785)
(275 KB)
Freshwater ecosystems are central to the global water cycle, in local generation of freshwater flows, and the healthy functioning and resilience of other ecosystems. Freshwater security depends on healthy ecosystems. Current human threats to freshwater ecosystems include rapid infrastructure development and land-use change, inefficient water use and over-abstraction, and pollutants. These threats, combined with increasing demand for water resources, exacerbate the sustainable development challenge. By 2025, two-thirds of the world's population may be living in conditions of severe water stress. It is essential to find solutions that provide for the maintenance of freshwater ecosystems while meeting human needs. This paper examines responses to three pressures to freshwater ecosystems: declining ecosystem services, hydropower and urban development. It explores opportunities for improved decision-making and enhanced resilience including: better evaluation of trade-offs and interlinkages; improved monitoring; decision-making that incorporates long-term perspectives and risks; and the leveraging of crises to advance change.
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H048051)
(0.66 MB)
Ecosystems provide a wide range of services that are important for human-well being. Estimating the multiple services obtained from ecosystems is vital to support decision-making processes at different levels. This study analyzes land use/land cover (LU/LC) dynamics over four decades (i.e., 1973, 1986, 2001, 2015) to assess its impact on ecosystem services. Ecosystem Service Values (ESV) was determined using LU/LC analysis and established global data base. LU/LC analysis showed that forest cover reduced by 54.2% during study period; and settlement, bare land, shrub land and cultivated land increased considerably. The study indicates that due to forest cover change from 1973 to 2015, approximately US$ 3.69 million of ecosystem services values was lost. Among the ecosystem services reduced were: nutrient cycling, provision of raw material and erosion control. The use of LU/LC data along with established global ESV data sets reduce the costs of ground data collection, and help in tracking of past environmental changes and acquisition of quick and reliable results that can be used for decision making processes. We believe that the results obtained can be helpful in designing payment for environmental services and rural development policies.
5 Reddy, V. R.; Rout, S. K.; Pavelic, Paul. 2017. Underground taming of floods in the Ganges basin: technologies, institutions and policies. In Tsakiris, G.; Tsihrintzis, V. A.; Vangelis, H.; Tigkas, D. (Eds.). Proceedings of the 10th World Congress on Water Resources and Environment, "Panta Rhei", Athens, Greece, 5-9 July 2017. Athens, Greece: European Water Resources Association. pp.2061-2067.
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H048265)
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H048452)
Underground taming of floods for irrigation (UTFI) is a new approach for mitigating flood impacts through targeted floodwater storage in depleted aquifers for irrigating crops in the dry season. UTFI not only fosters the much desired conjunctive use and management of water resources but also provides the environmental services that are of high socioeconomic value. UTFI interventions are individually established at the local scale (e.g. village pond, check dam) but to achieve more substantial positive benefits at the scale of meso watersheds (10 s of km2) or sub-basins (100–1,000 s of km2) in the flood-prone river basins requires area-based implementation. Given the nature and scale required, UTFI needs to be managed at the community level with the help of appropriate institutional arrangements taking into account both the upstream and downstream locations. This paper reviews the existing institutional approaches and proposes an institutional framework that can help to mainstream UTFI management in the context of South Asia. The proposed model is centred on the existing formal institutions and also integrates non-market (participatory) and market (payment for ecosystem services) instruments that can provide win–win strategies for water resource management to downstream and upstream communities.
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H048472)
(1.14 MB)
Many Indian states have begun to transfer water meant for irrigation to non-agricultural purposes, but the economic and environmental consequences are not adequately understood. Transfer of water out of water bodies from rural areas not only reduces the economic welfare of the traditional water users but also reduces their incentives to manage these water bodies on a sustainable basis. The study explores the possibility of introducing the mechanism of ‘payment for ecosystem services’ at the grass-roots level in the Indian context as a return for reallocation of water from irrigation to urban uses so that it can produce a non-zero-sum outcome for villagers, farmers, urban consumers and governments.
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H048477)
(494 KB)
To promote pro-poor payments for environmental services, it is necessary to identify institutional options that reduce transaction costs and organisational problems associated with establishing and maintaining contracts with small-scale environmental service providers. This study examined the dual functionality of state forest enterprises (SFEs) in the implementation of the Payments for Forest Environmental Services (PFES) Program in Vietnam. We considered whether SFEs’ involvement in the programme could reduce transaction costs and organisational problems. Data were collected from Tu Ly SFE in Hoa Binh province, northern Vietnam and from implementing agencies at various institutional levels. A survey of households participating in the SFE loan programme, and two stakeholder workshops were executed in 2014. The results revealed that Tu Ly SFE plays an important role in the livelihood of many farmers. A SWOT analysis exhibited SFEs’ advantage over other state agencies in implementing national forest management programmes as there are fewer parties involved with greater autonomy and outreach in the district. This study proposes the acknowledgment of SFEs as environmental service providers in their own forestlands and to use SFEs as intermediaries in the Payments for Forest Environmental Services Programme activities.
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: IWMI Record No: H048874)
(903 KB)
This study reviewed the status of natural resources and the driving forces for change, as well as past and ongoing approaches in natural resource management at the watershed scale in Ethiopia. First, we reviewed established environmental policy tools and the legal and policy framework, and determined whether innovative financing mechanisms are working in other areas with a similar context. We undertook stakeholder analyses and mapping to identify key stakeholders, and to assess their possible roles in the implementation of a sustainable financing mechanism for watershed rehabilitation. We also determined whether opportunities exist for financing mechanisms involving hydropower and urban water supply in payments for ecosystem services (PES), and the global community in the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) in the context of the Bale Eco-region. The study identified major constraints to designing an appropriate financing mechanism. Finally, the study drew important conclusions and key policy implications that are relevant for Ethiopia and perhaps other areas in a similar context.
10 Lazurko, Anita; Drechsel, Pay; Hanjra, M. A. 2018. Financing resource recovery and reuse in developing and emerging economies: enabling environment, financing sources and cost recovery. Colombo, Sri Lanka: International Water Management Institute (IWMI). CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE) 39p. (Resource Recovery and Reuse Series 11) [doi: https://doi.org/10.5337/2018.220]
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: IWMI Record No: H049025)
(979 KB)
Resource recovery and reuse (RRR) of domestic and agro-industrial waste has the potential to contribute to a number of financial, socioeconomic and environmental benefits. However, despite these benefits and an increasing political will, there remain significant barriers to build the required up-front capital which is discouraging private sector engagement. A systematic analysis and understanding of the enabling environment, public and private funding sources, risk-sharing mechanisms and pathways for cost recovery can help to identify opportunities to improve the viability of RRR solutions. This report looks at regulations and policies that remove disincentives for RRR, public and private funding sources for capital and operational costs, risk mitigation options through blending and structuring finance, and options for operational cost recovery.
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H051072)
(3.30 MB)
Payments for Water-Related Ecosystem Services (PWES) are increasingly popular for promoting water ecological conservation, and their impact on development is of considerable interest. This study estimates the economic impact of PWES on protected areas using the synthetic control method. Taking the Middle Route of the South to North Water Diversion Project in China as a case study, we find that the per capita GDP in protected areas increased markedly relative to synthetic control regions, and PWES had a positive economic impact. Additionally, we conducted many placebo tests to verify the validity and robustness of the results. We believe that the main factor responsible for the positive effect lies in developing the ecological-economic industrial system. This study provides a baseline for synthetic control analysis of PWES to compare regions of interest with their counterfactuals. The case study findings provide reference for the economic development of protected areas.
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