Payment for Environmental Water Services in the Sub-Andean Rain Forest (Bolivia)
Photo: FAN / Erika Bayá - Serranías del Parque Nacional AmboróInstitutional framework
Prefecture of Santa Cruz, Municipality of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Amboró National Park.
Target group
The population of the city of Santa Cruz; inhabitants who manage forests in the Piraí Basin and near Amboró Protected Area.
Execution PeRíod
2008 - 2011
Funding entityes
The Royal Netherlands Embassy Bolivia, The Nature Conservancy (TNC), Coperación Andina de Fomento (CAF)
Project Challenges
- Ensure transparent and legitimate institutional capabilities for raising and managing funds efficiently and effectively. Ensure the provision of hydrological environmental services benefing the city of Santa Cruz.
- Etablish an interinstitutional committee for the project's implementation phase.
Responsable
Environmetal Services: Stephan von Borries
Objectives
Support the establishment of a Payment for Environmental Services (PES) scheme in the city of Santa Cruz to conserve and maintain biodiversity and hydrological services provided by Amboró National Park and the Higher and Lower Basins of Río Piraí.
Results
Water balance of the Piraí River basin and the Amboró have been modeled including land cover change and climate change scenarios.
- A spatial-temporal hydrological model has been implemented (1992-200 daily water balance baseline) to simulate volume levels under lancover change and climate change scenarios.
Economic valuations have been made for conservation of the Piraí and Amboró hydrological services:
- Willingness of Santa Cruz city to pay for protecting hydrological environmental services has been estimated through a study (Contingent Valuation).
- Opportunity cost study estimates the amount to be compensated to inhabitants of the forest for lost revenues derived from land conservations.
- Determine the transaction costs and sustainability of the fund.
We have determined the legal-institutional framework and the Payment for Environmental Services (PES) Mechanism considering:
- Stakeholder analysis, agreement processes, legal and institutional framework, transaction costs, and the financial mechanism. The mechanism must be capable of ensuring proper coordination between the parties, transferring funds between beneficiaries and suppliers, operating, control and monitoring aspects, and other to guarantee transparency, trustworthiness, precision and justice in all transactions involving redistribution of benefits.
A communications and dissemination strategy has been developed and implemented:
- Production of informative brochures on the project to be disseminated in the city of Santa Cruz; the production of banners to be used at environmental services fairs and expositions; the production of a TV spot of the project, its benefits and scope; presentation of the PES scheme at the Samaipata interpretation center; re-publishing of the Protected Areas Guide incorporating a chapter on environmental services; and the publication of final results and lessons learned.
Use of the products after the project has concluded
- The hydrological study will provide the technical and scientific argument so the population of Santa Cruz can recognize the importance of the hydrological environmental services provided the impacts and risks of losing the forests, and the environmental services that benefit the city of Santa Cruz.
- The economic valuations and institutional and legal framework will help the interinstitutional Committee determine the viability of the proposed PES scheme.
- The communications and dissemination strategy will contribute to learning about and validating the proposal among the population of the city of Santa Cruz, the Río Piraí high and low basins, and a portion of the Amboró Protected Area.