News

Payment for Ecosystem Services: Update from Central Asia

12.09.2012

Devising the country and site specific, on-going sustainable schemes for rewarding people to protect or enhance environmental services beneficial to an even wider population remains as a challenge. Nevertheless, sharing stories of success, trial and errors on application of the Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) concept is considered to be a key to succeeding with our endeavors on sustainable use and conservation of the natural resource base and its multiple services provided to humanity. With this rationale, we are happy to provide here a brief-news from Central Asia on CAREC ( Regional Environmental Center for Central Asia), MP member’s effort of introducing the payment scheme in the region by rewarding the upstream communities for their environmental services.

Through the Swiss Re funded pilot project focusing on watershed health, the CAREC Kyrgyzstan office has facilitated the process for PES introduction: local communities mobilized for forming up locally owned institutions as associations of resource users such as mushroom pickers and water user groups and agreeing on locally acceptable reward mechanisms for the upstream communities (forestry local units and pasture committees) for their services of safeguarding the downstream water quality. Since the cash shortage is a real issue in the region along with the trust in the institutions, labor-in kind has been opted as an optimal alternative for the pilot initiative. As a result, 50,000 seedlings (with a 60 % survival rate) were planted on 4 hectares of land by the mushroom pickers association members for improvement of forest ecosystems.

The Kyrgyz experience from this pilot project demonstrates clearly that there are some advantages with the current payment modality, i.e. labor in-kind, especially at this early stage of the PES development as it prevents corruption and guarantees inclusiveness. However this also implies that the forms and types of payment are not exhausted with the current one and further evolution and diversification is very possible.

When stakeholders from Central Asia (participants included from four countries: Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan) gathered for the Regional Workshop (September 06-07, 2012, Issyk-Kul, Kyrgyzstan) at the Issyk-Kul lake for reviewing the progress made on application of the PES concept into practice, the floor was provided to local resource user groups and Leskhoz (state owned forestry units at local levels) to hear of their experience and benefits they derive from the scheme. During the discussion, some of the innovative steps introduced including the partnership between local communities and Leskhoz generated much interest from other participating countries. As for the pilot initiative, it was recommended to replicate and scale up them in all three countries. The foreign participants and local communities helped to identify potential sites where the PES scheme could contribute greatly to resolution of pressing environmental issues and improved local livelihood. Among these identified area, one will be selected soon to implement a new PES pilot project with the support of the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, thus bringing additional experience in the region. Mass media representatives from three countries took active part into the workshop work as their role for outreach and awareness raising on PES scheme and sharing the “learnings by doing” on PES application has been duly recognized and highlighted throughout the workshop.

Please watch a video on the topic http://youtu.be/tPCJPS55uTM