Browsing by Author "Grieg-Gran, M."

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    Fiscal incentives for biodiversity conservation: the ICMS Ecologico in Brazil
    Grieg-Gran, M. (London, UK: IIED, 2000)
    This paper evaluates an innovative tax revenue-sharing scheme in Brazil, designed to promote the conservation and management of protected areas. Known as the 'ICMS Ecológico', the scheme was introduced by the state of Paraná in Brazil and subsequently by several other states. The scheme aims to compensate municipal governments for the loss of potential tax revenue from the designation of protected areas (mainly by the state and federal government). It is also intended to have an incentive effect, encouraging both better management of existing protected areas as well as the designation of new conservation areas. The paper examines the experience with the ICMS Ecológico in the states of Minas Gerais and Rondônia, two states which present a marked contrast in terms of land use, population density and forest resources. It considers the extent to which the compensation and incentive objectives have been achieved in the two states. The distributional impact of the ICMS Ecológico is also examined through an analysis of the characteristics of the counties which are winners or losers under the scheme.
  • Green Water Credits: Lessons learned from payments for environmental services
    Grieg-Gran, M.; Noel, S.; Porras, I. (Wageningen, the Netherlands: ISRIC, 2006)
    Summary: Green Water Credits is a mechanism for payments to land users for specified land and soil management activities that determine the supply of fresh water at source. These activities are presently unrecognized and unrewarded. Direct payment will enable better management and therefore less runoff, flooding, and siltation of reservoirs, and more groundwater recharge and stream base flow, particularly during the dry season. At the same time, Green Water Credits will diversify rural incomes and help communities to adapt to economic and environmental change. The proof-of-concept project aims to demonstrate the viability and feasibility of the concept. World-wide experience with payments for environmental services (PES) initiatives offers several useful lessons about:
  • How can market mechanisms for forest environmental services help the poor? Preliminary lessons from Latin America
    Grieg-Gran, M.; Porras, I.; Wunder, Sven (Elsevier, 2005)
    Market mechanisms for forest environmental services are a new approach for conservation but there is also increasing interest in the derived developmental benefits of these mechanisms. We first propose a conceptual framework for future research on the livelihood impacts of environmental service markets. We then review eight Latin American case studies on carbon sequestration and watershed protection market initiatives, finding positive local income effects in most cases, more land tenure security and socio-institutional strengthening in some cases, but some negative effects also. We recommend pro-poor policy measures such as reducing smallholders' transaction costs, and removing inappropriate access restrictions.
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    Instruments for sustainable private forestry in Brazil: An analysis of needs, challenges and opportunities for natural forest management and small-scale plantation forestry
    Viana, V. M.; May, P.; Lago, L.; Dubois, O.; Grieg-Gran, M. (London: IIED, 2002)
    Brazil presents particular challenges for sustainable forest management. Much of its forest is on private land and there are strong pressures to make land available for agriculture, while forests have traditionally been seen as obstacles to development. Most private sector forestry in the Amazon is unsustainable, with large areas being cleared for other land uses in spite of regulations which aim to ensure good forest management and to limit conversion. This report considers how new approaches to forest policy can induce the private sector to play a positive role in forest management. It examines how policy and market failures have limited this until now, and assesses the prospects for new types of instruments to overcome these failures. These new approaches, which include certification, payment for environmental services, private sector-community partnerships and incentives for reforestation, emphasize markets and have the common goal of increasing forest values to private owners or managers of land.
  • Watershed services: Who pays and for what?
    Porras, I.; Grieg-Gran, M. (London, UK: International Institute for Environment and Development, 2007)
    There is increasing interest in using payments to promote sound watershed management. Schemes range from small pilot projects involving just five families to a massive Chinese project that aims to reach 15 million farmers. The expectation is that such schemes will help to resolve problems such as declining water flows, flooding and deteriorating water quality by bringing in new funding from water users, the private sector in particular, and by providing incentives for sustainable management to those closest to natural resources. A review of active and proposed schemes in developing nations shows, however, that most schemes still depend on donor or government funding, and few are driven by water users. Meanwhile, evidence of benefits remains patchy.