Browsing by Author "Porras, I."
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- Green Water Credits: Lessons learned from payments for environmental servicesGrieg-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 AmericaGrieg-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.
- 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.