Posted on December, 21 2005

Across the world, environmental conservation is critical to secure the quantity and quality of ecosystem services that are essential for people and nature. With funding for natural resource management dwindling, a variety of payments for environmental services (PES) schemes have emerged as potential sources of sustainable financing for conservation.

In the case of Europe, recent and ongoing changes (e.g. Water Framework Directive; Common Agricultural Policy; Rural and Regional development policy; plus the Eastern enlargement of the EU as well as the European Neighborhood Program) may have opened a window of opportunity to mainstream PES as a major conservation tool.

Against this background, the aim of the workshop was to introduce basic concepts related to payments for environmental services; present some experiences with PES from around the world; and discuss opportunities for PES in relation to WWF’s work in Eurasia. Workshop participants included WWF staff from across Europe, a number of Bulgarians including Ministry officials, and independent experts.

After introducing the WWF-SIDA capacity building programme on payments for environmental services Pablo Gutman of the WWF Macroeconomic Policy for Sustainable Development Office in Washington, D.C., introduced basic concepts and outstanding issues regarding Payments for Environmental Services from a WWF perspective.

Marta Echeverria of Ecodecision in Ecuador presented a number of inspiring experiences with payments for environmental services from Latin America, including water payments in Quito, Ecuador, that are used to conserve the mountain areas from which the city draws most of its water.

Al Appleton, former New York City Commissioner of Water and Environment, provided an illuminating (and entertaining) discussion of his experience setting up payment schemes for farmers in the Catskill Mountains that have not only safeguarded New York City’s water supply (saving an estimated 5 billion USD investment in a water treatment facility), but also helped preserve rural farming communities.

Nanete Neves of the International Institute for Environment and Development from the UK presented the IIED’s ongoing Markets for Watershed Services Review. 

Lorenz Petersen of GTZ described some of the lessons that the German aid agency has learned regarding marketing environmental services. 

The second day of the workshop focused on experience with and opportunities for developing payments for environmental services in Eurasia.

Charlie Avis, coordinator for WWF’s One Europe More Nature initiative, described WWF’s work to develop socio-economic mechanisms for nature conservation and sustainable development in a number of areas across Europe, including the Tisza river basin, the area of Maramures in northern Romania, and the area of Donana in southern Spain.

Andreas Beckmann of the WWF Danube-Carpathian Programme discussed issues related to developing and promoting payments for environmental services in the Danube River Basin.

Xavier Escute of the WWF Mediterranean Programme discussed WWF’s Cork Oak programme, highlighting possible opportunities for developing payments for environmental services. 

Mohammed Rahoui of the WWF Mediterranean Programme (Morocco) presented some of the challenges related to water use and conservation in Morocco, and asked participants to what extent payments for environmental services might be used to address these issues.

A break-out session gave participants the opportunity to further discuss follow-up particularly with regard to payments for water in Morocco, Cork oak in the western Mediterranean, and water and other environmental services in Bulgaria and the lower Danube river basin.

The workshop was organised as part of the WWF/SIDA capacity building programme on Payments for Environmental Services.

For further information:
Andreas Beckmann
WWF Danube-Carpathian Programme
Email: abeckmann@wwfdcp.org