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Payments for Environmental Services (PES)
Description
ResourceAfrica and the Ford Foundation partnered to explore the concept of payment for environmental services (PES) as a possible tool, model, concept and/or lens through which issues of empowerment, equity, access and benefit-sharing for communities who interact with, affect and are affected by the environment, can be better addressed in the African region. PES is a concept that seeks to create incentives or compensation/payment schemes to encourage resource users to look after the ecosystems and also to pay for the cost of maintaining the ecosystem service (Pagiola and Platais 2002). This way PES allows for tackling the twin issues of environmental conservation and economic development (or poverty alleviation).
Objectives
- To conduct an in-depth review and critical analysis of PES in the African context, informed by fact-finding research, interactive discussion and debate, as well as practical groundtruthing of concepts and models;
- To facilitate discussion for sharing of theoretical as well as practical knowledge from a critical mass of African intellectual capital specific to PES
- To ensure an African network of institutions and individuals that can engage with critical stakeholders (donors, governments, industry, and civil society) and inform the development of global trends and thinking around PES and its applicability and relative effectiveness as an enhancer of pro-poor sustainable development
Activities
South Africa Exploratory Field Visit, 15 - 22 August 2004
- Fact-finding meetings and research, leading to the compilation of primary information on PES-related initiatives in South Africa
- Convening of a cross-sectoral, multi-stakeholder national workshop/seminar in order to create a body of thinking around PES
- Study tours and field visits to projects/initiatives/sites where PES is occurring in South Africa
Kenya Exploratory Field Visit, 22 - 29 August, 2004
- Program of meetings with civil society and government stakeholders, as well as illuminating field visits to probe on-the-ground dimensions of PES
Indonesia Exploratory Field Visit 15 - 27 November, 2004
- Convening of final (international) workshop to pool together and share global experiences and lessons learned, as well as to provide recommendations to development donors, policymakers and practitioners on the interpretation and implementation of PES within the African context
Final Synthesis workshop, South Africa during April/May 2005
- Discussion of PES Case Studies, three from each country, South Africa , Kenya and Indonesia
Location
South Africa , Kenya , Thailand and Indonesia
Duration
July 2004 - June 2005
Future steps
- The need to explore institutional arrangements and PES mechanisms much deeper with selected partners
- The need to develop and deliver a full capacity-building package for communities as social and technical preparation for their involvement in PES. Acknowledgement of the challenges of working with government in this domain, and the need to develop effective feedback mechanisms.
- The need to focus on identifying the actors who can bring about positive change.
- Learning by doing, Learning by documenting, Learning by sharing
Lessons learnt
- The need to create cross cutting linkages between existing policy and practice instruments and the new emerging concept of PES. There are similarities between the principles of Community Based Natural Resources Management, Access and Benefit Sharing and PES
- A conducive political and policy environment is essential in order to implement PES in South Africa
- Capacity building for communities to enable them to effectively
engage is imperative. It has been proposed that a model
of empowerment and representation dubbed 'voice of the voiceless'
be implemented as a platform for communities to engage in
dialogue and debates into broader global issues on PES.
- The need to keep it simple regarding our PES messages to communities
- The need to be flexible in terms of site selection for the PES case studies
- Although to a certain degree a Market based model of
PES is essential to providing incentives and economic empowerment,
developing a community-based - rather than a market-based
-model of PES is emerging as the major comparative advantage
of this learning exercise
Partners
The Ford Foundation, The Regional Community Forestry Training Center for Asia and the Pacific, (RECOFTC), The Indonesian Institute for Forest and Environment (RMI), Bureau of Environmental Analysis International (BEA), South African National Parks (SANPARKS), Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (DEAT), North West Provincial Department of Agriculture Conservation and Environment (DACE) and the Limpopo Provincial Department of Economic Development, Environment and Tourism (DEDET)
Contact Details
info@resourceafrica.org
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