BIO-CULTURAL COMMUNITY PROTOCOLS - Portal do Professor

PART II / CHAPTER 6
5. The Options Provided by BCPs to
Address these Challenges
While integrating communities into PES schemes will remain
complex, the use of BCPs, as described in the context of ABS,
could offer clear support in facilitating the process and
enabling sustainable schemes that positively contribute to
local livelihoods and strengthen their bio-cultural ways of life.
The following section outlines some of the possible benefits
that BCPs offer in the context of PES schemes.
5.1 The BCP Process as a Tool for
Capacity Development
Similar to the ABS context, a BCP in a PES scheme would
serve both as process and outcome. The process would help
with the identification of the community and its different
stakeholders. The development of the BCPs would set out
who is included in the community, which resources and
practices they rely on and other characteristics relevant to
a PES scheme such as the community’s bio-cultural values
concerning land use. The process of engaging community
members in the design of a BCP would also facilitate the
sharing of information about the concepts of PES schemes
and how they could be integrated into endogenous
development planning. It would also allow community
members to discuss the nature of individual PES schemes,
their local adaptability and relevance and their accompanying
opportunities and challenges, including how they may
support their bio-cultural ways of life.
5.2 Affirmation of Local
Decision-making Processes
In order to set up a PES scheme, a community has to enter
into a negotiation process with one or more actors, such
as other communities serving as ESS providers, possible
users of ESS or intermediaries. To do so, the community
has to decide on who should represent them in such
negotiations, which could be existing representatives,
local leaders who represent the community in other
matters or new representatives. In communities that are
well-organized and already have a history of negotiating
the use of natural resources at the local level, the selection
of such representatives is likely to be fairly easy. In other
cases in which no such process has taken place before,
BIO-CULTURAL COMMUNITY PROTOCOLS IN THE
CONTEXT OF PAYMENT FOR ECOSYSTEM SERVICES
the selection of a representative to negotiate on behalf of
the community will be more challenging. Either way, the
process of developing a BCP will be beneficial as it will
confirm existing representatives and give them the authority
to negotiate a PES scheme on behalf of the community,
or it will lead to the selection of a new group of
representatives or committee. Through the BCP process,
the representatives will be given a clear mandate about
how to engage in the negotiations. The protocol itself
will also help outsiders who would like to enter into
negotiations with the community to identify a point of
contact to approach.
5.3 Reducing Transaction Costs through
Prepared Communities
One of the biggest challenges to making PES work is the
high transaction costs associated with setting up and
maintaining a PES scheme. If transaction costs outweigh the
possible gains made by an ESS user for paying an ESS provider
to maintain or improve land use practices, then the whole
PES scheme is redundant. Thus, reducing transaction costs
of setting up and maintaining a scheme is essential.
While BCPs will not be able to prevent all transaction costs,
they have the potential to reduce some of the costs associated
with negotiating with ILCs. First, communities that have
developed BCPs are better prepared for entering into
negotiations with visions of what they want to achieve from
such a scheme. They will have also decided who will represent
them in negotiations and will have given that representative
a clear mandate. Furthermore, building local capacity and
understanding the concept of PES through the BCP process
will further facilitate the efficacy of negotiations. Finally, when
several neighboring communities are integrated into one
PES scheme, the joint formulation of a BCP can help
participating communities collectively align their visions
with respect to the scheme, thus reducing some of the
transaction costs of working with different groups at
the same time.
Other factors associated with the BCP process are likely to
lower transaction costs directly or indirectly.
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