Green-Economy-Report

NATURE AND ITS ROLE IN THE TRANSITION TO A GREEN ECONOMY
T H E M U L T I P L E V A L U E S O F N A T U R E
estimated at US$1 million (Troëng and Drews,
2004).
An estimation of the economic value of the
European network of protected areas, Natura
2000, suggested this to be in a range of 200-
300bn EUR annually, based on and scaling up
from existing site-based studies. Although the
While some PESs focus on single objectives (as
noted above), others have been designed to meet
multiple objectives simultaneously. The Costa Rican
PSA programme pays landholders for providing
carbon sequestration and hydrological services and
conserving biodiversity and landscapes. The above
mentioned Working for Water programme and also
Box 4.7: Payment for hydrological services of
forests in Mexico (PSAH)
Mexico’s federal government created a voluntary
PES scheme in 2003 with the aim of linking those
benefiting from the forests’ water-related
environmental services with their providers in the
watersheds and aquifers recharge areas of the
country. This was a national scheme, benefitting
from good hydrological, forest cover and social
data on poverty distribution in the country. The
scheme started in 2003 covering 127 thousand
hectares and this has grown to 2.3 million
hectares by 2010. Indigenous communities
(ejidos) responsible for forestland as common
property accounts for the majority of the area
under the scheme and over 3,300 individuals and
communities engaged by 2009 with a total
payment committed of $US303million.
Results – By comparing statistically equivalent
forests between 2000 and 2007, the PSAH
reduced the rate of deforestation from 1.6 per
cent to 0.6 per cent. This was achieved even
under conditions in which signed forests had a
lower than average risk of deforestation and
where PSAH had contracts with an average of
two years under operation. This translates into
18,300 hectares of avoided deforestation with
31
pool of studies was limited both in numbers and
geographical distribution, the number illustrates
the significant scale of the benefits provided by
protected areas network in the EU (ten Brink et al,
2011).
Source: Kettunen et al. (2011) in TEEB (2011a) and
sources therein.
the Working for Wetlands programme in South Africa
help with provisioning and regulating services while
providing employment opportunities (see Box 4.7).
In Ecuador the Programme Socio Bosque helps with
deforestation, carbon storage and poverty alleviation
(see TEEB 2011a). The Mexican PSAH similarly
succeeds in delivering multiple benefits (see Box 4.7)
three more years of contract to go. Expressed in
avoided greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions this
equates to 3.2 million tonnes CO 2 eq. An
improved targeting mechanism could increase the
effect on reduced deforestation, reduced
emissions and greater protection of watersheds
and aquifers of the programme, giving fee-payers
more environmental value for their money (Muñoz
et al, 2010). As regards poverty alleviation, most
of the payments (78% in first three years of
operation) went to forests owned by people living
in areas with high or very high marginalization and
within this around a third (in 2004) under the
extreme poverty line.
Key insights include:
• There were three times as many applications as
funds;
• The choice of objectives and prioritization
significantly affects the focus and allocation of
funds: this is directly reflected in the final
outcomes;
• GIS, hydrological and census data were
valuable elements in setting up the programme
as they helped identify areas of deforestation,
aquifer over-exploitation and poverty.
Source: Muñoz-Piña et al (2008); Muñoz et al
(2010)