Introduction of payment for environmental services in the municipal water regulation of San Jerónimo Municipality in Baja Verapaz, Guatemala
The concept:
Payment for environmental services as an alternative to legal regulations and the implementation of corrective measures in the use of natural resources
Every day it becomes more evident that environmental protection and economics cannot be dealt with separately, since the natural environment is present in every economic activity and its mismanagement may not only threaten economic benefits but even human safety, as in the case of natural disasters.
Sustainable development has been addressed for many years as an option that does not harm environmental goods and services while at the same time assuring access to said services for future generations.
Within this framework, it is necessary to clearly understand that the terms "environmental goods" and "environmental services" are two different concepts:
- Environmental goods [1] are tangible resources with a one-time use as inputs in production or in final consumption like firewood, timber and medicinal plants.
- Environmental services [2] are on the other hand are not transformed in the process and generate indirect usefulness for the consumer. They are the functions of the ecosystem that are used by man and that generate financial or social benefits for him. Examples are: water regulation, natural residue treatment, the formation of soils and climate-related regulation.
Practical experience has shown that payment for environmental services may be a more adequate approach for assuring a sustainable natural resource management than regulatory and corrective measures given lower costs and easy implementation. In addition, this approach offers financial, social and political benefits as it encourages good resource management practices in a competitive manner in critical areas such as natural reservessuch as in the case of the San Jerónimo Municipality.
Payment for Environmental Services (PES) is an alternative and complementary mechanism that differs from other measures (incentives, for example[3]) through a long-term funding approach which is generally based on a mutually agreed management commitment among actors.
The central axis of the PES approach [4] is that it encourages the provision of environmental services. Providers have to be compensated by the beneficiaries, whereas compensation shall be equal or greater than the forgone short-term benefit, that result from the changing to sustainable land use , plus implicit transaction costs and costs for the introduction of new land use schemes..
PES needs to find a balance between, on the one hand, securing a supplier's income after he changes his resource use practices, and, on the other hand, guaranteeing the consumers' willingness-to-pay for the service [5]. In other words, the logic of the supplier focuses on the costs to assume new practices for the use of natural resources that must be compensated with the new fees paid by users.
Beneficiaries would be willing to pay based on the perceived value of the environmental service that they receive. The valuation of environmental services is a monetary estimate that is highly subjective and is related with the perceived level of well-being that they provide for the population.
The experience:
Negotiation process of a system of payment for environmental services linked to water resources in San Jerónimo, Baja Verapaz
The municipalities of San Jerónimo and Salamá in Baja Verapaz share the San Jerónimo river basin located in the central-northern part of the country, and its upper watershed which is in the Sierra de las Minas Biosphere Reservation. The latter is managed by Defensores de la Naturaleza - FDN [6] on behalf of the Government. A large part of the core zone of the biosphere reservationis a cloudy rainforest, which contributes to the capture of water from rainfall.
The community of San Isidro, with an extension of some 1,250 ha, managed through the Collective Land Management System, is located in the medium/higher altitude of the micro basin. The main crops are corn and beans and, to a lesser amount, broccoli, potatoes and tomatoes [7].
There are well-defined water users and players in the river basin (Urban Water Committee and the Association of Irrigation Users in San Jerónimo -AURSA, landowners in the highlands, municipality, a hydroelectric plant -Tecnoguat) who were invited by the Municipal government to participate in a mutual dialogue on integrated water use allowing for municipal regulations.
The negotiation process was supported in close cooperation by Defensores de la Naturaleza (FDN) and the German cooperation agency, GTZ, through the Municipal Decentralization and Development Program (DDM-GTZ).
Due to the lack of national legislation and policies, PES needed to be implemented through regulations at the municipal level.. To elaborate the municipal regulation, it was necessary for local actors to reach agreements based on appropriate information, clear rules of the game and municipal leadership.
This approach led to the implementation of a compensation system for the owners of the water- producing area, the upper river basin (San Isidro) by the users in the lower river basin (urban area) in order to protect the forest and the soils, as elements that regulate the flow and quality of water.
The methodology used to negotiate the regulations was based on consensus orientation and creating win-win situations (Harvard negotiation concept) among the participants. "Objective" technical information was used, generated through FDN research on the value of the use of water for irrigation, its use for hydroelectricity, rural drinking water services and the "willingness-to-pay".
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