Monitoring payments for watershed services schemes in developing countries

Payments for watershed services (PWS) are schemes that use funds from water users (including governments) as an incentive for landholders to improve their land management practices.

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Watersheds provide services – such as quantity and quality of water – but they are decreasing, yet the demand for these services is increasing.

Can market mechanisms help to increase these services by offering incentives for improved land use in catchment areas? Can such mechanisms also bring benefits to poor people living in those catchments such that their livelihoods are enhanced?

Based on evidence from a range of field sites, the project “Payments for watershed services” (PWS) is generating much debate on how markets can bring most benefit to both watershed services and those living in watershed areas.

The website www.watershedmarkets.org was created to provide free online access to payments for environmental services case studies across the world. The goal is to better understand the role of market mechanisms in providing watershed services and improving livelihoods in developing countries.

For further information, visits the project’s website or http://www.iied.org/developing-markets-for-watershed-services

The publication is available for download here.

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