Who Pays for Water?
A regional project on markets and incentives for watershed protection and improved livelihoods
Talvan stream, St. Lucia. - Credit: Lyndon John |
In January 2004, CANARI launched a two and a half year project to examine and test the use of markets and incentives to improve the
quality and delivery of watershed services, such as water production, soil erosion, landslide and flood control, and biodiversity protection,
for the purpose of improving local livelihoods, especially for the poor.
In the Caribbean the project initially focuses on four countries, Grenada, Jamaica, St. Lucia, and Trinidad and Tobago. It builds on national diagnostic studies carried out in 2002 to assess experience in the use of markets and incentives as tools for watershed management in those countries, and interest in and potential for exploring the concept further. The aims of the project are:
- to improve understanding within key institutions of the roles that market-based approaches can – and cannot – play in watershed protection and livelihood improvement;
- to develop and test economic instruments for improving watershed services in selected countries and contexts;
- to explore the potential for increasing the contribution to the protection of watersheds from economic sectors, such as the water and tourism industries, that benefit from their services;
- to identify the requirements for increasing and sustaining local benefits from watershed services;
- to transfer skills and methods for assessing and employing economic instruments for watershed protection.
Activities include:
- establishment of a regional “Action-Learning Group” to assure that the project’s
findings and results are fed into the programmes of relevant national and regional
agencies;
- initiation of projects in St. Lucia and Jamaica to test the usefulness of
markets and incentives to address critical watershed management issues;
- organisation of a regional workshop on hydrological considerations in designing
watershed protection measures;
- research on the potential effects of water sector privatisation and of tourism
certification schemes on the development of markets and incentives for watershed
protection services.
Publications >>
Markets and Incentives >>
Who Pays for Water? is the Caribbean component of the global project Developing Markets for
Watershed Protection Services and Improved Livelihoods,
which is being implemented by the International Institute for Environment
and Developmentwith financial support from the United Kingdom Department
for International Development. The initiative includes activities in
India, Indonesia, South Africa, and other countries in addition to the
Caribbean. For more information on this innovative global project, click
here
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