Unsustainable land use decisions and agricultural practices by landholders are responsible for watershed degradation. However, landholders have little or no incentive to change their ways by adopting sustainable land use practices.

PRESA researchers at Kapingazi during the survey.

That much is already known.

Little is known about landholder attitudes and preferences related to alternative land management schemes. Which practices do landholders prefer, and why? How much of their land can they set aside in a payments for environmental services (PES) scheme?

A recently published journal paper describes how researchers have adopted market research techniques to answer these questions and more.

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Strengthening local institutions is key to ensuring the involvement of smallholder farmers in payments for environmental service (PES) deals. PRESA worked with Nature Harness Initiatives (NAHI) in Uganda to prepare local stakeholders for participation in carbon PES along River Wambabya in the Albertine Rift, and watershed PES at the Rushebeya-Kanyabaha wetland.

A wetland in Uganda. PHOTO: NAHI

The work involved cataloguing the potential sellers, intermediaries and private-sector buyers of environmental services in the two landscapes. Awareness creation was conducted among potential sellers at community level. These included existing groups and networks of land owners, forest owners, people engaged in forest and wetland-based enterprises, parish wetland management committees and other users of forest and wetland resources.

The potential buyers included Kisiizi Hospital Power Company (at Rushebeya-Kanyabaha) and British American Tobacco and McLeod Russel Uganda( at Wambabya). Dialogue on PES was initiated among the potential buyers and government institutions. At the Wambabya riverine forest system, the two private sector companies have contributed greatly to ecosystem conservation in their areas of operation.
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Who said carbon cannot pay for water? PRESA facilitated the expansion of Ecotrust’s work on Trees for Global benefits to enable farmers growing trees in the River Mobuku watershed in Uganda to access carbon payments. Mobuku River watershed lies at the foothills of the Rwenzori Mountains.

A woodlot of 'Prunus Africana' trees in the Ecotrust Uganda project area. PHOTO: Ecotrust Uganda

Before a carbon project is implemented, a lot of work goes into linking communities with potential carbon buyers. This article is a summary of activities by Ecotrust Uganda and PRESA, in getting farmers into carbon offsetting.

Farmer mobilisation

Several strategies were employed including home visits by Ecotrust field staff and meetings with local leaders in the areas targeted for the carbon project. Community-based officers from Ecotrust disseminated information about the project to local leaders and farmers and invited them for training meetings.

Farmer sensitisation

There were two induction meetings for farmers from the Ruboni Community Development Organisation in Bugoye sub-country and Mobuku Integrated Farmers’ Association in Maliba sub-county. Farmers from the two organizations were sensitized on the procedures of getting involved in carbon offsets. These meetings are critical because project requirements are explained to all those interested in joining the carbon project.
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A recent analysis highlights the difference between the academic concept and the practical concept of ecosystem services. It suggests that academic science aims to discover and apply general and timeless concepts to measure ecosystem services, whereas in practice, stakeholders’ valuations of ecosystem services vary with place and time.

Birds such as the Great Tit pictured here can provide ecosystem services. PHOTO: Luc Viatour

The term ‘ecosystem service’ was first used in the early 1980s to provide a framework for understanding ecosystem processes in terms of their contribution to human well-being.

Since then, a growing body of research has discussed how to value ecosystem services so that these services are acknowledged and the ecosystems that provide them are conserved.

The researchers argue that the academic literature about ecosystem services relies on a conceptual basis that differs dramatically from the kinds of information that stakeholders depend on when evaluating ecosystem services.
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Over 40 farmers in western Uganda are benefiting from a bee-keeping project supported by PRESA and its partner organization. The project enhanced the production and marketing of ecolabelled honey (eco-honey) as an incentive for greater community involvement in managing the River Mobuku watershed.

A training session on bee keeping at Kasese, Uganda. PHOTO: ECOTRUST Uganda

Eco-honey is certified honey that is harvested using environmentally friendly methods. With an ‘Eco’ label, the honey gets better access to global markets and relatively higher prices compared to non-ecolabelled honey.

The Ugandan eco-honey project titled, “Market-based incentives to promote conservation of natural resources in the Albertine Rift, Uganda,” was implemented by the Environmental Conservation Trust of Uganda (ECOTRUST) in Kasese district within the Albertine Rift.

ECOTRUST is a PRESA partner organization working in this area of great ecological value.
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177 small holder farmers in Malawi continue to benefit from cash rewards for green house gas emission reduction from planting indigenous trees.

Mr Yohane Manda (centre), one of the participating farmers, talks about his involvement in the tree planting project.

The initiative is facilitated by the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF – International Centre for Research in Agroforestry) using funds pledged by Ecobank Malawi.

The pilot project, which is in its second year, is being conducted in Joni village in the area of Malenga in Ntchisi District.

According to the World Agroforestry Centre’s senior agriculture economist Olu Ajayi, the 177 farmers were each given 50 seedlings of an indigenous tree species with the promise that those who look after the trees successfully will be rewarded.

For more on this story, please click here.

Previous articles on the same topic:

Ecobank funding farmers in Malawi carbon project

Payments for trees: useful lessons from Malawi

PRESA is carrying out a study on the drivers of land use change in the Upper Tana catchment, specifically, the Kapingazi River. Knowledge of the forces driving land use change will help inform policy interventions needed to enhance ecosystem services in the Upper Tana River catchment.
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Located at the southern ridges of Kenya’s Aberdare Mountain, Sasumua dam provides the capital city of Nairobi with 20 percent of its fresh water needs. However, human activities around the dam’s catchment are causing sedimentation and contamination by water pollutants.

A technician from the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture & Technology taking water samples from a river feeding the Sasumua Reservoir. The water samples were later tested to determine pollution levels.

Pollution from small towns and farms results in a high bacterial count in rivers, abnormal acidity levels and a dangerous concentration of toxins. The major pollutants are plant and animal waste, municipal waste, as well as runoff from agricultural and industrial activities along river tributaries.

Water quality and allocation are fundamental issues in the area – these have been the source of discontent and mistrust between Nairobi’s water supplier and local farmers. The implementation of policies that seek to address the conflicting interests of multiple water users is marred with challenges.

Unless, the competing objectives of those living in the watershed and those consuming water in far away towns are simultaneously met, the issues around water will compound and will become more complex.
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“To guarantee long-term sustainability of a payment or reward for environmental service (ES) project, the principle of equity must be embedded in project design. If we want a system that pays people to look after the environment and we want to make sure that the system lasts, then fairness has to be built into the system from the start.”

Workshop participants interact with local communities in Kenya during a field trip. PHOTO/ RUPES

“As an added layer to transaction costs and contributing to effectiveness, equity should be contextualized and well aligned to the perception of fairness among communities where the project is ongoing. Though being fair might make the system a bit more expensive and complicated, the system will last longer if the communities who are doing the work feel they are being treated fairly.”

That was the conclusion from a three-day workshop organized by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and CARE in Nairobi, Kenya (14 -16 April 2010).

The workshop was aimed at sharing experiences about promoting a fairer payment system for “environmental services” (such as local communities being paid or rewarded in other ways for protecting or expanding forests) without making such a system more complicated or inefficient.

The participants agreed that there were gaps between theory and practice in managing the so-called “triple trade-offs” (equity-efficiency-effectiveness) in the field of payments or rewards for environmental services.

You can continue reading this story here: http://rupes.worldagroforestry.org/news/detail.327

Farmers (ecosystem stewards) prepare Napier grass seed cane for planting in the upper catchment. PHOTO/CARE Kenya staff

The Lake Naivasha basin is located in the Great Rift Valley of Kenya and has a total area of 1,700 square kilometers, with altitude ranging from 1,887 to 3,906 metres above sea level. The lake is one of the few fresh water lakes in Kenya’s Rift Valley as most of the rest are saline.

Economic activities around Lake Naivasha include small scale agriculture, horticulture, ranching, tourism and geothermal power production. Over 50 square kilometers of land around the lake is under large scale commercial horticulture and flower farming. These activities are a livelihood for over 500,000 people living within the basin.

Major threats to ecosystems in the Lake Naivasha landscape emanate from watershed environmental degradation, unregulated and excessive water abstraction for domestic and agricultural use, poor land use practices, weak policy enforcement, water pollution and high poverty prevalence. The trend leads to significant environmental degradation, biodiversity losses, economic losses and worsening poverty.
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