PRESA aims to facilitate rewards to encourage the people of Africa’s highlands to maintain ecosystem services, for example by adopting conservation agriculture techniques to prevent land degradation.

Wide shot of expansive highland forest in Africa. PHOTO/Presa

But what if highland forest communities don’t actually own the land? Why should they care about sustainable management when they can be asked to move at any time by the state or other land owners? Can an effective rewards for environmental service contract be established when eviction looms?

Existing research has found that giving people greater certainty over land is a crucial part of maintaining essential watershed functions. At a practical level, experience from the RUPES[1] project in Asia found that negotiating security in land tenure for highland communities is an adequate incentive for initiating positive changes in land usage, which results in more consistent river flows and decreased sedimentation. (more…)

Ulugurus Mts, Morogoro, Tanzania

From 15-20 September, PRESA staff and collaborators were active at the East and Southern Africa Katoomba Meeting, Taking Stock & Charting a Way Forward: Payments for Ecosystem Services in Africa, in Dar es Salaam. The meeting was an excellent opportunity for learning about the latest PES developments in Africa and beyond, catching up with our collaborators, and making new connections with researchers, students and the private sector. We also shared our own research and insightsa at the pre-conference training, during the public meeting and at the private meeting in Morogoro, with the following presentations… (more…)

The PRESA library currently links you to a wealth of information on payments and rewards for environmental services. You’ll find a collection of ICRAF research such as working papers, journal articles and other publications. As the PRESA project begins to generate its own resources we’ll be sharing them here as well. In addition, you’ll be able to access resources submitted by our collaborators.