Welcome to the January 2011 PRESA E-News

Happy New Year to you all.  

First, a brief introduction: what is PRESA? It is a project run by the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) with partners to conduct research into payments and rewards for environmental services. To find out what those rewards are, please click here.

In this issue of the PRESA newsletter, we look at the New Year 2011, as the global community faces the question of achieving realistic payments for environmental services (PES).  

Here at PRESA, we spent 2010 laboring away to generate field evidence in our seven sites on the potential for land use interventions to deliver environmental services (particularly water quality), the willingness of potential buyers to pay and the willingness of land owners to accept payments.  

During 2011, we hope to build up this story by generating lessons on involving private sector stakeholders and influencing policy and legal frameworks to enable PES implementation. Visit the activities page on our website to find out more on what we will be doing this year.

We look forward to another productive year of achieving environment service rewards to farmers through solid research.

Sara Namirembe
PRESA Coordinator,
NAIROBI

Field excursion into Guinea's payments for environmental services potential

PRESA’s mapping specialist, Miika Mäkelä, went to the Coyah site in Guinea in November 2010 to assess the potential for watershed payments for environmental services (PES). 

During the visit, he collected geographical data and visited the Coyah water treatment plant and the Coyah Water Bottling Company.

From his subsequent discussions with the local PRESA team and site leader Serge Ngendakumana, there is potential for developing watershed environmental services payments in the site.

PRESA is currently examining mapping data and conducting land use change analysis. Other objectives of the trip included finalising research design, agreeing on a research methodology and training enumerators on data collection tools.

Read more on this story here >>

PRESA gears up for 2011

Malawi small holder farmers at frontline in fighting greenhouse gas emissions

177 small holder farmers in Malawi continue to benefit from cash rewards for green house gas emission reduction from planting indigenous trees.

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 would 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

UN climate change talks in Cancun agree a deal

United Nations climate change talks in Cancun, Mexico, reached a deal to curb climate change, including a fund to help developing countries.

Nations endorsed compromise texts drawn up by the Mexican hosts, despite objections from Bolivia. The draft documents say deeper cuts in carbon emissions are needed, but do not establish a mechanism for achieving the pledges countries have made.

Some countries’ resistance to the Kyoto Protocol had been a stumbling block during the final week of negotiations. However, diplomats were able to find a compromise. Delegates cheered speeches from governments that had caused the most friction during negotiations – Japan, China, even the US – as one by one they endorsed the draft.

The Green Climate Fund is intended to raise and disburse US$100 billion a year by 2020 to protect poor nations against climate impacts and assist them with low-carbon development, reports the BBC. A new Adaptation Committee will support countries as they establish climate protection plans as parameters for funding developing countries to reduce deforestation are outlined.

Nations attending the Cancun talks agreed to launch concrete action to preserve forests in developing nations. However, more needs to be done as new evidence shows that the highest risk for loss of woody vegetation and increased carbon emissions is posed by areas which are outside those defined as forests.

“The main challenge with REDD (Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation) is that it supposes that the world consists of forest versus agriculture,” says Dr. Meine van Noordwijk of the World Agroforestry Centre. “There are areas outside the forest that store just as much carbon as forest. If we protect only the forests, green house gas emissions could shift outside the forests in order to satisfy demand for wood and paper pulp.”

This evidence calls for a whole landscape approach that is all inclusive. The researchers are calling for an approach which Reduces Emissions from all Land Uses (REALU) as it will allow for an evaluation of emission reduction needs across the whole landscape. It will also overcome unclear forest definitions and help capture leakage of emissions between sectors.

Birth of Network for Environmental Services in Africa

At a conference in Jinja, Uganda, held in October 2010, the Network for Environmental Services in Africa (NESA) was formed to share experiences from payments for environmental service (PES) projects in Africa.

Members include researchers, environmentalists and representatives of relevant government institutions.

NESA is currently hosted at the Victoria Institute for Research on Environment and Development (VIRED), which is located in Kisumu, Kenya.

The Jinja conference, which ran from 20th to 22nd October 2010, attracted 78 participants from across Africa and the rest of the world.

The conference was aimed at addressing the challenges faced in embracing payments for environmental services in Africa.

Proceedings of the conference will be compiled into a book to be disseminated in 2011.

Humans are increasingly dependent on nature

Humans are more dependent upon ecosystem services and biodiversity than ever before, according to researchers.

A new study has demonstrated that human well-being derived from three major ecosystem services has been increasing, particularly in countries considered to be biodiversity hotspots. The ecosystem services are water provision, biodiversity and carbon storage.

This study aimed to answer the question, 'are humans still so dependent on ecosystems?' The researchers analysed three indicators of human well-being provided by ecosystems:

(i.) production of wood;

(ii.) production of hydroelectricity, which depends on river flow; and

(iii.) investment in tourism, which depends on the cultural and aesthetic value of an area.

Out of 152 countries analysed, 92 were biodiversity hotspots (countries with a significant amount of biodiversity threatened by humans) and 60 were non-hotspot countries.

The findings indicate that dependence of humans on cultural environmental services (as represented by tourism investment) has increased and is likely to increase more rapidly than dependence on environmental services providing regulatory functions, such as water flow (as represented by hydroelectricity). Dependence on provisioning services, such as timber (as represented by wood production), has reduced and is likely to continue to reduce.

Other news

Satellite maps to aid REDD and biomass mapping in Kenya

Implementing REDD in Uganda: A Case to Get the Conditions Right

Carbon finance may not benefit forest communities

Options for REDD in Tanzania: key design issues for the national REDD strategy - Brief 2

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