The Pro-poor rewards for environmental services in Africa (PRESA) project at the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) has been instrumental in providing evidence on the effectiveness of the Payments for environmental services (PES) initiative which aims at rewarding communities that protect /provide essential environmental services.

PRESA  has been operating in eight sites in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Guinea since 2008. The work involves action research by engaging stakeholders throughout the research cycle on using PES as a vehicle for achieving sustainable land use practices. These engagements are in form of one on one discussions, landscape level meetings, websites, policy briefs and a quarterly newsletter.

A farmer of the Upper Tana site in Kenya (Photo: PRESA)

Who we engage

Key stakeholders engaged include communities, NGOs, private sector, policy makers and research/academic institutes.  These engagements at field , landscape and policy levels where research findings are communicated enable addressing of principle concerns or interests in designing and implementing PES.

Case study Sasumua and Upper Tana

In Sasumua and Upper Tana sites in Kenya, PRESA has held biannual forums since 2011, at least 8 so far with representative stakeholders from various organizations

Upper Tana map showing target areas for reduced erosion interventions (Source: ISRIC World Soil information, Future Water, December 2009)

These stakeholders include: Ministry of Water and Irrigation, Water Resource Management Authority (WRMA), Water services trust fund (WSTF), World wide fund (WWF), Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and technology (JKUAT), Nairobi city water and Sewerage Company (NCWSC), Sasumua water resources users association (SWRUA), CARE Kenya, The Nature Conservancy Kenya,  Kenya Electricity Generating Company Limited (KENGEN), National Environment Management Authority (NEMA), Kenya Forestry Service (KFS), Ministry of Agriculture, and Kenya Agricultural Productivity and Sustainable Land Management (KAPSLM) Project in the Ministry of Environment and Mineral Resources. This forum is used to communicate research progress and jointly design mechanism for enhancing implementation of PES in watershed management in initiatives led by government, NGO or private sector entities.

Sasumua farmers hold discussions with ICRAF researchers during a consultative meeting (Photo: S. Wachira)

What is discussed?

These stakeholder engagements have spanned a progression of issues for using incentives based approaches to motivate farmers on privately owned smallholdings to adopt sustainable land use practices for watershed ecosystem services.  Highlights of these issues are outlined below.

1. PES financing challenges and potential sources including:
   • the private sector (e.g. NCWSC, KENGEN ), generated from water tariffs based on ICRAF results from Willingness to Pay (WTP) and Willingness to Accept (WTA)studies
   • the public sector (e.g. the Water Services Trust Fund)
   • Abstraction fees retained at local watershed level.
2. A Business case developed by ICRAF for using PES for reducing sediment treatment costs for Ng’ethe water treatment works managed by NCSWC
3. Alternative public driven financing sources such as the KAPSLM driven approach for establishing a Water Fund
4. Innovative financing approaches such as a green loan scheme by F3 Life – a conditional low-interest microfinance accessible to farmers as an incentive to plant grass strips to reduce soil erosion and maintain agricultural yields
5. Policy and institutional barriers for private sector and public sector application of PES in watershed management

Mr. Mwaniki, a PES farmer in Turasha, Lake Naivasha watershed explains a point to Sasumua WRUA and farmers (Photo: E Obwocha)

Impacts

• • Sasumua WRUA who are getting ready for PES (working with ICRAF) were facilitated in an exchange visit to Naivasha PES communities (working with WWF).
  • Kenya government officials led by KAPSLM explored the potential for establishing a Water Fund
• Policy position paper for inclusion of PES in the revision of the Water Policy and the Land Reclamation Policy led by ICRAF and presented through the (then) Ministry of Water and Irrigation. Recommendations for Kenya’s water sector in PRESA policy brief
• Revision of Sasumua sub catchment management plans to enable PES implementation
• KAPSLM piloting of PES in Sasumua based on all the evidence generated

See more information on PRESA’s stakeholder engagement over the years here: 

1. Sasumua stakeholders meeting – June 17, 2014
2. Sasumua stakeholders meeting notes – July 11, 2013
3. Consultative meeting KAPSLM – PRESA – February 14, 2013
4. Sasumua stakeholders meeting – November 14, 2012 
5. Stakeholders meeting report – March 23, 2012
6. Sasumua stakeholders meeting – September 2, 2011
7. Sasumua Stakeholders meeting – February 22, 2011
8. Consultative meeting PRESA, SWRUA, WRMA – February 16, 2011

Right, Walter Adongo from the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) contributes to discussions. On the left is Pamela Were from the Moi University.

PRESA is also a part of a consortium of stakeholders that was formed to design collective and coordinated interventions with a variety of financing sources including improving livelihoods and reducing soil erosion and sedimentation of the Yala River and Lake Victoria. The aim is to create dialogue to solve environmental problems across the Nyando basin that has been made difficult in recent years by ethnic tension between the inhabitants of the highlands and those of the lowlands. The members of the consortium include: Kenya Agricultural Research Institute, Maseno University, Moi University, Lake Victoria Institute for Research and Development (VIRED), World Neighbours, government agencies, community leaders and community-based organizations

Looking forward

Action research activities looking forward as PES and co-investment is being implemented in Sasumua

1. Support design of PES and co-investment such that interventions target biophysical and socioeconomic hotspots

• Biophysical hotspots: Soil erosion hotspots, appropriate establishment and management of technologies for ecosystem conservation
• Socio economic hotspots: Mapping of socio-economic characteristics to target those farmers where the best impact can be achieved

2. Monitor performance and impact of co-investments in biophysical and socioeconomic terms

• Biophysical: changes in watershed conservation aspects at farm and landscape level taking into consideration that some impacts occur after a long time
• Socio-economic: Improvement in livelihoods, social and gender relations

3. Promote simple tools for participatory monitoring of performance of PES and co-investment by communities

4. Analyse documenting and disseminating key lessons to the broader science and policy making community