| RUPES E-News Issue 8 - June 2007 |
In this issue
Message from RUPES Project Office
Earlier this year, the RUPES Global Event led a field visit to the site where WWF Indonesia had worked with a number of local entities in implementing the environmental service payment. RUPES, WWF Indonesia and the Ford Foundation, will facilitate local government policy formulation designed to regulate environmental service payment schemes in the area.
There are continuing efforts to disseminate lessons from the RUPES project. In Bakun, the Philippines, a conference was organized to achieve this objective. Participants expressed their willingness to apply the RUPES concept to the whole region.
In the spirit of research-to-action, RUPES is heading to the western part of Java, Indonesia to conduct a rapid hydrological assessment or RHA in Cidanau watershed. This will help establish common understanding among various stakeholders as the basis for negotiating land-use agreements in the watershed.
Happy reading ...
Aunul Fauzi
RUPES Communication Specialist
Top.
Joint Strength for PES - A Collaboration between RUPES and WWF
UPES - ICRAF is currently formulating a new PES joint program, however this time WWF will be co-partners. Labeled "Payment for the Environmental Services Program in Lombok: Creating New Government Policy and Buyers for PES to improve the Forest Restoration and Livelihood Programs in West Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara Province - Indonesia", the program intends to continue ongoing initiatives at the Lombok level and move to sustainable solutions through strong institutions and adequate financial support (PES).
|
|
Three strategies inform the policymaking decisions of the WWF: policy advocacy, institutional building, and field intervention. Based on these, the WWF is aiming for PES to be adopted and well-applied in West Lombok, for the intermediary organization Bestari Rinjani to be transparent and accountable, and for an appropriate methodology to be identified and researched, thus ensuring a sustainable program.
In line with the program, monitoring and evaluation activities will be key elements of the one-year agreement. The project team in West Lombok will submit a six month review to supplement the WWF report, while being evaluated on implementation progress, quality checking results, and identifying potential constraints - both internal and external. In the end we expect new sustainable finance mechanism to be established and that they should play an important role in Lombok. [Andini Desita] |
Top.
Disseminating Lessons Learned from RUPES Bakun
| More than 50 participants attended the Payments for Environmental Services (PES) Conference in the Cordillera Region in UP Baguio, Baguio City on 31 May 2007. They were mostly the government staff from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), Department of Agriculture (DA), National Commission of Indigenous People (NCIP), National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) in the Cordillera region, the Bakun Indigenous Tribe Organization (BITO) and academes.
The conference was convened by the Cordillera Highland Agricultural Resource Management Project (CHARM) and the University of the Philippines - Baguio. It was designed to share the lessons learnt by the RUPES project and well received by the participants who expressed their willingness to apply the RUPES concept in the whole region. [Grace Villamor] |
|
Top.
RHA on the Move …
| A rapid hydrological appraisal known as RHA allows for a 'rapid assessment' (over a 6-month period and with a budget less than US 10,000) of the hydrological situation of a watershed. The key stakeholders' perceptions of watershed management will also be assessed. RHA creates opportunities to appraise the negotiation of land-use agreements. These include rewards for the protection or rehabilitation of watershed functions in the uplands. Download RHA Guideline |
 |
The RUPES project has used RHA in a number of watersheds. In Singkarak, West Sumatra, RHA recommendations informed the establishment of the watershed management body. RHA was also applied in the beginning stages of the Equitable Payments for Watershed Services (EPWS) Project coordinated by WWF Indonesia. In the Philippines, RHA was tested in the Bakun watershed.
Beginning in July, the RUPES project will again apply this assessment tool. Cidanau watershed - a RUPES learning site in Indonesia - will assist the local watershed management forum (FKDC) in synthesizing various past research findings and identifying opportunities for negotiating land-use agreements. Rewards for the protection or rehabilitation of watershed functions are also included.
Scheduled to conclude in December 2007, the RHA is expected to provide a basis for multi stakeholder negotiation on transparent environmental service payment mechanism based on common understandings (or realistic hydrological facts) of the watershed. Relations between rainfall, land-use, and water yield will be described, a system for measuring and monitoring water flow will be put in place, and issues of forest cover in the upland will be clarified. All these will be crucial as FKDC is currently promoting the establishment of an intermediary body to link environmental service buyers and sellers in Cidanau watershed, in anticipation of the growing interest in environmental service payments schemes. [Aunul Fauzi]
Top. |
Contact:
rupes@cgiar.org
RUPES Website |
Featured Link
EarthTrends of the World Resources Institute (WRI)
EarthTrends is an online database, maintained by the World Resources Institute, that focuses on the environmental, social, and economic trends that shape our world.
The website offers a collection of vital statistics for more than 200 countries drawn from over 40 internationally recognized statistical agencies, as well as WRI-generated maps, graphics, and analyses.
|
| . |
References
Markets for Environmental Services Reports
Markets for Environmental Services Reports (MES) is an initiative of IIED's Environmental Economics and Forestry and Land Use Programs aimed at promoting the provision and maintenance of environmental services in ways that are equitable and beneficial for poor people.
MES reports focus on the financial, environmental and poverty impacts of recent initiatives to develop markets and other financial compensation mechanisms for environmental benefits (services) in rural areas of the developing world.
Click here to view and download the reports.
|
| . |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
