Organisation des Nations Unies pour l’alimentation et l’agriculture- FAO
Paiements des services environnementaux (PSE) dans les paysages agricoles
Capter la demande
Prepare these “business case” arguments that can gain the interest of the buyer.
Capturing enough demand is the bane of every PES programme. For location-dependent services, such as water quality protection, it might be easier to identify and engage beneficiaries for an undetermined period of time. For others such as carbon sequestration or landscape beauty, competition leads customers to schemes offering best quality service at the lowest cost. A business-like commitment becomes a requirement.
Begin by identifying the beneficiaries who benefit most from the protection or enhanced environmental services - now or in the future. These can range from direct beneficiaries of the service (such as water users), to businesses interested in supporting the scheme as a way of gaining competitive advantage with environment-conscientious customers, public authorities with the mandate to support responsible resource management. For more on who is currently investing in PES schemes see menu "Buying Environmental Services".
For location-specific schemes it is important to identify all beneficiaries of the services that the nascent scheme will support right from the start, even if not intending to engage with all in the initial stages. Involving and consulting widely at the beginning will facilitate participation later on and scope out any conflicting views that may undermine the development of the PES programme at more advanced stages.
As in any other investment, the buyer will want to be assured that his or her money will yield profit or save costs. In this way, the key is to show the buyer how much cheaper it will be to invest in the PES scheme instead of investing in expensive technological greenhouse gas emission reduction methods or incurring in breaks in production, e.g.. due to lack of sufficient water supply, or higher water tariffs.
Many water supply companies around the world support PES schemes to manage the watersheds that supply their cities with water (Quito in Ecuador or New York, USA), water bottling companies have also began liaising with farmers upstream from their water extraction sites (e.g.. Vittel waters in France) and hydroelectric power producers pay land managers to reduce their reservoir dredging costs by reducing the sediment loads running off their field into the water courses on which their electricity production depends (La Compania Nacional de Fuerza y Luz –CNFL, Platanar and other companies in Costa Rica).
To prepare strong buyer-engaging arguments, PES programme developers might need to hire out experts to provide an estimation of these figures for each buyer group. Buyers must be made well aware of how much investment will be required from them, and for how long - showing decision-makers how much participating in a PES scheme will save them, instead of how much it will cost.
Current PES schemes are paying very much attention to this. CARE International, along with WWF and IIED, with support from the Dutch and Danish cooperation agencies, are supporting the development of PES schemes where a requirement is being able to make a business case and securing financial support from the main buyers, right from the start(18). One of these initiatives, in the Sierra de las Minas Biosphere Reserve, Guatemala, has been working with large water users to increase their water use efficiency. Resulting savings are channelled into a fund for the sustainable management of the farms in reserve’s buffer zones.
(18) More on the Equitable Payments for Watershed Services Programme and Tanzania workshop resources under Materials
