The following is a set of tools that can be used to strengthen a territory’s capacity for protecting its communities and ecosystems from various threats. These tools can be implemented by the public sector in coordination with other social actors in the territory.
Incentive system for integrated landscape management:
Incentive system for integrated landscape management:
These incentives promote conservation, recovery of degraded areas and production. They can be (i) monetary incentives (such as reforestation by means of conservation) or (ii) non-monetary incentives (such as tax exemption for land with native forests).
Support programs for decentralized natural resource management:
Support programs for decentralized natural resource management:
These programs can be conducted via contracts that allow for: (i) financing small projects for managing priority natural resources for municipalities or regions and (ii) developing training for decentralized natural resource management, for example through Environmental Leaderships Schools.
Sustainable public purchasing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions:
Sustainable public purchasing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions:
Beyond just obtaining low purchase prices and/or fast, practical, operative deadlines, this concept also takes long-term economic (product durability, maintenance and provision costs), social (employee health and job opportunities for groups at high risk of social exclusion) and environmental (energy efficiency, water consumption) impacts into consideration.
Payments for environmental services:
Payments for environmental services:
There has been growing interest in this concept as an effective means for compensating people for their efforts in providing ecosystem services, such as watershed protection, land stabilization, etc. It involves a voluntary transaction for a well-defined ecosystem service, with at least one buyer and one provider, based on the condition that the buyer only pays for the service if the provider continues providing said ecosystem service over time (Wunder 2005).
Carbon tax:
Carbon tax:
The goal of this environmental tax on CO2 GHG emissions is to limit its use. It involves taxing polluting companies for every ton of CO2 emitted into the atmosphere, thereby providing incentives to reducing the use of carbon- intensive fuels.
Emissions trading:
Emissions trading:
A market-based approach that establishes a maximum limit for the total amount of emissions permitted for a specific period of time. Participants that emit fewer emissions than the overall permitted limit can sell their extra permits to participants whose emissions exceed the maximum allowed limits.
Agricultural insurance against climate risks:
Agricultural insurance against climate risks:
These financial instruments are based on climate risk indices for risk management for farmers. For example, parametric catastrophic agricultural insurance is based on the minimum and maximum water requirements for a certain crop that will allow it to reach its highest potential yield, through the determination of critical rain values for each phase of its vegetative cycle.