Bellagio Workshop on Payments for Watershed Services

25 participants from both developing and developed countries met during a week (12-17 March 2007) at the Rockefeller Center in Bellagio (Northern Italy) to discuss watershed protection schemes of the payments for environmental services (PES) type. The workshop was organized jointly by Fundación Natura Bolivia, CIFOR, IIED and EcoFund Ecuador. The group of participants included a rich blend of PES practitioners, analysts, financial sector and multilateral specialists, as well as NGO, government and grassroot organization representatives. In particular, there was an ample particiption of people based in Latin America, indicating the pioneer role this region has had in watershed PES development: Mexico (3), Costa Rica (2), Bolivia (2), Ecuador (2), and Brazil (1). The main purpose was to discuss eight different topics regarded as "hot issues" in the watershed PES debate: role of legal framework, research needs prior to implementation, 'bundling' of services, how to stimulate users' willingness to pay, poverty aspects, contract design, transaction costs, and upscaling. Also, some elements for a decision-support system of when to use PES and when not were developed. For each of these themes, a small discussion paper had been prepared in advance. After discussing these in plenary and in focus groups, two-page synthesis papers were produced for each, which after further revisions will be joined in a single executive-style paper.

This paper will be widely distributed, including by the Katoomba Group and on the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) PES webpage (http://www.cifor.cgiar.org/pes/_ref/home/index.htm). CIFOR´s Sven Wunder (s.wunder@cgiar.org) co-organized the workshop, while Peter Frost (p.frost@cgiar.org) was rapporteur, and will also act as the main writer of the synthesis paper.

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