Call for Contributions on "Payments for Environmental Services" (PES)

23 Jul 2009

We would like to invite your contributions for the December 2009 edition of the Mountain Forum Bulletin, focusing on “Payments for Environmental Services’’ (PES). All articles and notifications (detailed below) should be sent to Laura Keenan, bulletin@mtnforum.org by the 14th September 2009:

1) Feature article(s) (1000 - 1200 words) including maximum 5 citations with 2 or 3 high resolution digital pictures (1 to 2 Mb), along with captions and credits to support the article;
2) Initiatives (600-1000 words) including details of organisations, case studies or projects;
3) Book reviews (400 words) : review a book on a topic related to PES (please include a digital image of the front cover of the book reviewed, if possible);
4) Upcoming events focusing on generic issues related to sustainable mountain development (until July 2010).

We are focusing on PES because it is an emerging approach to environmental management and, potentially, a way to sustain livelihoods in mountain areas. Broadly speaking, PES works through the transfer of financial and/or other incentives in return for the maintenance, conservation and restoration of undersupplied environmental services.

Mountains provide globally important environmental services to lowland communities. They are storehouses of timber, minerals, and hydroelectric power and at least half of humanity depends on mountain watersheds for their supplies of fresh water. However, limited attention has traditionally been given to the financial value of the environmental services (as opposed to resource extraction) or the long-term costs of their loss.

Awareness of the true costs of environmental degradation is now growing amongst policy makers, research and non-governmental organisations, amongst business communities and within organisations engaged in development projects with mountain communities. Economic valuations, transactions and markets are thus being developed for: a) carbon sequestration and storage, including regulation of deforestation; b) biodiversity conservation; c) hydrology (watershed) related services such as evenness of water flow and prevention of erosion / salinisation; d) maintenance of landscape beauty and ecotourism and e) agricultural services, including pollination, soil maintenance and nutrient cycling.

So far, information on PES has largely concentrated on macroeconomic and theoretical application of PES and has not been mountain-specific. The December Bulletin therefore aims to explore practical applications of PES and mountain-specific initiatives at the national, regional and community levels. We are calling for articles which focus on:

• Research, development or policy activities undertaken in relation to PES, including results and what can be learned or improved;
• Practical applications of PES especially at meso- or community level, including assessment of institutional set-up, governance, economic tools and management of transactions;
• The potential and capacity for PES (or alternative financing options) in your area;

On behalf of the Bulletin Team of the Mountain Forum Secretariat, we would like to thank you for your contributions.

Information Production & Management
Mountain Forum Secretariat
c/o ICIMOD