The online edition of Tanzania’s DailyNews newspaper reports about a Tanzanian case study which shows that Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) schemes may work best if risks are shared between the farmer and the buyer. The case study was examining part of the Equitable Payments for Watershed Services (EPWS) project that was established in Tanzania in 2005. EPWS encourages farmers to practise farming methods that keep waters flowing from mountain forests to downstream stakeholders.
World Agroforestry Centre scientist and one of the authors of the report, Meine van Noordwijk reportedly suggests that initial results show that farmers can manage natural resources better when responsibility over resources are shared between them and the buyer.
Project Coordinator of the Rewarding Upland Poor for Environmental Services (RUPES), Beria Leimona added, “Farmers recognise that soil conservation actually increases crop production, and that with some investment help, they can created more profitable and sustainable land use systems.”
In most cases, sharing responsibility over resources means compensating farmers adequately for their efforts in maintaining ecosystem services. In the EPWS case, the newspaper reports that farmers were compensated around USD 12 annually. Although a seemingly small amount, compensated farmers were able to use the income to either buy materials to improve their houses or buy livestock and other on-farm investments such as high yielding seeds.
