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BACKGROUND
AND OUTCOME
The Seminar on environmental services and
financing for the protection and sustainable
use of ecosystems took place on 10-11 October
2005, at the invitation of the Government
of Switzerland. It was prepared by the Swiss
Agency for the Environment, Forests and Landscape,
the UNECE secretariat of the Water Convention,
in close cooperation with the World Conservation
Union (IUCN) and the secretariat of the 1971
Ramsar Convention on Wetlands. Cooperation
has also been sought with the UNECE Timber
Committee, the Food and Agriculture Organization
of the United Nations (FAO) and the Ministerial
Conference on the Protection of Forests in
Europe (MCPFE).
The Seminar brought together policy and decision
makers, lawyers, economists, managers, technical
experts, representatives from the private
sector and NGOs, specialized in water management,
forestry, landscape and nature conservation
(see list
of participants).
The Seminar proposed three follow-up activities:
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The preparation
of a draft
code of conduct on the integration
of ecosystems in water management and
the payment for ecosystem services. The
code of conduct should be adopted by the
Parties to the Water Convention at their
fourth meeting in October 2006; |
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The development
of proposals for capacity building activities
related to the payment for ecosystem services,
to be included in the 2006-2009 work programme
of the Water Convention; |
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The development
of project proposals for implementation
of payment of ecosystem services in
one or more river basins, possibly at
the transboundary level, to be carried
out under the 2006-2009 work programme
of the Water Convention.
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The above-mentioned proposals will be further
discussed and finalized at the second meeting
of the Working Group on Integrated Water Resources
Management (April 2006). Seminar's participants
and interested partners were invited to submit
their suggestions to the secretariat.
The Seminar was a follow-up to the
Seminar on the role of ecosystems as water
suppliers (Geneva, 13-14 December 2004),
where governmental officials, experts from
international organizations, non-governmental
organizations and the private sector highlighted
the role of water-related ecosystems (wetlands
and forests) in water management and made
recommendations for an effective implementation
of the ecosystem approach. The utmost importance
of mechanisms to finance the protection and
restoration of water-related ecosystems was
particularly underlined at that first Seminar.
THEMES
The Seminar was organized around three major
themes: valuing ecosystem services, legal
and contractual aspects and challenges for
implementation. Each theme was introduced
by one or more keynote lectures.
Valuing ecosystem services
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Determining
factors for using payment for ecosystems
services (PES) (e.g. legislative aspects,
lack of funding, water-quality and/or
water-quantity problems, offer and demand); |
|
Characteristics
of river basins or ecosystems favorable
to establishing PES; Measuring ecosystem
services; |
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Social and
economic aspects (e.g. social and equity
aspects, health related aspects, economic
valuation of ecosystem services); |
|
Cost-benefit
analysis of land use alternatives and
their impact on ecosystem services. |
Legal and contractual aspects
|
Legal and
regulatory frameworks that can help establish
payments for ecosystem services (e.g.
national legislation, bilateral and multilateral
agreements including ecosystem services,
definition of payment and methods of payment,
sources of funding, management of the
payment scheme); |
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Contractual
arrangements (e.g. types of contracts
including self organized deals, trading
schemes and public payment schemes, specifying
duration and involvement of stakeholders
in the design and operation of the schemes);
and |
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Socio-economic
and environmental impacts of PES. |
Challenges for implementation
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Challenges
for the establishment of PES (e.g. triggers
to establish payment schemes, approaches
to involve or jointly act with the private
sector, obstacles to implement payments); |
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Challenges
for the dissemination of good practice
(e.g. awareness and public information
campaigns, availability and exchange of
information, the role of civil society); |
|
Challenges
for the private sector (e.g. private sector
experience in financing payments for environmental
services, public/private partnerships);
and |
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Challenges
for research and capacity-building initiatives.
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PRESENTATIONS
| Opening
statement by Mr. Kaj Brlund,
Director, Environment and Human Settlements
Division, UNECE |
pdf |
| Outcome
of the Seminar on the role of ecosystems
as water suppliers, Mr. Rainer
Enderlein, UNECE |
ppt
(32 MB) |
| Valuing
ecosystems services - advantages and disadvantages
of different existing methodologies from
IUCN practical experience, Ms.
Danièle Perrot-Maître,
World Conservation Union (IUCN) |
ppt
(6 MB) |
| Developing
payments for ecosystem services in Latin
America: the potential for combining carbon
sequestration with watershed management,
Mr. Jan Fehse, EcoSecurities
Ltd. |
ppt
(1.4 MB) |
| Central
Asian mountain ecosystem assessment, Ms.
Elena Kreuzberg-Mukhina, Regional
Environmental Centre for Central Asia. |
ppt
(23 MB) |
| Financial
and Contractual Frameworks for the New
York City Watershed Protection Program,
Mr. Michael A. Principe,
Deputy Commissioner and Director, Bureau
of Water Supply of the City of New York,
Department of Environmental Protection |
ppt
(5 MB) |
| Issues
and examples of environmental services
and financing for the protection and sustainable
use of water-related ecosystems in the
Netherlands, Ms. Andrea Almaši,
Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food
Quality |
ppt
(1.2 MB) |
| Financial
mechanism for natural resources management
- learning from FAO experience, Mr.
Gerardo E. van Halsema, Food
and Agriculture Organization of the United
Nations |
pdf |
| Fostering
and promoting payments for environmental
services in the Danube River basin,
Mr. Andreas Beckmann, WWF International |
ppt
(17 MB) |
| Challenges
and opportunities for payments and markets
for ecosystem services based on multilateral
environmental agreements and pro-poor
approach, Mr. Jerry Velasquez,
UNEP |
ppt
(120 KB) |
| Lessons
learned from country reports and Seminar’s
contributions, Ms. Francesca Bernardini,
UNECE |
ppt
(110 KB) |
| Draft
code of conduct |
ppt
(100 KB) |
OFFICIAL
DOCUMENTS
Below are made available the official seminar
documents.
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