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Water and ecosystems

The Recommendations on payment for ecosystem services in integrated water resources management were successfully launched at a side-event to the sixth Ministerial Conference “Environment for Europe”.

Dissemination of the Recommendations has taken place through awareness-raising activities such as presentations at several occasions and the organization of events on ecosystem services and IWRM. These included a seminar organized during World Water Week 2008 and a session on water and ecosystems at the fifth World Water Forum in 2009, both organized by the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment in cooperation with the Convention’s secretariat and a number of other partners. In addition, the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment, together with the Convention’s secretariat, the UNECE Timber Committee, theWorking Party on Mountain Watersheds of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, and the Liaison Unit Oslo of the Ministerial Conference on the Protection of Forests in Europe (MCPFE), organized two events focusing on the link between forest and water: a special session on forests and water which was part of the official agenda of the 2008 European Forest Week and the Workshop on Forests and Water (Antalya, Turkey, 12–14 May 2009).

An ongoing pilot project implemented by the CAREC aims to establish payment for ecosystems services (PES) in the Lake Issyk Kul basin. The project is funded by Switzerland. GEF, the European Commission and the United Nations University.
An additional project on the introduction of payment for ecosystems services (PES) in the upper Hrazdan basin in Armenia is currently ongoing, funded by Switzerland.
Last update date: January 18, 2021