Payment for Ecosystem Services in the Hindu Kush Himalayas

Research report
, 8 pages
PDF (420.74 KB)
G04273.pdf
Language:
English
Published: March 2018
Area(s):
Product code:G04273

There are many similar schemes to the payment for ecosystem services (PES) scheme in the Hindu Kush Himalayas (HKH) region, that aim at channelling financial and non-financial benefits (for example, as development projects) to the communities providing various ecosystem services, through an established institutional mechanism (Bhatta and Kotru, 2012; Bhatta et al., 2014; Patterson et al., 2017) (see Figure 1). Some of them include: • Markhor (Siberian ibex) hunting in Pakistan, where 80 per cent of the total hunting revenues go back to local communities • incentive to communities for increased carbon stock through REDD+ pilots in Nepal • sharing of hydropower revenue with local government in Nepal, where 10 per cent of the hydropower revenue is ploughed back into local government • municipal support to local communities living in the upstream water source at Palampur city of the Himanchal state in India • compensation scheme for ecological restoration in China, where the government of China provides cash eco-compensation to local communities based on per unit of land for wetland restoration. These schemes operate alongside a wider range of political and policy instruments used by governments. The experiences from these schemes show that they are opening new sources of conservation finance, helping to improve ecosystem at large, and providing experiences for empowering negotiations at local level. This document summarises the key components and learning from the process, as well as the enabling policy options to support PES or PES-like schemes.

This case study is one of several relating to the Toolkit: Ecosystems, poverty alleviation and conditional transfers. To access the full toolkit and other related case studies, please visit the ‘Publications’ section of the IIED project linked at the bottom of this page.

Cite this publication

Bhatta, L. (2018). Payment for Ecosystem Services in the Hindu Kush Himalayas. .
Available at https://www.iied.org/g04273