This issue of the EcoagriculturePES Newsletter includes a variety of updates on payment for watershed services initiatives – from Canada’s British Columbia to the Andean Highlands. However, the Sasumua Resovoir project in Kenya is the most significant for us at the moment. This is not just because the Sasumua Reservoir provides 20% of the freshwater to Kenya’s capital city of Nairobi, although that certainly adds to its significance. We’re also interested because we’re about to visit! 

With about half of the Sasamua watershed under cultivation, and host to a growing population, the waterways have become polluted through runoff from farms and towns. The Nairobi Water Company already spends over US$200,000 per year on water filtration, and these costs are expected to increase in the coming years. 

Changing land management practices in the upper catchment has the potential to reduce sedimentation and pollution of waterways and thus the costs of filtration. This dynamic presents an opportunity for downstream water users to support the adoption of better land management practices by upstream farmers through a PES mechanism. To fully address this challenge, the case calls for full watershed scale planning and the coordination of a variety of stakeholders, including water users, farmers, water utility companies, and water resources management organizations. The Pro-poor Rewards for Environmental Services in Africa (PRESA) program of the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) has been working in the watershed to research the policy and institutional arrangements necessary to implement PES, and has published a policy brief outlining lessons learned (read the full article below).

The Sasumua watershed is one of the five landscapes to be visited during the field day of the Landscapes for People, Food and Nature Initiative’s Nairobi 2012 International Forum, which will take place from March 6-9. The Forum is bringing together over 125 international participants from various sectors, working at the intersection of agriculture and the environment, in order to map an agenda for scaling up integrated landscape management approaches (such as the Sasumua PWS scheme). 

As part of the Action and Advocacy component of the Initiative, the newly launched Landscapes Blog will be active during the Forum, and will highlight case studies and research relevant to integrated agricultural landscapes. Payments for ecosystem services will be an important topic of many the posts. Two recent ones are a video about the Rupa Lake payment for watershed services project in Nepal and another on the Payments for Agrobiodiversity Conservation Services (PACS) program at Bioversity International. We welcome suggestions and contributions of agricultural PES to highlight on the blog.

-- The Editors

The Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) celebrated the end of 2011 with the final approval of the first version of a sustainable agricultural land management (SALM) carbon methodology. Developed by the BioCarbon Fund of the World Bank, the methodology can be used to measure and monitor the greenhouse gas impacts of cover crops, improved tillage, agroforestry, and other activities that increase carbon stocks. The methodology is particularly relevant for smallholder farmers, and it is being piloted in the Western Kenya Smallholder Agriculture Carbon Finance project. Implemented by Vi Agroforestry, the project will work with 60,000 farmers on 45,000 hectares of land, demonstrating the potential for this methodology to be applicable at a large scale. 

Read the World Bank press release for more details.

View the methodology on the VCS website.

While efforts to develop a nationwide carbon market in the United States have stalled - and along with them the prospects of markets for agricultural offsets - some states have continued to push ahead. The Oklahoma Carbon Initiative is facilitating the buying and selling of carbon credits on agricultural lands. In this program - which has enrolled roughly 50,000 acres - farmers, ranchers, and other landowners can receive per-acre payments for employing certain climate-friendly practices such as no-till cropping and improved pasture management. Payments are coming from a variety of sources, including the Western Farmers Electric Cooperative, ECOpass offsets for tourists, and the United States Department of Agriculture’s Conservation Innovation Grants. 

Visit the Oklahoma Carbon Initiative website.

Read recent press about the Initiative on the Southwest Farm Press.

In January, $10 million in Conservation Innovation Grants (CIGs) was announced by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to enhance the effectiveness of water quality trading – including testing tools and metrics, establishing certification and reporting systems, and developing outreach mechanisms. Half of the funds will be directed specifically at the Chesapeake Bay Watershed, indicating the importance of a coordinated effort to achieve measurable impacts on the degraded state of the Bay. U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack noted that the goal of these grants “is to demonstrate that markets are a cost-effective way to improve water quality in places like the Chesapeake Bay watershed, and agricultural producers are critical to the function of these markets." 

The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition has also provided commentary on the CIG announcement.

The Challenge Program on Water and Food (CPWF) of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) has published research highlights as part of the project, “payment for environmental services as a mechanism for promoting rural development in the upper watersheds of the tropics.” CPWF has conducted research on models for PES in five Andean catchments, looking at how different methods are being employed in the watersheds to best suit the local needs and conditions. For example, in Moyobamba, Peru, local funds will go to support upland farms transition from slash-and-burn cultivation to agroforestry practices. One goal of the project is to increase the capacity for public institutions to understand and mediate the interactions of the buyers and sellers of watershed services. The project is still in early stages, so there will likely be more watershed developments in the future.

Read the research highlights here.

Thirteen farms in the Canadian province of British Columbia are piloting an incentive program to retain the water purification functions on farm and ranchlands Ecological Services Initiative Collaborative is managing the program that provides payments to retain wetlands and habitats critical for filtering of water. While current laws cover the preservation of critical habitat, the hope is for these payments to entice farmers to go an extra step. 

Read the Vancouver Sun  for more details.

The Biodiversity Fund, established under the new Land Sector Package of Australia’s Clean Energy Future, closed its first round of applications in January. Over the next six years, the Australian government is investing AUS$946 million for landowners to restore, manage, and preserve biodiversity. The fund emphasizes scale and connectivity within a landscape, promoting corridors of native vegetation, prioritizing high value areas for conservation, and restoring wetlands and waterway habitats for overall watershed improvement. Receiving support from the Fund does not preclude farmers from participating in the Carbon Farming Initiative, so biodiversity and carbon payments can be utilized together in order to finance on-farm projects. 

The Hershey Company has announced big plans to improve the sustainability of its products and benefits for farm families in West Africa. Between now and 2017, Hershey plans to invest US$10 million in this major cacao-growing region, to improve production methods and increase farmers’ incomes. Moreover, Hershey and Rainforest Alliance are working in collaboration to source the “Bliss®” line from 100% certified cocoa by the end of 2012, and moving toward that goal with the Dagoba® brand, as well. This partnership will also strive to improve the resilience of cocoa production to climate change and the working and living conditions of cacao-growing communities.

Read more on Market Watch.

Visit the Hershey Sustainability website for the press release.

The World Agroforestry Centre’s (ICRAF) Pro-poor Rewards for Environmental Services in Africa (PRESA) program has produced a policy brief on a case study of the Sasumua watershed in Kenya. It begins by introducing the policy and institutional framework already in place for watershed management, including fees extracted from water utilities and highland forest water users to go towards watershed conservation and Kenyan Water Resource Users’ Associations. Then, looking specifically at the Sasumua watershed context, authors John Mwangi, John Gathenya, Sara Namirembe, and Hosea Mwangi explore how a payment for ecosystem services program would augment the impacts of a larger catchment management strategy, and coordinate with the private and public sector actors. The authors argue that costs of maintaining water quality would decrease substantially by partnering with upstream land owners, who would be rewarded for implementation of sustainable land management practices. 

Four recommendations surface as a result of the PRESA work, include expanding the Water Act of 2002 to enable PES implementation by the appropriate funding organizations; modifying natural resource management policies and legal frameworks to ensure that PES is implemented formally rather than on an adhoc basis; allowing for a portion of water utility revenue collected remain in the local area and be disbursed by Water Resource User Associations as PES; and making the business case for natural resource management through PES to corporate entities.

For more detail, read the full brief.

The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) completed a report entitled Mapping and Valuing Ecosystem Services in the Ewaso Ng’iro Watershed in Kenya. It describes the results of a project in the Arid and Semi-Arid Lands of Kenya to develop tools to compare the impacts of different land and water uses – such as livestock grazing, crop production, and wildlife based tourism – on preserving natural capital. It also examines the market value for agricultural products and water services. The results of the mapping and valuation work is expected to aid the Ministry of State for Development of Northern Kenya and other Arid Lands (MDNKOAL) in spatial planning and the development of policies to specifically address the challenges of managing various draws on resources. With value estimates and spatial analysis combined, the report presents the necessary information to approach natural resources management from a landscape level, and where incentive mechanisms would best be placed within that framework. Paul Ericksen, Mohammed Said, Jan de Leeus, Silvia Silvestri, Lokman Zaibet, Shem Kifugo, Koert Sijmons, Jeniffer Kinoti, Leah Ng’ang’a, Florence Landsberg and Mercedes Stickler were involved in the study.

Read the full report here.

An article in the journal Ecological Economics explores the management of agricultural lands for the provision of public ecological goods. According to author Heidi Stallman, while much of the discussion on this issue in the past has centered on government regulation and privatization, a cooperative management framework may be more appropriate for attaining the spatial scale of action necessary for maintaining ecosystem services. This article examines how one can determine which ecosystem services are well-suited to collaborative management. One of the key messages of the paper is that market-based and government incentive structures reward individual farmers but often ignore large scale coordination, whereas, cooperative management of ecosystem services is designed around and more likely to achieve a landscape level necessary for optimal benefits. Stallman applied the analytical framework to eleven ecosystem services in agricultural systems, assessing their candidacy for cooperative management based first and foremost on whether landscape scale and coordination will enhance the provision. 

The abstract is available online, subscription required for the full-text.

Stallman, H.R. 2011. Ecosystem services in agriculture: determining suitability for provision  by collective management. Ecological Economics 71: 131-139.

Edited by Eva Wollenberg, Alison Nihart, Marja-Liisa Tapio-Biström, and Maryanne Grieg-Gran, this book includes chapters on a wide variety of topics on the intersection between climate change mitigation and agriculture. One of the sections of the book explicitly examines institutional arrangements and incentives, including a piece on bringing smallholder agricultural carbon projects to scale and another on a landscape approach to mitigation in Australia. A variety of financing mechanisms and institutional frameworks are highlighted. But the larger significance of this book is its consolidation of much of the recent work on incentives, measurement and accounting, and examples in practice for integrating livelihood benefits, agricultural production, and climate mitigation services. 

Learn more about the book and how to obtain a copy on the publisher’s website. 

This article by the French research institute, CDC Climat, assesses the opportunities for carbon offset structures to support mitigation of agricultural emissions. Claudine Foucherot and Valentin Bellassen begin by characterizing the sources and mitigation potential of agricultural carbon emissions. They go on to outline different carbon offset standards, either compliance or voluntary, and whether agricultural methodologies are available and projects have been implemented. 733 carbon offsets projects with ties to the agricultural sector were analyzed, shedding light on the variation in practices, standards, and geographic distribution. 

One of the major barriers to involving agriculture in the offset world is the large abatement cost associated with the diffuse nature of agricultural emissions. Multi-farm aggregators reduce the transaction costs of dealing with smaller emissions reductions on individual farms, while also achieving larger scale coordination and impact. The report concludes that continued agricultural carbon market development is likely considering the large mitigation potential of the sector; the growing number of agricultural carbon projects and offset methodologies is testament to this outlook.

Read the full report here.

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) published a report assessing the greenhouse gas emissions from the U.S. agricultural sector. Authors Karolien Denef, Shawn Archibeque, and Keith Paustian document the nature and magnitude of carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, and methane emissions from manure management, grazing practices, soil health, and rice cultivation. The analysis then looks at the opportunities for climate change mitigation within the sector through emissions reductions and carbon sequestration. While the report lays out strategies for individual practices, it is evident that multiple better management practices can be applied to achieve greater benefits. The paper concludes with a discussion of knowledge gaps and research needs. This assessment provides a sound basis on which to build future agricultural carbon mitigation programs.

Read the full report on the USDA website.

The second chapter of the United Nations Environment Programme’s 2012 Yearbook is all about soil health. Authors Reynaldo Victoria, Steven Banwart, Helaina Black, John Ingram, Hans Joosten, Eleanor Milne, and Elke Noellemeyer argue that proper soil management results in the provision of multiple ecosystem benefits, such as carbon sequestration, biodiversity preservation, and improved water quality. Moreover, the chapter provides key insights into measurement and monitoring of soil carbon, as well as key strategies for better management in three land use systems: grassland, cropland, and forest. The report concludes with an analysis of the way forward, looking at policy options including various incentives for protection of the ecosystem services soil provides.

A new publication by Forest Trends presents 12 case studies of ecosystem markets in Africa. Editors Steve Zwick, Tommie Herbert, and Anne Thiel compiled examples of payment schemes for carbon, biodiversity, and water services, including case studies of a cocoa and carbon project in Ghana, the Western Kenyan Agricultural Carbon Project, and a biodiversity conservation study in western Uganda. These cases are supplied as examples of growing trends across the continent, and are indicative of the depth of innovation and experimentation within the umbrella of ecosystem service markets.

Access the full report online.

A new ArcGIS mapping tool developed by the UN-REDD Programme – a collaborative between FAO, UNDP, and UNEP – helps identify relationships between multiple ecosystem services within a landscape. The spatially explicit toolbox maps the interrelationships between carbon stocks, biodiversity, other ecosystem services, land uses, and other pressures on the land, providing a useful instrument for designing REDD+ projects and prioritizing activities for specific areas to achieve multiple benefits. The tool is expected to serve as a good starting point, to inform more detailed spatial analyses before the implementation of a project. 

Access the tool and the guidebook online.

A booklet recently published by Forest Trends provides a framework for determining whether legal and institutional structures are prepared to support a payment for ecosystem services program. It lays out a three-step sequence through which to move, decreasing in importance and urgency: ensure that threshold conditions are met; determine essential elements to develop in conjunction with PES; and streamline PES schemes. Working under the premise that governments can play a key role in creating the national infrastructure and supportive environment for PES, the tool helps officials identify key issues to address in the development of PES programs. The author, Slayde Hawkins, identified certain threshold requirements, such as a minimum level of governance, tenure rights, and regulation. These guidelines are not meant as a one-size-fits-all assessment, but rather to start discussions in different national and sub-national contexts.

Access the booklet here.

The Technical Working Group on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases (T-AGG) has released the third edition of its literature review of mitigation potential through agricultural land management. Authors Alison Eagle, Lydia Olander, Lucy Henry, Karen Haugen-Kozyra, Neville Millar, and G. Phillip Robertson present a comparison of the mitigation opportunities for 42 agricultural land management activities. Of these, 20 activities, such as restoring wetlands and cover-cropping in the winter, have been relatively well researched and are likely to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. The remaining 22 activities have either little impact on GHG mitigation or lack supporting evidence. More in-depth information on each of the practices is available in the report, depicting the variations found in the literature, and suggesting under what circumstances should certain practices be optimal to implement. The review sets a basis for incentive programs, such as carbon offset schemes.

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has developed an online database with the who, what, and where of nutrient pollution. The Discharge Monitoring Report (DMR) Pollutant Loading Tool pools data from various EPA permitting channels to calculate pollutant loading and rank dischargers, industries, and even watershds based on this information. As the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition notes, the tool can provide a rapid assessment of watershed health. As the tool clearly labels sources of pollutants, it could also provide information useful in the context of nutrient trading schemes. However, while there is data available applicable to multiple scales, confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs), industrial facility wastewater releases, and biosolids data are not included sources of pollution in the tracker.

Try out the tool online.

A new paper released by the Climate Change, Food Security and Agriculture (CCAFS) research programme provides estimates for baseline greenhouse gas emissions from the agricultural sector in East and West African countries. Winrock scientists, Sandra Brown, Alex Grais, Stephan Ambagis, and Timothy Pearson, inventory greenhouse gas emissions and estimate the mitigation potential of certain practices, such as reduced tillage regimes or improved management of degraded lands. The study employed an Agriculture, Forestry, and Other Land Uses (AFOLU) methodology to calculate the baseline values. It also aims to highlight the potential to mitigate emissions while still maintaining or enhancing agricultural productivity. This research presents an important foundation of data upon which mitigation activities and carbon credit projects can be built, and may help to prioritize certain areas or land uses to target within a landscape.

The National Council on Science and the Environment (NCSE) held its 12th national conference, with this year’s theme “environment and security.” Representatives from academia, NGOs, government, and the private sector came together to share ideas and experiences about the underlying science and policy of the theme. One of the five focal areas during the three-day event was food security. A breakout workshop tied together ecosystem services, biodiversity, and food production. Another panel discussion tackled sustainable intensification of crop production while preserving ecosystem services. 

More resources and information from the conferences is available on the website.

The focus of this conference will be on the interconnected environmental and social challenges facing the planet – climate change, ecological degradation, human well-being, planetary thresholds, food security, energy, governance across scales and poverty alleviation. A wide range of conference participants is expected, including researchers, policy makers, private sector leaders, NGO and development representatives, and individuals from the engineering and technology sectors. Solutions at all scales to the aforementioned challenges will be an important topic of the conference. It will also provide scientific leadership towards the 2012 UN Rio +20 conference in June of 2012. One of the three main themes of the conference is meeting global needs for food, energy, water and other ecosystem services. 

Visit the conference website for more information.

The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) initiative is bringing together academics, political actors, civil society representatives, and administrative officials to discuss the state of environmental valuation, ecosystem services, and the science-policy processes. Three main themes form the basis of the conference: demonstrating and leveraging the value of nature; mainstreaming the value of biodiversity; and nature in the city. Additional themes, including poverty alleviation through environmental management, were open for paper submissions. 

Get the details here. 

The ninth biennial conference hosted by the Scottish Agricultural College (SAC) and the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) is focused on valuing ecosystems. It aims to further the understanding of integrated management for agriculture and forestry in order to ensure the provision of multiple ecosystem services. This conference will also serve as a forum for discussion around ways in which to increase the adoption of an ecosystem approach by land managers, researchers, and policy makers.

This year’s Annual Leadership Summit held by the Sustainable Food Lab is focused on sustainable sourcing in global food chains. Some of the sessions will focus on the impacts of eco-certification and sustainability metrics. Leading up to the summit, there will also be a set of learning journeys to visit agricultural production sites, including sustainably certified cacao agroforestry systems. Representatives from the private sector, farmer organizations, and NGOs will share and discuss the opportunities for operationalizing sustainability in supply chains.

The Institute for Advanced Studies (IAS) at the University of Surrey is holding a two-day workshop on markets for ecosystem services. Bringing together representatives from academic, governmental, non-governmental, and private institutions, the workshop will explore how to design institutional and regulatory frameworks that protect ecosystem services. 

For more information and new developments, visit the conference website.

The conference will focus on ecological economics and policy, with the goal of contributing to innovative mechanisms to address institutional and market failures in sustainable development. Key themes of the conference are greening the economy; the political economy of green development (including agriculture and food security issues); environmental justice, ethics, and values; and methodological issues. Registration is now open, and preliminary program agenda is available. 

Please visit the conference website for additional information.

A Community of Ecosystem Services (ACES), the Ecosystem Markets Conference, and the Ecosystem Services Partnership (ESP) is holding its annual conference, linking the science, practice, and institutions around ecosystem services and natural resources management decisions. Discussion groups, town hall meetings, oral and poster presentations, and workshops will comprise the conference activities. While the conference will be structured around topics of measurement, valuation, and the role of key actors, it will also draw upon topics from previous ACES, Ecosystem Markets, and ESP events. 

Learn more and register on the conference website.