GREEN WATER CREDITS: INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK AND COMPENSATION MEASURES FOR PIEDADE WATERSHED

L.N. Rodrigues, E. Agbossou, H-P. Weikard, F. Jaspers
2015 Anais do III Inovagri International Meeting - 2015   unpublished
Green Water Credits (GWC) is a recent concept of Payment for Environmental Services (PES). This type of PES offers a new way of addressing issues in current water management. By applying appropriate soil and water conservation measures in the upstream part of the basin, an increase of the amount of 'Green' water upstream and 'Blue' water downstream can be produced. When others PES, with the same goal, finance forestry project and riverbanks protection or restoration, GWC aims water conservation
more » ... measure at the farm level. This enhances the productivity of the farm and gives socio-benefits through the incentive part. The objective of this paper was to evaluate the feasibility to implement GWC concept in the Piedade watershed, sub-basin of Paranaiba watershed within the Minas Gerais state. Implementing GWC depends mainly of the availability of downstream users able of raising enough money to compensate the farmers that modify their conventional agricultural practices. Therefore, examining the roles of the stakeholders was an important step toward the design and implementation of GWC. The data was collected through literature review, semistructured interviews and questionnaires. In order to determine who could be financing these environmental services, a survey was made amongst the different stakeholders related to water management in the basin in general. For the design of the GWC scheme, the different type of compensation that the farmers are willing to accept was also investigated as well as their trust in the different institution that can play the role of intermediaries. The principal beneficiaries of the increase of water that can be create through the establishment of the Green Water credits are the drinking company COPASA and the electrical hydropower stations of 1 Researcher, Embrapa Cerrados, CEP: 73310-970, Planaltina, DF. Fone; (61) 33889959
doi:10.12702/iii.inovagri.2015-a196 fatcat:irqmetvtszd3havcmky6jh2354