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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 BRASILIA 000836 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT PASS USAID TO LAC/RSD, LAC/SAM, G/ENV, PPC/ENV 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: SENV EAGR EAID TBIO ECON SOCI XR BR
SUBJECT: OAS DISCUSSES PAYMENT FOR ECOSYSTEM SERVICES IN THE 
AMERICAS 
 
BRASILIA 00000836  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
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SUMMARY 
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¶1.  Approximately 30 people from nine countries of the Americas 
(including Paraguay, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Argentina, and Brazil) 
attended the OAS event "Trends in the Implementation of Payments for 
Ecosystem Services (PES) in the Americas" June 04 in Sao Paulo.  The 
discussion took place within the 12th International Conference on 
Environmental Law, organized annually by the Brazilian NGO Law for a 
Green Planet.  The day-long event offered an opportunity for 
countries to share their experiences in environmental conservation 
through PES and discuss how legislation in each country can 
stimulate and strengthen PES transactions. END SUMMARY. 
 
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THE GROWING IMPORTANCE OF PES PROJECTS 
-------------------------------------- 
 
¶2.  During the 2006 OAS Meeting of Ministers and High-Level 
Authorities on Sustainable Development in Santa Cruz (Bolivia), 
member countries agreed to create incentives for PES projects. 
Currently, thirteen of the 34 member states of the OAS have Payment 
for Ecosystem Services (PES) programs with over 400 projects 
implemented throughout the hemisphere.  PES projects include: water 
basin protection; biodiversity conservation; landscape and scenic 
beauty conservation; and carbon sequestration. 
 
¶3.  According to Richard Huber, Principal Environmental Specialist 
of OAS's Department of Sustainable Development (DSD), the U.S. has 
the greatest number of PES projects in the Western Hemisphere (42%), 
most of which are related to soil carbon sequestration and coal mine 
methane recovery.  Other WHA countries with a significant number of 
PES projects include: Costa Rica (12%), Mexico (26%), Brazil (4%), 
Ecuador (6%), and Colombia (3%). 
 
¶4.  The DSD office within OAS is responsible for strengthening 
hemispheric efforts to protect ecosystems and the services they 
provide, as well as facilitate access to PES mechanisms through a 
regional exchange of information, experiences, and lessons learned. 
The DSD has also been analyzing PES transaction trends and the 
challenges and contributions of legal and institutional frameworks 
to the implementation of PES schemes.  The product of this analysis 
is a document titled "Conceptual and Methodological Guidelines for 
the Design of PES Schemes in Latin America and the Caribbean", and 
is available online: 
http://www.oas.org/dsd/SpecialMeetings/PESmee ting.htm. 
 
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REGIONAL EFFORTS AND SUCCESS STORIES 
------------------------------------ 
 
¶5.  The "Conceptual and Methodological Guidelines for the Design of 
PES Schemes" document highlights success stories from Colombia, 
Peru, Ecuador, and Chile, including the following project 
summaries. 
 
¶6.  In 1997, Bolivia developed one of the world's first projects 
addressing compensation for carbon sequestration and avoided 
deforestation project, in the Noel Kempff Mercador Park.  This 
project aims to avoid the emission of nearly 7 million tons of 
carbon through the conservation of 634 thousand hectares of forest 
 
BRASILIA 00000836  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
over a 30-year period. 
 
¶7.  In Peru, the city of Moyobamba (population 40 thousand), 
residents pay an extra fee in their water bill to support upper 
watershed preservation activities by local inhabitants. 
 
¶8.  In Ecuador, San Pedro de Pimampiro, Imbabura Province 
(population 17,285) residents pay an additional 20% above water use 
charges to support payments to upstream watershed forest landowners. 
 With NGO support, the municipality created its own environmental 
unit and now performs other environmental management activities. 
 
¶9.  In Colombia, the Alexander von Humboldt Institute and CIFOR 
(Center for International Forestry Research) implemented a PES water 
project designed to achieve conservation and sustainable use of 
forests in the Chaina basin.  Under this PES scheme, water users 
compensate farmers employing appropriate environmental land 
practices. 
 
¶10.  In Brazil, the government is currently discussing a National 
Plan for the Payment of Ecosystem Services in which the GOB would be 
the "broker" of payment schemes, and every PES agreement would be 
processed by the Ministry of Environment.  Implementation of such a 
plan is likely to be controversial and lengthy. 
 
¶11.  COMMENT: OAS is in its first stage of pushing for a 
hemisphere-wide standard which could guide all member countries. 
Despite its shy approach to this regional effort, OAS has an 
opportunity to prove its role in leading conservation efforts 
throughout the region. END COMMENT 
 
SOBEL 
 
 
 
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