Payments for Environmental Services in the Catskills: A socio-economic analysis of the agricultural strategy in New york City’s watershed management plan

This report was prepared for a hemisphere-wide project entitled “Payments for Environmental Services in the Americas.” Sponsored by the Ford Foundation and administered by Programa Salvadoreño de Investigación Sobre Desarollo y Medio Ambiente (PRISMA), the initiative explores the opportunities, challenges, and risks associated with PES mechanisms in rural farming and indigenous communities. The objective is that the insights gathered from the undertaking will assist in the design of policies that not only increase the provision of environmental services, but also help to alleviate rural poverty. Most of the research for this project has focused on environmental payments mechanisms in Latin America where, one could argue, the need to build natural assets and alleviate rural poverty is greatest. Given the innovative institutional arrangement, large scale, and high stakes involved in the New York experience, however, it was deemed that a case study of the City’s agricultural package would be a valuable addition and contribute to the overall aims of the project.