The impacts of payments for watershed services in Ecuador - Emerging lessons from Pimampiro and Cuenca

Payments for environmental services are of great interest in Ecuador, particularly as a way to leverage funding for environmental protection. Payment systems are emerging, but because these experiences are recent little is known about their impacts on national or local wellbeing. Thus, the rationale for this research is to provide guidance in order to ensure that policies support payment systems that are beneficial to the poor, as well as the environment. Two cases of payments for watershed services were selected for detailed analysis: Pimampiro and Cuenca. These two different cases were chosen to illustrate how municipalities are implementing or planning to implement payment systems to protect their watersheds. Pimampiro is a small town and provides an interesting pilot experience of paying landowners to protect their forest, the first such case in the country. Cuenca is a medium-sized city that has established an ambitious and integrated water resources management system and is interested in developing a payment system in the near future.