The Site:
The Songhuaba watershed is located 16 km north of Kunming, the capital city, political, economic and cultural centre of Yunnan Province, China. The Songhuaba watershed provides half the drinking water supply for the 3 million urban inhabitants of Kunming. Covering 630km2, the mountainous watershed has 325 natural villages with a population of almost 84,000 people. Driven by growing demand for agricultural produce in the city, agriculture has intensified over the last decades, and water quality has dramatically deteriorated.
The Issues:
To date, local government has relied on land use planning regulation in an attempt to address the threats to water quality. However, since most of the watershed is under agricultural land use, non-point pollution associated with farming practices is one of the most ubiquitous threats to water quality in the watershed. This cannot be addressed by land use planning regulations unless restrictions on farming are put in place, and this would directly undermine the basis of local livelihoods.
ICRAF is exploring the potential of rewards for environmental services as a way to meet the demand of water users for water quality while also providing positive incentives for improved land management practices in the watershed. Negotiations between suppliers and demanders of environmental services should be evidence-based, and negotiations should be conducted in an equitable manner. Therefore, ICRAF is supporting the collection, analysis and communication of evidence on the impacts of land management practices on water quality and quantity in the watershed, and supporting studies of farmers’ willingness to accept different forms and levels of reward as a preparation for facilitating negotiation among stakeholders.
The Rewards:
The research in the Songhuaba watershed will serve as a platform for multiple stakeholders to constructively engage in dialogue involving both upstream and downstream stakeholders. Activities to support this dialogue will include stakeholder workshops at which the scientific evidence is deliberated, and the initiation of a pilot RES scheme to test and demonstrate appropriate mechanisms for initiating and sustaining improved land management practices. The eventual result will be a set of recommendations on preferred reward mechanisms that will be proposed to Kunming City and Yunnan Provincial government.
Site Partners:
ICRAF China Yunnan Office
Center for Mountain Ecosystem Studies, Kunming Institute of Botany
Yunnan University
Contact:
Name: Ms. Yang Mei
Email: yangmei@mail.kib.ac.cn
References:
Links:
ICRAF China Programme
www.chinaagroforestry.org