Asean workshop promotes
payment for ecosystem services

BANGKOK.—Over 100 decision makers, private sector representatives, and development workers from Southeast Asia and China converged yesterday for the three-day Southeast Asia Workshop on Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES).

The workshop will provide a venue for stakeholders involved in PES-related capacity building initiatives to share their experiences in developing sustainable finance, legal, and policy-enabling mechanisms that will secure and support national and regional economic development targets in the Asean region and in the Greater Mekong Subregion.

Organized by the Asean Centre for Biodiversity (ACB), the USAID-Asian Regional Biodiversity Conservation Program (USAID-ARBCP), Asian Development Bank-Environment Operations Center (ADB-EOC), and the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), the workshop will discuss the development and application of PES as a policy tool for economic development and poverty reduction.

Also known as payment for environmental services, PES is a scheme where beneficiaries of ecosystem services pay back the providers of such services. Vital ecosystems processes, along with raw materials, are provided by the natural world for the use of humankind. The development of markets through which these processes or services may be bought and sold represents a market-based policy approach to conservation.

The ecosystem services can range from watershed protection, forest conservation, biodiversity conservation, carbon sequestration, landscape beauty in support of ecotourism, and may be present at any scale, from local to national, regional, or international.

"The PES scheme is still in its infancy stage in Southeast Asia. The creation of markets for ecosystem services has been theoretically recognized in the region. However, the benefits of promoting biodiversity conservation and supporting local livelihoods are yet to be implemented and documented on the ground. A critical step in jumpstarting PES in Asean member states and in other countries is the creation of PES legal and policy-enabling conditions," ACB Executive Director Rodrigo U. Fuentes said in a message read by ACB program development and implementation director Clarissa Arida during the opening program.

Winston Bowman, regional environment director of the United States Agency for International Development in Asia, said the US government is investing over $300 million to support environmental programs in Asia, including wildlife enforcement, biodiversity conservation, and responsible use of forest resources, among others. He stressed the potentials of PES contributions to the region’s economic development.

Pavit Ramachandran, Environment Specialist of the Asian Development Bank, said that "capturing economic benefits from ecosystem services can directly contribute to poverty reduction". He explained that in many low-income countries, ecosystems and the economic activities they support provide products and revenue for daily needs as well as poverty-reducing investments in terms of the stability of ecosystem services also underpins domestic savings and reinvested rural savings, as they are often a principal source of tax revenue to finance development programs.

Masazaku Ichimura, chief of the environment and development policy section of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, stressed that almost 54 percent of the population in the region live in rural areas and depend on healthy ecosystems for their livelihoods. He said that investments in ecosystem services through PES hold much potential to improve the sustainability of land use.

Samuel Cantell, First Secretary of the European Commission Delegation to Thailand, cited the role of the Asean Centre for Biodiversity in spearheading inter-governmental efforts on biodiversity conservation and invited the international donor and development community to support ACB.

A new regional partnership is expected to be announced at the end of the workshop on July 1. The partnership will help build PES capacities across the region and includes the Asean Center0 for Biodiversity, the Asian Development Bank, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP), and the United States Agency for International Development through the Asia Regional Biodiversity Conservation Program.

"This regional partnership is a critical step to jumpstart PES in Asean member states and in other countries. We recognize the crucial need to mobilize the various stakeholders concerned, as well as related skills and expertise," ACB executive director Rodrigo U. Fuentes said.