Pilot PES scheme in the Chon - Aksuu watershed, Kyrgyzstan

1. Pilot PES scheme in the Chon-Aksuu watershed, Kyrgyzstan Mariya Genina, The Regional Environmental Centre for Central Asia (CAREC) 13 March, 2012

2. PES – contractual transaction between buyer and seller of an ecosystem service or land use/management practice likely to secure that service. Payments can be: Monetary, In-kind, Service, Reward Payment for ecosystem services (PES)

3. The Chon Aksuu watershed • Downstream activities: • Irrigated crop growing – Water Users Association • Upstream activities: • Forestry – Forest administration • Livestock breeding – Pasture Committee • Mushroom/medicinal plants picking – Individual businesses • Tourism – Individual businesses

4. Project goal To introduce PES and «reward for carbon storage» to ensure long-term sustainable use of the local ecosystem services of the Chon-Aksuu river watershed thereby improving livelihood of local communities.

5. Main issues in the watershed Water quality and quantity for irrigation use – high level of suspended sediments, water shortages • Forest degradation: • Deforestation • Soil degradation in the forest • Weak natural regeneration • 2. Overgrazing of pastures Erosion Decrease of water storage in the soil Soil conservation upstream Reforestation Better water quality for irrigation

6. Managing the problems through PES Pasture committee Mushroom pickers Forest administration Tourists 4 contracts: - 1 multilateral - 3 bilateral Payment flow Ecosystem services flow Water Users Association

7. The payment • The Water Users Association pays in labour • The Forest Administration: 10 man/day a year to help in tree plantation, fencing, etc; • The Pasture Committee: 20 man/day a year for pasture quality improvement. 2. The Mushroom Pickers Association pays in labour the Forest Administration: 30 man/day a year to help in soil preparation, tree plantation, etc. 3. Tourists pay in cash the Forest Administration the entrance fee in the valley: 20soms/person (0,5 USD), 50soms/car (1 USD).

8. The conditionality • The Forest administration must: • Allocate 10% of the fee collected among tourists to tree plantation; • Fence new plantations; • Fence important places for natural regeneration; • Work together with the Pasture Committee and the village administration. • The Pasture Committees must: • Prepare a Pasture Management plan; • Follow recommendations on maximum pasture load, repare key infrastructures to enable the access to remote pastures, fence temporary some pastures for regeneration; • Limit and control grazing in the forest areas.

9. Key point for the sustainability of the overall mechanism – monitoring Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) plan/group Coordination Committee Monitoring of water quality by water users

10. Next steps • To improve the present PES scheme – by including other users (medicinal plants pickers, bee keepers, etc), targeting, further research, monitoring and evaluation; • To facilitate the development of national policies and regulations on PES in Kyrgyzstan – complementary PES contracts in Chon Aksu, involvement of Biosphere Reserve; • Reward for carbon storage - in discussion with the National Agency for Environmental Protection and considering involvement of national industries; • Learn from other experiences – study tour to Vietnam, side events and regional conferences; • Replicate the experience and conduct new pilot projects in Central Asia – interview-based surveys, spread the experience on various contract conditions, payment types, scheme designs, sustainability and potential benefits.

11. Ecosystems • Improved health of water-related ecosystem services; • Conservation of forest exosystems; • Improved water efficiency in irrigation (in future). • Community. • Increased environmental awareness; • New and voluntary bond between local communities. Current and expected benefits of PES scheme • ES sellers • Improved pastures and livestock health; • Improved efficiency of reforestation, soil conservation and water management programs. • ES buyers • Improved crop yields and reduced filtration costs; • Avoided conflicts between forest units and mushroom pickers; • Better mushroom yields; • Landscape beauty.

12. Scalability of solution The solution is scalable, however there is need for… • Stronger local NGOs/associations as intermediaries; • Commitment of the government at all levels toward PES through policy making and involvement (e.g. as buyers); • Efforts to improve the population's trust to public authorities (e.g. allowing the creation of public funds managing cash payments in a transparent way). • A wider awareness on PES at all levels; • Diverse local experience on various aspects of PES; • Advocacy and learning from international experience (e.g. Vietnam).

13. Replicability and factors for success • A strong intermediary organization; • Well-defined land ownership/long-term rent rights; • Sufficient time for awareness raising; • Clear scientific data and assessments on the status of ecosystems and necessary activities; • The size and form of payment is accessible to the ‘buyers’ and is interesting for ‘sellers’; • A monitoring plan, reconciled with all the stakeholders, to ensure the sustainability.

14. References: • Simon Charre presentation, Chon Aksu project manager, CAREC (9 Dec, 2011) • Some lessons learnt from the study tour to Vietnam (Feb 2012) • Leimona Beria presentation, RUPES coordinator (8 Sept 2011, Astana) • Sibylle Vermont presentation, FOEN, (21 Sept 2011, Astana) • Perelet R.A. presentation (3-4 May 2011, Astana) • National expert assessments on PES in Kazakhstan (Nugumanova L. and Kaliaskarova Z. 2011

15. Key messages: • Cooperation • Communication • Link to ecosystems • Direct benefits for livelihood and ecosystems MERCI /THANK YOU solutionsforwater.org MariyaGenina, CAREC mgenina@carec.kz worldwaterforum6.org