Description

This document reports on an assessment of the potential of market mechanisms to improve rural livelihoods through watershed management, conducted by Fundacion Natura Bolivia. Watershed management schemes in Bolivia have had minimal success. Most have been regulation-oriented, top-down approaches. Despite having a large per capita water supply, local water scarcity is a persistent problem in Bolivia.

This assessment analyzes the current and historical factors – social, political, economic, and biophysical – to evaluate how market and market-like mechanisms may improve watershed management and livelihoods of Bolivians. Nine lessons for negotiating fair deals for watershed services are presented and discussed.