Description

Summary: Green Water Credits is a mechanism for payments to land users for specified land and soil management activities that determine the supply of fresh water at source. These activities are presently unrecognized and unrewarded. Direct payment will enable better management and therefore less runoff, flooding, and siltation of reservoirs, and more groundwater recharge and stream base flow, particularly during the dry season. At the same time, Green Water Credits will diversify rural incomes and help communities to adapt to economic and environmental change. The proof-of-concept project aims to demonstrate the viability and feasibility of the concept. World-wide experience with payments for environmental services (PES) initiatives offers several useful lessons about:

– Security of expectations – Policy, legal, and institutional framework – Design of payment mechanisms – Costs and benefits for upstream land managers – Costs and benefits for downstream water users – Applying Green Water Credits in Africa