From research outputs to development outcomes—selected stories - Water Scarcity, Livelihoods and Food Security - page 181

Paying for environmental services in an Andean watershed:
Encouraging outcomes from conservation agriculture (PN22)
Concerns were mounting over the health and biodiversity of the Lake Fuquene
watershed near Bogotá, which provides environmental services such as
tourism, urban water supplies and flood control. Reclamation of land for
cattle-raising had reduced the lake area, and runoff from crop production and
cattle manure was polluting the lake and causing eutrophication.
To address these problems, local partners promoted a transition from tradi-
tional practices to conservation agriculture. Even after wide promotion,
however, adoption remained limited. Farmers blamed this on a lack of financial
resources for initial investment and a lack of technical knowledge, and because
many farmers were producing on rented land.
Adoption of conservation agriculture picked up when researchers implanted
a scheme for payment for environmental services with a revolving fund
managed by farmers' associations. The fund provided credit to make an initial
investment in conservation agriculture. To get credit, a farmer had to present
an approved land-use plan. Ninety-seven percent of the farmers receiving
credit kept to the agreed plan and, thanks to a resulting increase of the average
farm income from US$1850 to US$2180 per hectare, 100 percent of the first
round of loans was recovered.
Many people in Andean watersheds do not own land, and therefore cannot
benefit from agriculture or compensation for environmental services. In
Colombia, conservation agriculture had positive impacts on soil characteristics
by improving stream-flow regulation and reducing sediments, while increasing
farm income. Low-interest loans proved to be an effective mechanism to
promote practices that reduced sediment load and increased carbon seques-
tration. Long-term investment in payment for environmental services schemes
is often affected by unfavorable macro-economic changes because public
investment is invariably diverted to more immediate priorities. The Colombian
experience demonstrates, however, that in the short-term, payment for
environmental services can serve as an effective entry point for conservation
agriculture.
Citations relevant to this story are: Rubiano et al., 2006; Estrada et al., 2009.
Research outputs and community resource
management
Corralling: A solution to improving livestock productivity in
pasturelands affected by termites (PN37)
A CPWF research team looked at options to improve livestock water
productivity in pastureland that had been corralled off in Nakosongala on the
cattle corridor of Uganda. Ethiopian colleagues reported that corralling cattle
every night over a two-week period helped recover desertified grassland. This