Pilot PES scheme in the Chon-Aksuu watershed, Kyrgyzstan Simon Charré The Regional Environmental Center for Central Asia - CAREC December 2011

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

Main issues in the watershed 1.Forest degradation: - Deforestation - Soil degradation in the forest - Weak natural regeneration 2. Overgrazing of pastures Erosion Decrease of water storage in the soil Erosion Decrease of water storage in the soil

Managing the problems through the PES tool Ecosystem services flow Payment flow Water Users Association Forest administration Pasture committee Tourists Mushroom pickers

The PES scheme 4 contracts  One multilateral  Three bilaterals 1.Forest administration/WUA 2.Pasture committee/WUA 3.Forest administration/Mushroom pickers

The payment 1.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, 50soms/car.

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

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

Monitoring and Evaluation plan The M&E plan was designed and approved in cooperation with all parties involved in the scheme 1.It concerns the two ecosystems included in the project: forests and pastures; 2.Will be implemented once a year by a multi- stakeholder group (12 people); 3.A short report will be written after implementation and sent to the Coordination Committee.

The overall mechanism is supervised by a multi-stakeholder Coordination Committee: 20 members from different backgrounds and sectors. Missions: 1.To meet once a year to evaluate the M&E report; 2.To extend or amend the PES contract; 3.To organize discussions and solve controversial issues between parties; 4.To promote the PES tool. Coordination committee

Monitoring of water quality by water users Simple and cheap protocol To be regularly implemented to follow the evolution of suspended sediments load Will show the efficiency of the activities implemented upstream

Next steps To improve the present scheme: To work on the possibility to include other users of the upstream ecosystems as buyers: medicinal plants pickers, bee keepers, etc; To conduct field work to identify within the targeted ecosystems the places with the highest potential to provide water related ecosystem services; To conduct a reflexion on how to integrate in the scheme the pastures owned by the forest administration.

To discuss with the National Agency for Environmental Protection the opportunity to use the REDD+ mechanism To evaluate the feasibility of involving national industries in forest regeneration and protection Carbon storage

Learning from other experiences Field trip to Vietnam to visit several PES projects also addressing water quality issues 1.How can a cash payment be managed in the frame of a PES scheme? Is it feasible in the Chon-Aksuu watershed? 2.How can a PES national strategy be created and implemented efficiently for environmental protection and the maintain of economic activities?