89
The following guidelines can be useful in developing PES:
➊
Identify the functions fulfilled by the ecosystem and then identify the services provided
by this ecosystem;
➋
Analyze the ecosystem services in the context of the basin by determining those that
appear themost pertinent and identifying priorities;
➌
Carry out a technical quantification of the ecosystem services chosen;
➍
Make an economic evaluation of the ecosystem services, either using references
already employed, or by establishing financial data based on information existing
in the basin;
➎
Work out the unit costs to protect and restore the services;
➏
Evaluate if necessary thewillingness to pay of the population concerned;
➐
Look for compromises between costs andwillingness to pay, and establish the PES.
7.3 Funding of environmental actions
Funding of environmental action in basins takes twomain forms:
➊
Funding fromwithin the basin. Using basin-scale “polluter pays” and “withdrawer
pays” principles is a way of collecting a tax or levy paid by water users to feed into
the basin’s budget. This budget can be used by the basin organization to implement
measures decided as part of amulti-annual basinmanagement plan. The condition
is that actions that benefit the basin’s aquatic ecosystems should be written into the
management plan;
➋
Funding from outside the basin. Funding from the State, local authorities or inter-
state bodies (e.g. European Union, Regional Economic Commission) is also a
significant source of finance for developing conservation and restoration action on
aquatic ecosystems in basins. This is the case of the European Union, which
provides funding for these actions (as part of the Common Agricultural Policy and
the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development, EAFRD), supplementing State
and local government grants.
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THEHANDBOOK FORMANAGEMENT
ANDRESTORATIONOF AQUATIC ECOSYSTEMS INRIVERAND LAKE BASINS
7 ECONOMICAND FINANCIAL ASPECTS
