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Using PES to protect Paramo Ecosystems and water in Colombia

Páramo Ecosystems in the tropical Andes provide a wide variety of ecosystem services, including water provision for consumption. Yet, extractive activities such as mining and intensive agriculture threaten these ecosystems in Colombia. The government of Colombia is therefore thinking of implementing payments for water services between upstream and downstream water users to promote environmentally friendly agricultural practices and ecosystem restoration. However, many scholars showed that the way PES are designed can impact their efficiency and effectiveness. In addition, people’s fairness perceptions about a PES scheme could have a strong role in its success or failure. The main purpose of this research is to analyze, in a given context in Colombia, how to frame and design Payments for Water services (PWS) to take these fairness questions into account and thus reach the original goal of protecting ecosystems.

This project has been successfully completed already.