IUCN Water, Nature and Economics Technical Paper

With increasing demands on the water of the Pangani River Basin, coupled with a decreasing catchment runoff due to climate change, water resources are becoming increasingly scarce, and leading to conflicts among users.

Sri Lanka has one of the oldest traditions of irrigation in the world. The economy and human settlements of early Sri Lankan society were organized around the ancient water tank (water storage reservoir) irrigation systems. These traditional tank systems thus form a vital component of both the natural and manmade landscape in Sri Lanka.

The socio-economic development plan for Sekong mentions increasing forest cover as one of its major objectives. This study focuses on natural regeneration (NFR) forests and what it would cost the country if NFR schemes were not undertaken. In a country where poverty alleviation is of prime importance, estimating the contribution of NTFP harvesting for sustaining livelihoods would demonstrate the importance of NFR schemes in achieving its poverty alleviation goals.

Sri Lanka holds great potential for developing payment for environmental services (PES) and environmental service markets. However, this is a relatively new concept, and improving awareness and building institutional capacity remain a top priority and challenge.

Wetlands are vital to the livelihoods of hundred of millions of people residing in the Lower Mekong region, and particularly to the food security of many of the rural poor. This document reports on a study whose aim was to provide guidance on the use of environmental economic assessment methodologies to support wetlands management for poverty alleviation.

Water ecosystems have long been perceived by decision makers as having little value simply because their economic value is poorly understood and rarely articulated. Calculating the economic value of an ecosystem is a means of providing information which can be used to make better and more informed choices about how resources are managed, used and allocated.