Incentives for Ecosystem Services (IES) in the Himalayas: A ‘Cookbook’ for Emerging IES Practitioners in the Region

This step involves formalizing arrangements and initiating management and payment schemes. This can often be the ‘make-or-break’ moment for IES systems, particularly as concerns and barriers may arise at the last moment. Step 8. Initiating IES

background 2) identification of all stakeholders and their roles 3) identification of the specific producers and consumers and their roles 4) agreed payment or other incentive mechanism 5) monitoring provisions 6) agreed ecosystem service supply 7) legislative instrument(s) supporting this agreement, 8) conditions if both parties are not performing as expected 9) third party monitoring mechanism(s) 10) time-bound measures 11) possible benefit-sharing mechanisms. There is no standard format for the formal agreement at this point. Agreements from other areas can be modified, or a new agreement can be made and signed in accordance with local needs and context. The formal agreement needs to be signed by both parties with witnesses, and care must be taken to ensure that those signing have the authority to commit to the agreements. A copy of the formal agreements should also be made available to the local authorities, resource managers and facilitating organization well in advance of the initiation, in order to include and incorporate feedback including legality, policy and jurisdiction issues, and to address any unforeseen details.

Transparency and clarity are important to IES initiation. A formal agreement between producers and consumers of identified ecosystem services will act as the legal document for an agreed geographic scope, number of participants and period of time. The formal agreement should include 1) the rationale and

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Step 8: Initiate IES • Formalize arrangements, verify policy and legal context • Initiate management and incentive scheme

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Incentives for Ecosystem Services (IES) in the Himalayas