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About one-third of the world’s population lives in countries with moderate to high water stress. Water scarcity will affect 66% of the world’s population by 2025. Our reliance on water extends far beyond having clean and healthy drinking water; freshwater ecosystems are also a source of food and provider of livelihoods for millions. Nearly 70 percent of the freshwater humans use is for agricultural purposes, with growing demands for energy generation. Pollution and inefficient use of water, however, has left highly-diverse freshwater ecosystems with extinction rates 15 times higher than for marine ecosystems. In many of the places where CI works, upland watersheds are being deforested, compromising water quality, quantity and security for millions of downstream users. Yet watersheds offer one of the clearest types of “win-win” situations, dem- onstrating clear and direct links between human welfare, ecological services, and conservation. When PAs include watersheds, they have an evident value for human welfare (e.g., for irrigation and downstream water supply), and it is often possible to collect water user fees that can finance protection, restoration, and provide poor upland users with benefits.

Madagascar. The importance of water for agriculture has had an important impact in increasing PA expansion in Madagascar. A World Bank study of all Madagascar’s parks showed that the $94 million spent on parks paid for itself, plus provided 875,000 rural rice-farming households with water — a benefit worth $54 to $119 million. Mantadia National Park alone provides more than $125,000 annually in watershed protection and

Local Benefits of Protected Areas:Perspectives and Experiences of Conservation International

natural hazard reduction. As a result, the President is making a lasting commitment to protect biodiversity and rural livelihoods by creating 15 new protected areas covering 2.4 million acres of land — an area roughly the size of Connecticut. The international conservation community has helped to create a national conserva- tion trust fund to support these new protected areas. The trust now has a capitalized value of over U.S. $30 million. To support further incorporation of watershed values into conservation and development policy, CI and partners have mapped watershed services for Madagascar, identifying which watersheds are most critical for biodiversity protection, lowland rice irrigation, drinking water, and mangrove protection. Future work will look at the values of these services to people and map out impacts of water quality for Madagascar.

Indonesia. Poor, local farmers around Ruteng National Park suffer serious economic impacts when there is drought. Studies by CI research partners showed that farmers were aware of, and interested in, their envi- ronmental conditions, and the way in which these were linked to water availability. The study found that the average amount that farmers would pay for drought mitigation services was between $2-3 per household, equivalent to about 10% of annual agricultural costs, 75% of annual irrigation fees, or 3% of annual food expenditures. This study demonstrates that even poor, local farmers recognize the importance of the national park, and they would be willing to contribute to park protection. A study of another park in Indonesia, Lore Lindu National Park, found that it provides $6.1 million annually for 304,607 people who depend on water that irrigates 22,338 hectares of crops. It also provides fish worth $1.7 million to local residents. When values to industry and other users are included, the park’s water-related benefits are valued at $9 million total.

Bolivia: Communities in the Los Negros watershed around Amboró National Park have piloted a mechanism for environmental services payments. Residents in the upstream community of Santa Rosa are negotiating with private farmers in the agricultural town of Los Negros, who, even though they are 35 km. downstream, depend on water from the park. Though one hectare of unirrigated land in downstream Los Negros is worth only $500, a similar hectare with a reliable water supply is worth $7000. Los Negros farmers have therefore expressed a willingness to invest in forest protection, thus hedging against the risk of diminished water sup- plies. In early 2003 the environment committee of Los Negros agreed to “pay” one artificial beehive (value ~$30) for every 10 hectares of forest that Santa Rosa protects annually. More than 700 hectares of cloud for- est are now protected via direct market driven payments, and the local community groups are beginning to develop monitoring and enforcement protocols. Downstream from the project is Bolivia’s largest city, Santa Cruz, with 2 million water users.

4.3 INCreASING reSoUrCe ProdUCTIVITY

Protected areas are well known to act as sources for food, fuel, clothing, and medicines. Unfortunately, as these resources diminish outside PAs the pressure on them becomes more intense. For this reason, landscape approaches that protect and restore ecosystem services outside of PAs are essential. This is especially critical since by 2025, over 60 percent of the world’s “absolute” poor will live in rural areas, depending directly on the natural resources around them. There are many instances where PAs can support local use and consump- tion while discouraging outside, commercial interests from rapidly depleting resources. PAs also directly contribute to increased resources - for example- in agriculture, through services such as pollination, or in fisheries through the creation of “no take” zones that allow fish stocks to recover. We are only now beginning to recognize and value the magnitude of this type of services.

Brazil: The Mamirauáand Amanã Sustainable Development Reserves have yielded high social and environ- mental returns through co-management by local communities and NGOs. In the 1.2 million hectare Mamirauá reserve, better management and marketing of the pirarucú fishery between 1998 and 2004 led to 50% increases in the annual income of the 6,000 residents, while the population of pirarucú more than doubled. Observing these successes, the state of Amapá (in the extreme northeastern Brazilian Amazon) in 2004, created a network of conservation areas under various forms of co-management, community and indigenous control. These areas total 11 million hectares, encompassing 65% of the area of the state and 200,000 indigenous and rural

peoples, and set the state on a path of conservation-centered development, relying on sustainable agriculture, fisheries, tourism, and technology.

Brazil: The Corumbau Marine Extractive Reserve (MERC), covering 89,500 hectares, is part of the Abrolhos Bank, a coral reef hotspot located in the Southwestern Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Bahia State. The reserve was created in 2000 with the goal of improving local community livelihoods by fostering the sustainable use and management of the fisheries. Although this is a multiple-use reserve, MERC’s management plan includes several no-take zones. Since its creation, fish density has tripled inside the no-take zones and doubled in other parts of the reserve. Because the reserve is co-managed by local authorities (The Brazilian Environmental Agency – IBAMA) and the local communities, fishing regulation compliance is high and boats from outside are not allowed to fish within the reserve boundaries. As a result of this success, another community of fisherman south of this reserve has asked CI for support in creating a new reserve called Cassurubá in one of the most important and richest mangroves along the coast of Brazil. This community is concerned about the over-exploitation of natural resources they depend on, such as crab. CI has helped with the technical studies (biological and socio-economic) for the creation of a formal proposal that is now in the hands of the President and due to be signed in the near future.

South Africa: Each year, tens of thousands of beehives are hired out to pollinate commercial fruit plantations (apples and pears) and vineyards, among the region’s main economic activities contributing to jobs, exports, and the nations’ GDP. The value of these pollination services is approximately US$400 million annually. Since the bees spend most of the year in the indigenous Fynbos vegetation, protecting the natural vegetation is the only way to ensure the continuation of this key input to South Africa’s agriculture. The South African Wine Growers Association, spurred by CI’s South Africa Hotspots program, is encouraging wine growers who take certain actions to receive a “biodiversity friendly” label. Producers expect this program to provide multiple benefits from better pollination and a higher market value for their product: their logo is “complex wines require complex habitats.” This initiative has brought 34% of the total vineyard footprint in the Cape winelands into the program thus far.

Indonesia: Scientists are studying the productivity of coffee plantations in northern Sumatra to understand how the productivity of plots changes with forest cover. The forests harbor bees that pollinate the coffee flow- ers, as well as bats and birds that control coffee pests. CI is investigating the value of this pollination service and the potential incentives for landowners to preserve their forests along with the economically- valuable species within them.