Overview of payment initiatives for hydrological environmental services in brazil

Abstract

The number of Brazilian municipalities and states engaging in payment for environmental services (PES) has been increasing over the last few years. Through a documentary and scientific research, we sought to understand the evolution of almost 20 years of Brazilian experiences in hydrological PES. The research was based on an inventory of the initiatives (already finished or under development), their location, legal basis, and valuation methods. Considering the sampling universe of 68 Brazilian hydrological PES initiatives, we observed: higher concentration of programs in the South and Southeast, with a tendency to expand them to other Brazilian regions, especially the Midwest; the first initiatives of hydrological PES in Brazil adopted the payment of a fixed value, without considering the biotic quality of the rural properties, a pattern which was gradually replaced by the calculation of the opportunity cost of land and the inclusion of physical-environmental indicators and socioeconomic factors in the valuation methodologies. The study allows to conclude that, in the last decade, there has been a tendency for hydrological PES programs to adopt methodologies with an interdisciplinary and systemic approach to assess the provision of environmental services.