Endowment Grantee Releases Report on Payment for Watershed Services

EcoAgriculture Partners, a DC-based group working to help agricultural communities manage their landscapes, has released two versions of the report, Payment for watershed services in the United States: Cost-effective strategies to align landowner incentives for abundant clean water.  Endowment Vice President Peter Stangel explains the report, “was commissioned by the Endowment to provide background on ‘who is doing what’ in this field and was one of the first steps in our Healthy Watersheds through Healthy Forests Initiative.  It was co-funded with the US Department of Agriculture’s Office of Environmental Markets.”

The study identifies 32 Payment for Watershed Services (PWS) programs across the U.S that provide economic incentives or other benefits to landowners in exchange for providing “watershed services” that help protect water quantity or quality.  Watershed services include increasing aquifer recharge, storing flood waters, improving irrigation efficiency to restoring forests, protecting wetlands, and implementing pollution reduction measures.  These measures are a “win-win” for both landowners and  water consumers as, “flexible incentives to landowners, which can increase landowner income, support watershed-friendly farm and forest management, and reduce costs to the public of maintaining abundant clean water.”  The report reveals where PWS projects are taking place, analyzes who is participating and the associated motivations of the buyer and seller, and lays out opportunities and challenges moving forward.  At the Endowment’s request, a special version of the report was created for busy decision- and policy-makers.