Payment For Environmental Service

Question: Discuss about thePayment For Environmental Service. Answer: Introduction: Laos is a beautiful landlocked country situated in the southeastern part of Asia. It consists of mountain ranges and various rivers drain the land. This country is financially less stable and mainly depends upon the investments made by the foreign organizations. The dams supported by the international organizations are in their turn harming the natural environment of the Laos and affecting the livelihood of the local people. Hence a policy for payment for the environmental service is required to substantiate the losses faced by the local population and at the same time maintain the ecological balance (Nguyen and Tenhunen 2013). Nam Theun 2 Dam has adopted the policy of PES by World Bank and has attained success. The report would portray the importance of the policy, the planning as well as the how the policy will work. Importance of the PES: PES is a policy that helps to provide incentives to the landowners and other stakeholders whose properties are utilized by beneficiaries for various purposes. Local inhabitants of Laos are not financially stable. As a result, they depend on forest resources for the primary reason for their livelihood. The dams maintained by the foreign organizations under permission from the government are destroying the forests and its resources resulting in some associated disadvantages. Construction and maintenance of dams have led to deforestation of a huge number of trees. Degradation of forests has, in turn, resulted in disruption of the water cycle that has changed the rainfall records (Arriagada et al. 2012). Erosion has been another harmful effect resulted from deforestation. Thus, certain policies should be introduced about payment for service for managing the damages and to maintain a stable use and balance of environmental resources (Mayrand and Paquin 2016). This revenue would help in re-establishing the environment and would assist the local people to lead a better life financially and physically. Payment for Environmental Service: Making of a Policy While constructing the policy of the PES certain criteria like the resource stabilization and reviving the balance of the ecological structure have to be kept in mind. The policy should include the correct estimation of the incentives that should be provided to the provider of the service from the buyer (Mahanty, Suich and Tacconi 2016). The forest owners who have leased their lands to the foreign organization should demand the correct fund from the purchaser from which about 0.2 to 5% of the fund would be allotted for the resource reconstruction. The estimation should be apt and justified. For correct calculation, a model should be proposed. Professionals should work with the models and assign the right percentage of the fund to be received by the forest owners, the organization handling the resource construction work and the governmental associations (Wunder 2013). The next concern would involve the control of the misuse of the resources by the suppliers. The extent of their area, the list of activities allowed on the associated land and the overuse of the resources for the increase of their productivity should be controlled and restricted (Kroeger 2013). As a high amount of local inhabitants mainly live by agricultural activities, a certain portion of the profit and income should be assigned to them who could have otherwise used the land on lease for their livelihood. Moreover concerned should be raised about the cost of relocalisation of the poor people, who have been forced to move away from the land, by appointing a certain percentage to involve them in the power plant. A certain group of organization would be assigned with the task of reforestation activities and maintain a report of the revival of the atmospheric output after reforestation. Act should be passed for prevention of cutting of trees without further delay from the authority All the above mentioned proposals should be considered by the governing authority and should be given the designations of laws. These policies should be discussed thoroughly among the governing officials, and the pros and cons should be judged. The laws should be quickly assigned to prevent further degradation of the flora, and complete results are to be ascertained. Process of Working the ESP: Once the entire policy of the Environmental Service Payment gets a green flag by the governing medium after a detailed discussion, implementation of the laws and ethics should be immediately undertaken. The first step would include proper learning of the suppliers and the local inhabitants of the area. Once they get to know about the importance of the exploited resources, the policy makers will conclude the laws and the rules, every of the stakeholders has to follow (Nasi, Wunder and Campos 2016). The displaced local inhabitants would fix an appointment with the authority to claim the monetary aid that is proposed by the law. In the case of the supplier and beneficiary, a complete agreement should be prepared for the fractions of the financial splits that would take place between them (Muradian et al. 2013). They should revise the agreement and then only further planning would be executed. The act of protection of the flora will contain the appoint of an environmentalist team who wou ld govern the damages caused by the activities of the power plant and instruction of the steps to follow. Assessing the damage already caused, they would estimate the fund required for the recovery of the loosened soil and reforestation. This fund should include the manpower as well as the different other expenses associated with the project undertaken. They should also make an estimation of how to achieve the proper amount of funds from the stakeholders and proper duration required for the project. The incentives which would be provided to the suppliers or the forest land owners from the beneficiaries should be critically judged and decided so that neither the suppliers nor the portion reaching the environmentalists become disadvantageous (Leimona et al. 2015). All the pros and cons from every aspect of the laws and acts to be passed would require proper analysis, judgments and approvals from all the stakeholders. Strict punishment should be allotted against any offence for each la ws and proper monitoring should be provided. Conclusion: From assessing the various damages caused by the hydropower projects in Laos and the monetary crisis faced by the locals of Laos, one can certainly ascertain the importance of the introduction of the PES. Implementation of the PES is believed to be helpful for the people of Laos for they can expect a pretty good amount of income from the projects as well as maintain the beautiful picturesque nature of their country as well. References: Arriagada, R.A., Ferraro, P.J., Sills, E.O., Pattanayak, S.K. and Cordero-Sancho, S., 2012. Do payments for environmental services affect forest cover? A farm-level evaluation from Costa Rica.Land Economics,88(2), pp.382-399. Kroeger, T., 2013. The quest for the optimal payment for environmental services program: Ambition meets reality, with useful lessons.Forest policy and economics,37, pp.65-74. Leimona, B., van Noordwijk, M., de Groot, R. and Leemans, R., 2015. Fairly efficient, efficiently fair: Lessons from designing and testing payment schemes for ecosystem services in Asia.Ecosystem Services,12, pp.16-28. Mahanty, S., Suich, H. and Tacconi, L., 2013. Access and benefits in payments for environmental services and implications for REDD+: Lessons from seven PES schemes.Land Use Policy,31, pp.38-47. Mayrand, K. and Paquin, M., 2016. Payments for environmental services: a survey and assessment of current schemes. Muradian, R., Arsel, M., Pellegrini, L., Adaman, F., Aguilar, B., Agarwal, B., Corbera, E., Ezzine de Blas, D., Farley, J., Froger, G. and Garciaà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ Frapolli, E., 2013. Payments for ecosystem services and the fatal attraction of winà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ win solutions.Conservation letters,6(4), pp.274-279. Nasi, R., Wunder, S. and Campos, J.J., 2016. Forest ecosystem services: can they pay our way out of deforestation?. Nguyen, T.T. and Tenhunen, J., 2013. 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