Inputs to planning

Activity 8

Grahamstown 1st and 2nd November 2011

How can a local economy that supports ESPA be created?

Recap from residential: PES is not straightforward

Ecosystem

Poor community

Demand for services

Impacts

Demand for services

Rest of community/ nation/world

Impacts

Payments for ecosystem services

Important guiding principle for combining PES with poverty alleviation:

•People living in poverty HAVE TO BE INCLUDED in transactions related to ecosystem services

In conventional markets, not least the globalised ones, people without purchasing power and entitlements to resources are excluded.

Important ways to include people living in poverty:

•Establish property rights related to ecosystem services in demand, e g land at lakeshores or land that could be used for urban farming

•Support institutions that keep transactions related to PES circulating on local level rather than diverting money abroad through global markets. This can include:

•Training that makes local employment possible•Micro-credits that make it possible for small-scale business related to ecosystem services to enter markets•Establishment of barter systems or local currencies that are time-based and do not require startup capital•Establishment of non-commercial local banks that are run according to democratic principles to handle local currencies or microcredits