Ecosystem Services: An Economic Approach to Water Conservation

Thursday 21 August
Morning Seminar

Convenor : Swiss Federal Office for the Environment (SFOEN)

Ecosystems are the natural infrastructures for water management providing numerous services (flood control; local water storage; groundwater recharge; water purification/sanitation; sediment retention and erosion reduction; residual water flows; etc.). Payments for ecosystem services (PES) are innovative economic tools designed to include the value of these services in the economic balance of decision-making. Their application at basin level sets practical examples of partnerships for hydrosolidarity between upstream and downstream populations, between the public sector and private owners, between private companies and land owners. Is PES a balanced tool to implement IWRM, MDGs and sustainable development? What is the key to successful PES? What are the obstacles? What are the advantages and the limitations? Where are the gaps in the knowledge base? How can one enable the leverage of the valuation of ecosystems into the national/global economy?

These issues will be addressed by keynote speakers from international organisations, the private sector, NGOs and countries.

Seminar Programme           09:00-12:00, Room K22/K23

Chair: Ms. Sibylle Vermont, Federal Office for the Environment of Switzerland
Co-chair: Ms. Francesca Bernardini, Secretary of the UNECE Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes, Switzerland