PIA Press Release
Tuesday, January 03, 2012 Saving the Cordillera watershed thru PESby Joseph B ZambranoBAGUIO CITY, Jan. 3(PIA) -- There is an urgent need to revive and to sustain the source of water which is necessity for the survival of all living creatures that include human, plants and animals. Department of Agriculture (DA) Regional Executive Director Marilyn Sta. Catalina said one of the ways to address this is through the Payment for Environmental and Ecological Services (PES) which is especially created to ensure financial sustainability and support to community watershed management initiatives. Watershed management in the Cordillera region is a struggle with a large portion of its mountains is denuded causing problems on the environment. With the rapid deterioration of natural resources in the country, the remaining forest areas and other potential natural resources should be protected, preserved and conserved, Sta. Catalina explained. The PES technology carries out two principles. These are payment for environmental-ecological services if you benefit from them and payment to those land owners-stewards whose natural capital produces the services. The implementation follows the following steps: establish a baseline which is essential to plan and later assessment for PES; identify the product or service that will be transacted; identify the service provider which covers the determining of property rights on the production system for the product or service; identify the beneficiaries; agree on the mechanism of transaction; agree on the mode of payment; determine need for mediator and identify roles; identify constraints to sustainability of transactions and lastly define and institute a conflict resolution mechanism, Sta Catalina explained. Through PES, financial sustainability for watershed management could be attained and reviving watersheds is not too far from reach, Sta Catalina added. *(JDP/JBZ-PIA CAR) | 
