Hack, Jochen (2016):
Application of Payments for Hydrological Ecosystem Services in Integrated Water Resources Management.
Water Lectures organized by the Center for Development Research, the United Nations University, the UNCCD, the German Development Institute (DIE) and the Eco-Hydrology and Water Resources Management Department of Geography, University of Bonn, Center for Development Research (ZEF), Walter-Flex-Straße 3, 53113 Bonn, Ground floor, Conference room ZEF, 02.02.2016, [Conference or Workshop Item]

Abstract

This Water Lecture deals with principle problems of practical implementation of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) in developing countries. In awareness of the need for a more adaptive IWRM approach, local contexts of action are regarded as fundamental to achieving effective change in water resources management. To put IWRM into context means moving from global, exogenous ‘solutions’ to local, endogenous plans of action. The key for improving IWRM implementation is to address the institutional and political challenges typically encountered when implementing integrated approaches: e.g. problems of institutional interplay and spatial fit, lack of participation, equity and accountability, as well as the general mismatch with needs and conditions in specific places.

Subsequently, the lecture examines the potential of Payments for Hydrological Ecosystem Services (PHES) to contribute to improvements in IWRM implementation. The Ecosystem Services concept, as the basis of PHES, departs from quite a different point than the traditional government perspective of environmental regulation. Instead of political and membership linkages it focuses on functional linkages between natural and human systems. The principal aim of the lecture is to analyze whether the concept provides a means to address the governance challenges of fit and interplay in the context of IWRM implementation, hence, supporting operationalization of IWRM in specific problem-contexts.

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