Journal-Article_RHA_Meine.pdf

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Organisation- Institutions- Programmes

RAPID HYDROLOGICAL APPRAISAL(RHA) OF POTENTIAL FORENVIRONMENTAL SERVICEREWARDS: procedure and applicationin Lake Singkarak, West Sumatra,Indonesia

By Meine van Noordwijk

on the flows is improved.

The policy response is likely to be governedby national law on Water Resource

Management but local government will playa very important role as far as taxation andfinancial mechanisms are concerned.These issues which are related to the lasttwo questions are scheduled for futureresearch.

References

Bruijnzeel, L.A., Bonell, M, and Gilmour, D.A.2005. Forest-Water-People in the HumidTropics: An emerging view. CambridgeUniversity Press, Cambridge.

Calder, IR. 2003. Forests and Water -Closing the gap between public andscience perceptions. Stockholm WaterSymposium.

Murdiyarso, D. 2005. Water resourcemanagement policy responses to landcover change in South East Asia river

basins. In: L.A. Bruijnzeel, M. Bonell, andD.A. Gilmour (eds.), Forest-Water-People

in the Humid Tropics: An emerging view.Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.pp: 121-133.

Wunder, S. 2005. Payment forenvironmental services: Some nuts andbolts. CIFOR Occasional PaperNo. 42.CIFOR, Bogor.

Contact:Daniel Murdiyarso and Ulrik IlstedtCenter for International Forestry Research(CIFOR)Jl. CIFOR, Situgede, Sindang Barang, Bogor

Indonesia

Email: [email protected]

Forest protection as part of watershed

management is often (still) considered toprovide downstream benefits that may wellexceed the local benefits. Especially wherehydro-electricity schemes derive substantialeconomic benefits from the continued flowof water, the concept of payments forwatershed protection services has becomepopular. However, as other articles in thisnewsletter highlight, there is no sharedopinion between scientists, farmers and

policy makers about what these services are,how they depend on the condition of thelandscape (and the amount of forest that ispart of it) and how payments or rewards canbe made transparent (linking reward todelivery) and robust (surviving paradigmshifts)1. To bridge the perception andcommunication gaps that are likely to existin the way the local forest and water debate

has developed, a form of rapid appraisal isneeded to judge how far apart the potentialpartners in a rewards mechanism are, andto help develop a mechanism that istransparent and robust.

A recent report2 presents results of such arapid appraisal during a 6-months periodof the hydrological situation in the SingkarakBasin in West Sumatera (Indonesia) in the

context of the development of payments forenvironmental services (ES) that are aimed


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at rewarding the upland poor for protectionand/or rehabilitation of watershed functions.Lake Singkarak is one of six actionresearch sites of the RUPES network3.

The local government unit (Nagari) ofPaningahan, almost coinciding with themost forested of the lakesidesubcatchments has become an actionresearch site for the RUPES project. Themain issue is the relationship between thehydro-elec-tricity project (HEPP, PLTA

Singkarak), the fluctuations in the level ofthe lake, the water quality in the lake andthe land cover of the catchment areas thatcontribute water to the lake. Currentpayments made by the PLTA to the localgovernment can, in part, be seen as rewardsfor maintaining or improving environmentalservices.

The appraisal (with a focus on cost-effectiveness) was based on five

components: Search of the literature and web-based

resources on the area and initialscoping meeting with key stakeholders,

Spatial analysis of the landscape based

on remotely sensed imagery andavailable maps and digital data,

Exploration of local ecological knowledge

of the landscape, water movement and

consequences of land use options,

Discussions with a wide range of

stakeholders and policy makers onissues of land use and hydrological

functions,

Modeling of the water balance and water

use in the landscape to explore scenariosof plausible land cover change and theirlikely impacts on key performanceindicators with the GenRiver model.

The major land cover types in the SingkarakBasin are rice fields (17%), agriculturalcrops (15%) and forest (15%). Rice fieldsoccur in the lowland area, below 1000 m

asl and with slopes of < 30%.

The main conclusions of the consultationsare that there is broad agreement onobjectives such as the need to maintain aclean lake, productive landscapes on hillsand irrigated plains that meet theexpectations of the high population density

as well as produce electricity for theprovinces of West Sumatera and Riau.

There is a widely held perception that thecurrent landscape is notmeeting all theseexpectations: the PLTA is not able to provideas much electricity as was expected, thefluctuations in the level of the lake are aconcern to the people surrounding the lake,the water quality of the lake is a concern,the population of the endemic fish (ikan

bilih) is declining and previous efforts torehabilitate the Imperata grassland (alang

alang) in the area have not been verysuccessful.

Much of the debate is focused on proposedsolutions and especially on the relativemerits of reforestation and the variousalternative ways to achieve land rehabilita-tion. While for many policy makers

reforestation, either using the local Pinusmer-kusiior other fast growing tree speciesis the main approach, villagers in Paning-gahan are convinced that streams dry up inthe dry season after reforestation with pine

trees, while the natural forest is providingregular stream flows. The water balancemodel with the default parameter values forPine tree confirmed a higher water use by

canopy interception and transpirationcompared to more open land-scapes, but


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no substan-tial difference with natural forest.Impacts of land cover via soil properties mayneed to be further tested. Furtherhydrological distinctions between the lime-

stone and granite parts of the landscapeare needed as well

Overall the water balance modelsuggestedthat the possible performance of the PLTAis only mildly influenced by land cover withinthe range of scenarios tested. Comparedto the current land use mosaic an increase

of 5% or a decrease of 5% of the maximumelectricity production can be expected, whilethe variation between wet and dry yearsof the 1991-2002 period is much larger.Details of PLTA lake management matter alot. A change in mean annual rainfall underthe influence of global climate change willhave a strong effect on PLTA performance.Declining water quality in the lake leadingto weed infestation will offset any gains inwater supply that could result from land

degradation. Reforestation with fastgrowing evergreen trees will have a mildly

negative effect on water usable by the PLTA.

A basic assumption for payments forenvironmental services is that the supplyof these services does depend on activitiesof those rewarded. For the PLTA thisassumption is not supported by muchevidence Payments made by the PLTA

may have various types of rationale:

Compensation for damage caused by the

HEPP project, to the farmers along theOmbilin river whose waterwheel irrigation

systems are disturbed and to farmerswith rice fields surrounding the lakeaffected by increased flooding

Shared responsibility for maintaining the

water quality in the lake as the HEPPproject modified outflow rates and

increases debris accumulation

Payments of tax to local government

Goodwill enhancing payments to the local

community Payments for environmental services

conditional to the delivery of theseservices.

At this stage the evidence for the lastcomponent is relatively weak, and almostabsent for the scale level of avoideddegradationin a single nagari. Efforts of alllake-side nagaris will be needed to dealwith the issues of lake water quality, whilerehabilitating the other inflows to the lakeneed at least equal attention.

Further information:Meine van Noordwijk,World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) SouthEast Asia.

E-mail: [email protected]

Notes:1 Agus, F., Farida and Van Noordwijk, M. (Eds),2004. Hydrological Impacts of Forest,Agroforestry and Upland Cropping as a Basis for

Rewarding Environ-mental Service Providers inIndonesia. Proceedings of a workshop in Padang/Singkarak, West Sumatra, Indonesia. 25-28February 2004. ICRAF-SEA, Bogor, Indonesia2 Farida, Kevin Jeanes, Dian Kurniasari, AtiekWidayati, Andree Ekadinata, Danan PrasetyoHadi, Laxman Joshi, Desi Suyamto and Meine vanNoordwijk, 2005. Rapid Hydrological Appraisal(RHA) of Singkarak Lake in the context ofRewarding Upland Poor for EnvironmentalServices (RUPES). ICRAF Southeast Asia,Working paper 2005.3The RUPES (Rewarding Upland Poor for theEnvironmental Services they provide) consortium

in which ICRAF, IFAD, IUCN, CIFOR, CI, FF, WWFand other international partners work together


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FORESTS, FLOWERS ORFLAMINGOS: what drives the waterbalance of Lake Nakuru, Kenya?

By Brent Swallow

with national partners in (currently) Indonesia,Philippines, Vietnam, China, Thailand, India andNepal is supporting a network of action researchsites and national policy review activities to

facilitate such mechanisms. Specific attention isgiven to pro-poor forms of ES rewardmechanisms. Benefits to poor people can comeboth through the way rewards are channeledand the positive environmental impacts of thedecisions they support. http://www.icraf.org/sea/networks/rupes

Lake Nakuru is a very shallow alkaline lakelocated in Kenyas rift valley, with a surfacearea of 44 km2and an average depth of 2.5

meters. The Lake is fed by one permanentriver (Ngosur) and four seasonal rivers(Njoro, Nderit, Makalia and Lamudhiak),with a total catchment area of 1,800 km2.

The flamingos that give Lake Nakuru itsdistinctive pink shoreline are a majorbiodiversity and tourism resource for Kenya,with over 300,000 local and foreign holidaymakers visiting the site each year. A

completed fenced national park of 90 km

2

surrounds Lake Nakuru, providing a habitatto a number of threatened species, includingthe Black Rhino. Since 1990 the lake hasbeen designated a Ramsar wetland ofinternational importance. However, the lakeis threatened by inflows from a number ofpollutants and the level of the lake fluctuates:

when it is low the flamingos moveelsewhere, leading to less tourists. One

possible cause of the degradation of thelake waters is the largescale conversion of

forest lands in the catchment, particularly inthe eastern Mau forest that forms theheadwaters of the Njoro River. The RiverNjoro flows over 60 kilometres from the

eastern slopes of the eastern Mau forest toLake Nakuru. Its catchment measuresapproximately 280 km2and has a populationof over 300,000 people, including 30,000who live in Njoro town and 240,000 who livein Nakuru town, including Egerton Universityand a growing horticultural industry. Giventhe general debate on forest and water,

the recent forest conversion in the Mau forestis held responsible for, or expected to resultin, a loss of flamingo-based income.Should the park pay for forest conservation?

Land use and forest cover have alsochanged dramatically in this catchment. Ithas been estimated that between 1969 and2004, the percentage of cultivated land inthe upper catchment area increased from13% to 70%, while a corresponding fall in

woodland and grassland cover of 87% to30%. Major changes in hydrology have been

noted: the Njoro River has becomeseasonal instead of permanent and majorboreholes have dried up. Annual rainfall inthe 1980s and 1990s has been about 10%below the preceding decades, with shifts inthe monthly pattern. Water abstraction forflower production is increasing around LakeNakuru, as the export industry has exploited

all water and land resources accessible atthe nearby Lake Naivasha.

Nakuru is an endorheic system, as thereis no outflow from the lake and in the long

run all rainfall is lost by evapotranspirationin the catchment area. The lake is only atemporary storage, bridging betweenrelatively wet and relatively dry periods.

Increased demand for water in the middlereaches of the streams and forest-

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