Peru steps up watershed management services

The Peruvian Ministry of Environment (MINAM), in association with environmental non-profit organisation Forest Trends, has launched the watershed services incubator for watershed management and to ensure the sustainable provisioning of clean water.

The incubator, also supported by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), aims to develop financing mechanisms to maximise the contribution of natural ecosystem processes in the provisioning of water, by sustaining healthy watersheds while reducing costs and stresses associated with increasing freshwater demand.

Peru Minister of the Environment Manuel Pulgar-Vidal said, "The incubator of projects for watershed services is an opportunity for Peru to take a more comprehensive and systematic approach to the protection and management of watersheds, with the objectives of ensuring the provision of the environmental services watersheds provide, ensuring the conservation of watersheds and rewarding the good practices that conserve and manage watersheds."

The scheme will develop projects and policies to provide incentives and financial support to communities to preserve and protect the natural systems that are essential to watershed health.

Forest Trends president Michael Jenkins said that Peru will set an example for the world by committing to a national policy of taking on natural infrastructure approaches to address the country’s water crisis.

"The incubator is designed to show how support at the national level can leverage ingenuity from local initiatives to create real solutions for one of the biggest challenges we face today – the protection of our natural water resources," Jenkins said.