1. Introduction
The Secretary of State for the Environment and Natural Resources, through the Directorate of Protected Areas (DAP) and the Project for the Management and Conservation of the Yaque del Norte River (PROCARYN).
hydric-valorization-national-park-jose-del-carmenBeginning in September of the year in 2004, the development of the José del Carmen Ramírez National Park –PNJCR- Management Plan, through a multidisciplinary team of national and international professionals, in order to strengthen the management, protection and conservation of the referred Protected Area.
During the development of the first phase of preparation of the Management Plan, it was concluded that it was necessary to expand the information in several priority areas in order to obtain a “Management Plan” that would really contribute to the development of the PNJCR, one of the priority areas to strengthen the contributions that the protected area made to Dominican society as it is a collection, filtering, storage and production area of fresh water. This in order to establish through the "Management Plan" strategies and lines of action that contribute to the development of a future model of "Payment of Environmental Services".
The water, collected, filtered and stored by the PNJCR is considered by the direct and indirect beneficiaries as an abundant good that can be freely and finely disposed of. Thus, the watersheds that are within the protected area are not considered as an economic good, with direct contributions to society.
The disappearance of the forests that they collect and filter is accompanied by the appearance of phenomena such as torrential rains that impact the population and agro-productive assets. The productive base of the affected areas is seriously damaged, since most of the flat areas used in agricultural production, located on the banks of rivers and streams, are covered by sand and stone sediments, making them totally unusable in the short and medium term. In the highlands, many of them affected by deforestation, heavy rains cause massive erosion of the soils, causing landslides and their ability to retain the water that feeds the sources for the nearest human settlements.
One way of conserving the water supply as a result of the conservation and management of PNJCR is the “water recovery”, for the medium and long-term development of a “Payment for Environmental Services” (PES) model. The PSA is a solution that went from being “novel” to convenient and manageable, in fact today (2005) there are more than 300 different examples in Latin America implemented, mostly successful and sustainable socially, economically and environmentally.
A PES model based on the “water valorization” of the PNJCR can make it possible to reverse a situation of shortage and environmental degradation through the logic of the market and transform areas of high value and environmental risk due to high demographic pressures in areas where it is achieved. sustainable development. It can allow the financing of the protection of the watershed, the beginning of forest management, environmental education, improved agricultural and livestock management practices, the empowerment of social capital and the change of mentality of the peasant settled in the buffer zone as inside the protected area.
It is important to note that this document does not intend to financially quantify the net value of the water production from the José del Carmen Ramírez National Park, a "Water Valorization Survey" should not be confused with an "Economic Analysis of the Hydrological Balance". where in the last one the production of fresh water produced in a specific territory can be economically quantified.
The "Water Valorization Survey" (SVH) is aimed at identifying the sectors that benefit from the production of water by the territory, in this case the PNJCR, with the objective of identifying the strategies and lines of action to be incorporated in the "Management Plan" to achieve in the medium and long term the implementation of a Payment model for Environmental Services.
We must remember that conceptually that environmental services are… “ Those that the forest and forest plantations provide and that directly affect the protection and improvement of the environment. They are the following: mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions (fixation, reduction, sequestration, storage and absorption), protection of water for urban, rural or hydroelectric use, protection of biodiversity to conserve it and sustainable use, scientific and pharmaceutical, research and genetic improvement, protection of ecosystems, forms of life and natural scenic beauty for tourist and scientific purposes ”.
It is well known that the “Hydrographic Basins” located within the PNJCR, are under pressure that an environmental deterioration that can be considered in some points even serious, which will affect in the short term social and economic conditions of the 59 communities that are within and in the periphery of the protected area, but also the flow of two hydroelectric plants and two irrigation systems of the lower valleys.
The deterioration of the hydrographic basins within the PNJCR can be stopped with adequate physical planning as long as it is respected. Respect for the uses of a suggested or guided management through the PA's “Management Plan” depends on the population in general being able to identify the direct and indirect incentives that they could obtain by conserving and protecting natural resources.
Objectives of the "Water Valorization Survey"
Overall objective
Develop at a conceptual and operational level a "Water Valorization Survey" of the José del Carmen Ramírez National Park, which allows identifying the strategies and lines of action to be included in the Management Plan for its implementation.
Specific objectives
- Identify the direct and indirect beneficiaries that benefit from the water collected, filtered, stored and produced by the "Hydrographic Basins" located in the José del Carmen Ramírez National Park; Establish the priority and main uses of the water resource from the "Hydrographic Basins" of the PNJCR; Provide the conceptual bases for the generation of a model of Payment for Environmental Services, as a tool to achieve financial self-sustainability of the José del Carmen Ramírez National Park; Present the strategies and lines of action that must be integrated into the "Plan of Management ”of the PNJCR, for its implementation. Generate information that supports the development of concrete proposals in the Management Plan of the José del Carmen Ramírez National Park;Introduce the issue of "water valorization" to key political actors to change the perception of the economic and social contribution of Protected Areas to the region and the country.
Scope of the study of the "Water Valorization Survey"
During the development of the “water valorization survey” a series of questions have arisen from technicians from the different institutions with which the team of researchers has interviewed, as well as members of the team from the Directorate of Protected Areas, about the scope of the study.
The lack of perception on the part of beneficiaries, key actors and technicians involved in the management and conservation of the José del Carmen Ramírez National Park, has resulted in two basic considerations:
- Lack of interest or value in the study of "water valorization survey"; Confusion with other types of research on the "results" to be obtained as a result of the collection and analysis of information resulting from the "water valorization survey".
Regarding the first point identified, it should be noted that when considering "water" as a finite resource and considering the environmental fluctuations that are currently occurring and according to forecasts will continue to increase, the "water" factor will be the one with the highest incidence, both due to its shortage or excess. The "water valorization survey" is important as it will allow a first effort at the level of the "national system of protected areas" to clearly define a route that will establish the degree of use of one of the various goods, services and functions. that the ecosystems contained in the protected areas provide to the Dominican society.
There has been a methodological confusion about the "water valorization survey". First of all, the survey looks for data and qualitative parameters that allow orient the planners who prepare the "Management Plan" on the strategies and lines of action to be incorporated into the management programs and subprograms to be implemented in the protected area.
In addition, the "survey" in unitary form is not functional, it must have other studies that allow the crossing of information to be able to clearly establish what the "transversal axes" and / or "approaches" could be that could become the backbone of the PNJCR "Management Plan". Although in advance the development of a comprehensive model of "Payment of Environmental Services" is proposed that could be directed as a priority to the most tangible good of the protected area, which is "water".
It is important to consider that the main purpose of the “survey” is to identify the “critical route” by which the valorization of “water” could be used as a tool for financial self-sustainability for the José del Carmen Ramírez National Park and possibly other protected areas. from Dominican Republic.
The first problem with the valuation of water is the limitation when translating the value into a (possible) financing. The intrinsic value may be relatively low, but the indirect value, for example when there is a total drought or a disastrous flood, is enormous. Also the non-monetary value (for health, well-being, etc.) is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to express the amount of money that is needed to ensure its presence. Related to this is the problem of simplification; For the purpose of giving a price to water, the different concepts or indirect relationships that give value to water are not detailed, it is not considered that an ecosystem contained in a "protected area" is more than just water.
For example, the value of the PNJCR's forests could be stimulated by measuring the flow of water that comes out of a stream that rises from it and this value can be applied to the conservation of the forest itself, using the approach of “integral management of microwatersheds.
An important problem to consider in the development of the current study that is common in the Dominican Republic is the lack of information on the issue of water recovery, which must be corrected within the same process of implementation of the "Management Plan" through development of research and implementation of PES models with direct and indirect beneficiaries of the water produced in the PNJCR.
The IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) establishes a series of indicators to be considered when proposing as a transversal axis or focus of the "Management Plan" a model of "Payment for Environmental Services" (PSA) based on the "Water recovery". Indicators that have served as a guide for the development of this “survey” of water recovery:
- It is recommended that the "Protected Areas" located in the upper parts of the mountains or headwaters of hydrographic basins, have as their approach the "Payment of Environmental Services" based on the collection, storage, filtering and production of fresh water. To be valued qualitatively and quantitatively for the purposes of creating payment methods is "water", for this it is important to consider three geographical levels to analyze: Successful PES projects based on "water" in PAs, it was due to the incorporation of a clear "strategy" within the "Management Plan" that allowed to orient a medium and long term lines of action for the development of the "baseline" and "operationalization". There is no success in the development of PES based on "Water" in APs,if there is no proactive participation from the beginning of the communities settled within and on the periphery of the protected area Contrary to the majority of proposals and / or suggestions, the water-based PES should start with models generated at the micro-basin level and sub-basins where communities are integrated, through the creation of projects that promote “environmental compensation” based on physical mitigation actions and the creation of environmental compensation funds, the latter first created through internal payments, for future phases collect funds from users in the middle and lower watershed. For the successful development of a "Management Plan" based on a PES (water) approach, the following logical sequence of research and implementation must be followed (see figure 1):
Phase 1: (Probing)
- Identification of sectoral problems of the "Protected Area", associated with the valuation of the protected area; Collection of primary and secondary information regarding the protection, conservation and management of the water resource of the basins identified within the protected area; Analysis and cross-checking of information. Development of a "strategy" to be used within the framework of the "Management Plan" to be used in management programs and subprograms (primarily aimed at research and its subsequent operationalization).
Phase 2: (Selection of the water-based PSA research and operationalization model)
- Selection of a deterministic or stochastic research model for economic valuation of the water resource of the protected area, based on the lines of research and social action determined for management programs and subprograms, among the research and studies suggested are:
- Socio-economic study of the basin; Study and mapping of the physical hydrological environment; Study and water balance; Contingent valuation and study of the willingness to pay or willingness to pay; Identification of the basin, sub-basin and micro basin areas with greater importance for the maintenance of water resources; Study of institutional figures for the operationalization of water-based PES models (integral management of micro-watersheds is recommended); Study of legal figures to be used; Design of a consumer-producer payment transfer model Design of procedure manuals.
Phase 3: (Operationalization of the water-based PSA approach).
- Development of social and institutional structure to support the PES model; Establishment of PES models at the prioritized micro-basin level, using "environmental compensation" models; Design of a monitoring and evaluation system.
For the present “survey” of water valorization, the researchers have as their goal and reference the development of “phase 1” proposed by IUCN for inclusion as a transversal axis or preferably as an implementation approach for a model of Payment for Environmental Services in the José del Carmen Ramírez National Park.
2. Methodology of the Water Valorization Survey
2.1 General methodological framework
The methodology for the development of the "water valorization survey" is part of the logical sequence of elaboration and / or updating of the "Management Plan" for Protected Areas in the Dominican Republic, presented in the "Methodological Guide" developed by the Directorate of Protected areas. The Methodological Guide for the Preparation and / or Updating of Management Plans proposes the following four planning phases:
- PHASE I. PREPARATORY PHASE II. DIAGNOSIS PHASE III. TECHNICAL AND LEGAL FRAMEWORK PHASE IV. PROPOSITIVE
The "water valorization survey" is inserted in Phase II of the methodology "Diagnosis of the PNJCR", it is important to highlight that the "survey" in a specific thematic study proposed by the planning team considering the intrinsic value of the ecosystems present in the protected area by collecting, filtering, storing and producing fresh water for the inhabitants of the communities, region and the country.
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