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Water resources are a key environmental service
. Water funds are a mechanism to link conservation of watersheds and biodiversity with water utilisation and conservation. Although there are many other environmental services, water, and water funds, can act as proxies or catalysts to protect many others including biodiversity, carbon storage, soils, biogeochemical cycles, pollination, waste cycling, etc. Such protection goes a lot further than the economical benefits (Luck et al., 2009). The establishment of compensation mechanisms sets in motion public awareness and capacity building which benefits both social and environmental systems.
The Conservancy has been successful in the replication of the Water Conservation Funds model in other parts of Latin America (CAF and TNC, 2009). In Colombia, we are working to create water funds in Bogota (Werman, 2009), East Cauca Valley, Cali, Sierra Nevada and Medellin. In Ecuador, several water funds are already working with TNC support, this includes Paute, Zamora, Espindola and Tungurahua
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The Nature Conservancy promote water funds to protect land and water, biodiversity, social justice and distributional justice
. The institutional mechanism was established which aims to bring together water users to pay for conservation on the voluntary basis. The funds are then used for water benefits, landscape restoration, fundraising and governance. In Ecuador, Fondo para la Conservación del Agua (FONAG) help to ensure long term water services for the population of Quito. It receives money from government, privation companies and NGOs. The project achieved an endowment of $5.4 million from 2000 to 2008.In Terraba Watershed of Costa Rica, the communities received support from private sector such as pineapple grower and PINDECO (Pineapple Development Corporation) for forest fire control and reforestation. This is an example of how PES can be more than financial benefits – benefit sharing and co-investment
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