Sustainable Sloping Lands and Watershed Management Conference Payment for Environmental Services: an Approach to

The concept of payment for environmental services (PES) provides a way of solving ecological degradation and poverty in China. Most poor people live in ecologically fragile mountains, and rely on natural resources for their livelihoods. Unsustainable natural resource utilisation often leads to environmental degradation which limits sustainable livelihoods. On the other hand, restrictive policies to protect the natural environment prevent local people from benefiting from natural resource protection. PES mechanisms in such areas enable poor local people to earn payment through providing environmental services. The ecological system then benefits from protection and reasonable utilisation of its natural resources. This study examines the possibility of setting up a payment for watershed services (PWS) scheme in the Supa watershed in Longling county, Yunnan, China. The watershed is home to four townships and 26 villages, which mostly rely on agriculture for their livelihoods and remain very poor. There is plenty of hydropower potential in the watershed, which already has a reservoir and five hydropower stations. The issue under consideration is how to establish a mechanism that will enable the local community, the hydropower company and the local government to increase forest cover in order to stop soil erosion in the Supa Watershed and improve watershed functions that benefit both the community and th