Daniela Russi

Short title: Payment for Ecosystems Services in Catalonia Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) are an innovative environmental policy instrument that aims to reward natural resource managers in return for maintaining or improving the provision of ecosystem services. A wide variety of PES projects and programmes have been implemented in recent years, mostly in developing countries, and the possibility of extending the application of this instrument in Europe is increasingly considered. In this paper, we discuss the key definitional and operational principles of PES and present two initiatives developed in Catalonia that can be partially characterised as PES, namely private forest reserves and land stewardship agreements. They are financed by the public administration and environmental foundations, and allow the conservation of mature forests and valuable ecosystems. We also discuss the opportunities and challenges involved in developing new PES schemes focused on the prevention of forest fires through extensive cattle grazing and the development of small-scale watershed schemes involving private water bottling companies. We conclude that PES is a promising environmental policy instrument because it allows mobilising additional resources for environmental protection by involving private companies and foundations whilst raising environmental awareness.

Material Flow Accounting (MFA) has been developed by several countries, as a method to measure the metabolism or physical dimensions of a society's con sumption. It has been taken as an indirect and approximate indicator of sustainability. MFA can be used to test the dematerialisation hypothesis: that technological progre ss causes a decrease in total material used (strong demateri alisation) or material used per monetary unit of output (weak dematerialisation). Moreover, it is also a useful tool to obtain key indicators about a nation's econom y that could be used for both public discussion and policy making. Spains Material flow accounting revealed that, far from de materialization, this county keeps using large amounts of material: more than 100% increment in minerals extraction from 1994 to 2004, and also a 100% increment in mineral imports in the same period. On the other hand, from 1993 to 2004 fossil fuel extraction has been decreasing in Spain, although this has be...

The briefing note “Natural Capital Accounting and Water Quality: Commitments, Benefits, Needs and Progress” outlines existing guidance and examples on water quality accounting. While there is considerable experience with accounting for water quantity, there is less information on accounting for water quality and the contribution of ecosystems and biodiversity in its provision. This briefing note, inspired by the growing global focus on natural capital accounting, identifies the ongoing challenges related to the development of natural capital accounting and water quality accounting, in order to encourage debate and commitment towards effective water and biodiversity policy. http://www.teebweb.org/publication/natural-capital-accounting-and-water-quality-commitments-benefits-needs-and-progress/