Equal Pay for Water Services Project

Paying It Forward

Teculután, Guatemala

July 2009

Located in southeastern Guatemala, close to the border with Honduras, Teculután is hot and dry – a stark contrast to the country’s cooler highlands. Under the relentless midday sun,cicadas croon loudly in all directions. Fields of okra and watermelon give way to rolling hills that form part of the Sierra de las Minas mountain range, which is home to an important watershed and a diversity of rare plant and animal species, including the long-tailed quetzal – Guatemala’s colorful national bird. While most of the Sierra de las Minas range is now a reserve, bald patches spot the hills near Teculután, showing signs of illegal deforestation. Without their own land or other economic opportunities, poor farmers in the area burned the forest for many years in order to use the land for cultivation.

Now, however, CARE and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) are working with local farmers and governments to reforest and protect thereserve. We began conducting environmental and economic assessments in the area in 2005 and, based on the results of those analyses, project implementation began in early 2009. Currently, 300 community members are involved in the project.

Because we want to achieve sustainable results that continue for generations, CARE and WWF created a contract with the local government,which has agreed to establish a system by 2011 that will pay local farmers to conserve and reforest the area. Toward this end, the municipality has loaned farmers land in the valley for the next five decades, where they are cultivating okra, corn and watermelon. This has eliminated their need to clear the hillsides for cultivation. CARE also helped farmers to establish a drip irrigation system on their newly leased land to promote production and the conservative use of water. Moreover, we have done and continue to conduct market research to enable farmers to select the most profitable and sustainable crops for the region.

In the start-up period before the local government takes over the program, CARE and WWF are paying farmers to reforest the degraded hillsides. In the first half of 2009 alone, residents planted 90,000 seedlings. This work has also created jobs and pumped money into the local economy. For example, the project invested $10,000 in job creation (primarily reforesting work) in the first half of 2009.

Another important component of the project involves ensuring that big landowners and companies in the area, including a soft drink and beer company nearby, are paying for the water they are using. Currently, they do not pay anything even though they utilizevast amounts of water. CARE and WWF are now bringing companies together with farmers to talk about water quality and rights. To support the case that companies should pay for water use, CARE and WWF conducted a study to demonstrate that funding conservationefforts would actually save companies money in the long-run. Deforestation causes erosion, which contaminates the water supply, causing a serious and costly problem for companies. Reforestation is an easy and affordable solution to prevent such problems, so it makes good business sense for companies to invest in it now.

Through dialogues with CARE, WWF, local governments and farmers, the companies are starting to recognize the long-term benefits of conservation. The project is working toward establishing a system whereby companies and large landowners will pay the municipality for water use, which in turn will pay local smallholder farmers to reforest and protect the watershed. Everyone plays a part and everyone gets a benefit.