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Good practice Imported

Chon-Aksuu Watershed PES Pilot — Central Asia's First Payment for Ecosystem Services Scheme (Kyrgyzstan)

Kyrgyzstan · Chon-Aksuu, Issyk-Kul Region · See the Kyrgyzstan profile

Evidence: Descriptive / self-reported Top 69% 40/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

CAREC used a Swiss Re grant to run Central Asia's first Payment for Ecosystem Services pilot in Kyrgyzstan's Chon-Aksuu watershed (2011–2014): ~400 mushroom pickers planted 50,000 seedlings on 4 ha as in-kind payment for forest access; later scaled into a four-basin programme.

50,000 seedlings
Tree seedlings planted (2011–2013)
4 hectares
Restored forest area (2011–2013)
~400 members
Mushroom pickers' association members (2011–2013)
Chon-Aksuu Watershed PES Pilot — Central Asia's First Payment for Ecosystem Services Scheme (Kyrgyzstan)

Details

Maturity
Pilot
Promoter
Regional Environmental Centre for Central Asia (CAREC)
Period
2011–2014
Keywords
watershed management, forestry, ecotourism, community associations

Context

The Chon-Aksuu watershed drains into Lake Issyk-Kul in Kyrgyzstan and supports upstream forestry, pasture and wild-mushroom harvesting alongside downstream irrigated horticulture, all competing for the same river. Overgrazing and forest degradation upstream were increasing sediment loads and reducing water quality for irrigators below.

Activities

With a Swiss Re Foundation ReSource Award (2011) grant running August 2011 to August 2013, the Regional Environmental Centre for Central Asia (CAREC) designed and facilitated the region's first Payment for Ecosystem Services scheme. A Coordination Committee of buyers, sellers and local authorities was formed, and a roughly 400-member mushroom pickers' association plus a water users' association became the core participants. Because cash was scarce locally, members opted for labour-in-kind: association members planted 50,000 tree seedlings on 4 hectares to restore degraded forest in exchange for continued, organised access to picking grounds, while a linked afforestation/REDD-style component supplemented incomes.

Results

CAREC and its funders report the pilot reached completion and was the first working PES scheme in Central Asia; by 2012–2017 the approach was scaled into a four-basin programme with additional partners (Norway, UNEP, the OSCE Programme Office in Astana, the EU, USAID and the World Bank-financed CAMP4ASB programme), and water-measuring equipment was installed in the Chon-Aksuu basin specifically to improve irrigation efficiency.

Conclusions

No independent, quantified monitoring of sediment loads or water quality before and after the pilot has been published, and the in-kind payment values were not formally costed — a limitation for anyone weighing replication against a cash-based PES design.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Low (< €50k)
Time to results
Short (< 1 year) — Two-year grant-funded pilot (August 2011 – August 2013); approach later scaled into a four-basin programme by 2017.
Staffing & skills
Regional Environmental Centre for Central Asia (CAREC) programme staff, Coordination Committee of buyers, sellers and local authorities

Conditions for success

  • Coordination Committee bringing together upstream and downstream stakeholders with local authorities
  • In-kind payment design suited to a cash-scarce local economy (labour in exchange for access rights)
  • External grant funding (Swiss Re Foundation) to launch scheme design

Common failure modes

  • No independent, quantified monitoring of sediment loads or water quality was published, and in-kind payment values were not formally costed, limiting evidence for replication

Commonly funded by

Philanthropic / foundation funding LIFE Programme

Indicative funding routes for practices of this type — always check each programme's current calls and eligibility rules.

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Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

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