FIDECOAGUA — Coatepec's Municipal Water Trust for Cloud-Forest Conservation (Mexico)

In 2002-2003 the municipality of Coatepec, Veracruz, together with forest landowners in the Gavilanes river micro-watershed (part of the La Antigua basin, on the slopes of Cofre de Perote), created the Fideicomiso Fondo Coatepec para el Agua (FIDECOAGUA) — widely cited as Mexico's first payment-for-hydrological-environmental-services (PSAH) scheme operating at the municipal level, established to protect the mountain cloud forest that regulates the town's water supply.

FIDECOAGUA is a public trust funded by a surcharge on the municipal water tariff plus municipal-government and private contributions, historically supplemented by concurrent (matching) federal payments from CONAFOR's national PSAH programme. Enrolled forest owners, organised as 'Guardianes del Bosque' (Forest Guardians), receive an annual per-hectare payment in exchange for maintaining forest cover and avoiding logging, with technical support from INECOL and Pronatura Veracruz. Since 2012 the trust has drawn additional co-financing from Nestlé México, Coca-Cola FEMSA and Ingenio de Mahuixtlán (Zucarmex).

As of 2023, FIDECOAGUA compensated 177 forest owners for the conservation of 1,332.83 hectares of forest cover, after several years of maintaining roughly 1,500 ha under contract. Payments ranged 900-1,200 pesos/ha historically, standardised at 1,000 pesos/ha in 2023. The trust has now run continuously for more than two decades — one of the longest-running local PES schemes in Latin America.

Independent, quantified hydrological outcome data (stream turbidity, dry-season flow, treatment-cost savings) were not found in the sources reviewed; available evidence documents payment levels, enrolled area and continuity of operation rather than measured watershed performance.