Economic Valuation of the Surface Water Environmental Service in the Micro-watershed of the Grande River – Cajamarca

Abstract

The valuation of externalities, such as water production, can open new paths towards social equity and in turn contribute as sustainable tools for its conservation, which in this research aims to determine the total economic cost of surface water for agricultural use in the Rio Grande micro-basin, incorporating the environmental water services as well as the economic externalities (positive and negative) downstream and upstream. The research was aimed at evaluating experiences that have been showing how farmers, in the absence of water supply for their economic activities, are willing to pay to conserve it. This situation has allowed to begin to develop a mechanism called payment for environmental services, which consists of collecting an externality, in this case the supply of water for irrigation, to those who wish to acquire it, using said funds in the conservation of forests. Firstly, the characterization of the micro-basin is addressed, as well as the actors identified in it. The results of the ecosystem characterization of the territory and a social and economic characterization of the population of the study area are also included, reaching more specifically, in the study area, the regulation of water resources depends on forests and the land uses that the agricultural and livestock activities they carry out, information that was used in economic valuation of the environmental service of surface water in the micro-basin of the Rio Grande - Cajamarca.