Monitoring Systems for managing NR - Economics indicators and environmental externalities in a costa rican watershed
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Peter Hazell, Ujjayant Chakravorty, John A. Dixon, Rafael Celis. (31/3/2001). Monitoring Systems for managing NR - Economics indicators and environmental externalities in a costa rican watershed. Washington D. C. United States: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
Abstract
The worsening degradation of natural resources urgently requires the adoption of
more sustainable management practices. This need has led to growing interest and
investment in monitoring systems for tracking the condition of natural resources.
Although grounded in concepts of sustainability, the application of monitoring systems
has progressed little beyond the identification and measurement of large numbers of
potentially interesting indicators. Most monitoring activities are also passive and do not
lead to the changes needed to rectify the problems they identify. Too often monitoring
becomes an end in itself and an expensive claim on public funds. This study is concerned
with the design of monitoring systems that have direct relevance for the management of
natural resources. We call these Policy Relevant Monitoring Systems (PRMS). Such
systems have several key characteristics. They provide: a) a decision framework for
selecting resource problems to monitor that offer potentially large social payoffs relative
to the costs of monitoring, b) timely, including early warning information on emerging
problems, c) a means of identifying the causes of an emerging problem, d) an analytical
framework for identifying options for corrective action, e) an institutional framework for
achieving ownership among key stakeholders (the resource users and those affected by
the resource use) and agreement about emerging problems, the corrective actions to take,
and effective implementation, and f) a built-in mechanism for learning from past
experience to improve the performance of the monitoring system over time. The design
and implementation of a PRMS is complicated in reality by the presence of multiple
resource users with often conflicting interests, and by the presence of environmental
externalities. The approach is developed and illustrated through detailed examination of
the Arenal-Tempisque watershed in Costa Rica. This watershed exhibits classic multiple
user and externality problems: deforestation by dairy and cattle farmers in the upper
watershed leads to soil erosion and siltation of the various reservoirs that feed an
important hydro-electric power generation system, and agro-chemical use by irrigated
farmers has adverse impacts on a highly valued wetlands park and on wildlife and fishing
in the lower reaches of the watershed.