ProdutorES de Água Project

Abstract

The agriculture practices, when badly implemented, are responsible for the strong pressure on biodiversity and water resources. This reality generates, for example, scenes of water scarcity for consumption as well as for the proper agricultural activities. A new concept, that starts to be debated, is the Payment for Environmental Services (PSA): the financial compensation to farmers that, through the sustainable handling of the natural resources and the forests conservation, contribute in the good course of the environmental functions. The Espírito Santo State innovates when develop the ProdutorES de Água Project, which implements the PSA mechanism, it elaborates technical criteria of financial compensation and recognizes the farmers as key-actors of any action of forest conservation, since the same “facilitates” the development of the environmental services generated by the native forests. This work has as objective to approach the subject, as well as describe the methodology of calculation analysis to the Payment for Environmental Services in Espírito Santo State, in what it concerns the improvement of the water quality through the erosive processes combat, analyzing the effectiveness of the PSA mechanism as a new strategy of Capixaba’s Water Resources Management. Key words: Espírito Santo State. Payment for Environmental Services. Farmers. PSA Metodology. Water Basins. Strategy. Water Resources Management. OLAM – Ciência & Tecnologia, Rio Claro, SP, Brasil – eISSN: 1982-7784 Rio Claro / SP, Brasil Ano VIII, Vol. 8, N.3, Julho – Dezembro / 2008 – RESUMOS