Hypothetical economic evaluation of scenarios to facilitate the payment for environmental services – PSA

Abstract

The present paper organizes, evaluates and discusses hypothetical economic scenarios with the objective to promote the Payment for Environmental Services - PES provided by the Cipó River watershed, which is the strategic spring of the Municipality of Poços de Caldas - MG. The organization and results of this study were: (I) Evaluation of conceptual aspects, (II) Characterization of land use and occupation, where the 7,752 hectares of watershed area: 30.2% native forest, 29.3% exposed soil, 23.8% Eucalyptus cultivation, 4.9% water in the reservoir and body of water; (III) Assessment of the Willingness to Pay - AWP showed that 54% of the population is willing to pay for services at an average value of R$ 6,43; (IV) simulation of hypothetical economic scenarios where the scenarios (1) and (3) are below the cost of opportunity while the scenarios (2) and (4) present attractiveness to upstream owners.