Watershared: Adaptation, mitigation, watershed protection and economic development in Latin America

This report describes the 'Watershared' model of reciprocal watershed agreements, a grassroots approach to incentive-based conservation used in Latin America. Unlike national Payment for Environmental Services (PES) schemes, Watershared relies on local negotiations, social norms, and non-economic incentives to encourage upstream landowners to protect forests that ensure water security for downstream users.

• The Watershared model uses reciprocal agreements where downstream water users provide upstream landowners with alternative development tools—such as beehives, fruit tree seedlings, and irrigation systems—in exchange for forest conservation. This approach is described as a "quick and low-cost route to forest conservation in upland watersheds" that avoids the bureaucracy of national schemes.
• In Bolivia, the model has seen significant growth since its 2003 inception in Los Negros. By 2016, it expanded from six farmers protecting 465 hectares to 4,500 families conserving 210,000 hectares across 40 municipalities, with 195,000 downstream users contributing approximately US$500,000 annually.
• Watershared differs from traditional Payment for Environmental Services (PES) by focusing on changing social norms rather than calculating economic opportunity costs. It treats compensations as "tokens of appreciation rather than economic transactions," which can be more effective and cheaper than monetary payments.
• The model is more inclusive of poor landowners because it does not require formal land titles, which are often missing in the Andes. Instead, it relies on "locally accepted definitions of who owns and controls" the land, based on consensus from village chiefs and neighbors.
• Watershared agreements have proven effective in reducing local conflicts between upstream and downstream users. For example, in Los Negros, a history of confrontation was replaced by a system where irrigators contribute US$3,000 annually to protect 3,000 hectares of forest.
• The cost of forest protection under Watershared is significantly lower than national schemes. In Bolivia, costs can be as low as US$1.7 per hectare, compared to Ecuador's national Sociobosque scheme, which pays up to US$60 per hectare.

APA

Asquith, N. (2016). Watershared: Adaptation, mitigation, watershed protection and economic development in Latin America. Climate and Development Knowledge Network. http://cdkn.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/CDKN-Bolivia-watershared.pdf

Chicago

Asquith, Nigel. Watershared: Adaptation, mitigation, watershed protection and economic development in Latin America. Climate and Development Knowledge Network, 2016. http://cdkn.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/CDKN-Bolivia-watershared.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Asquith |first1=Nigel |title=Watershared: Adaptation, mitigation, watershed protection and economic development in Latin America |publisher=Climate and Development Knowledge Network |date=July 2016 |url=http://cdkn.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/CDKN-Bolivia-watershared.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{asquith2016watershared, author = {Asquith, Nigel}, title = {{Watershared: Adaptation, mitigation, watershed protection and economic development in Latin America}}, institution = {Climate and Development Knowledge Network}, year = {2016}, month = jul, url = {http://cdkn.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/CDKN-Bolivia-watershared.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }