Cochabamba, Bolivia – In a landmark initiative poised to transform conservation funding in the Andes, Bolivia’s Tunari National Park is spearheading the development of an innovative Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) mechanism. This pioneering model, led by local partner Asociación Armonía with crucial backing from the Forest Impact Accelerator, aims to channel long-term, sustainable finance into the restoration and protection of the park’s fragile yet vital Kewiña forests and the critical watershed they support. The effort seeks to secure the future of a unique ecosystem, safeguard endemic biodiversity, and ensure water security for over a million people in the burgeoning Cochabamba metropolitan region.
A Critical Ecosystem Under Threat
Tunari National Park, perched high on the southern slopes of the Bolivian Andes, is home to more than 80% of the country’s remaining ancient Kewiña forest (Polylepis besseri). These high-altitude native forests, often found clinging to steep ridges at elevations exceeding 3,500 meters, are not merely picturesque; they are indispensable ecological strongholds. Their gnarled, slow-growing trees play a crucial role in stabilizing fragile Andean slopes, preventing erosion, and regulating the intricate water flows that feed the valleys below. The unique microclimates and specific soil conditions fostered by these forests also support a wealth of endemic wildlife found nowhere else on Earth, including the Near Threatened Cochabamba Mountain-finch (Poospiza garleppi), a species whose survival is inextricably linked to the health of the Kewiña ecosystem. Beyond their ecological value, these forests form the headwaters of the watershed that supplies potable water to more than one million residents of the Cochabamba metropolitan area, underscoring their direct impact on human well-being and regional stability.
For decades, Tunari National Park has faced relentless pressure from a confluence of environmental and socio-economic challenges. Frequent wildfires, often exacerbated by human activities and increasingly erratic climate patterns, have devastated vast swathes of forest. Deforestation, driven by agricultural expansion, illegal logging, and the encroaching footprint of urban development from Cochabamba, has further fragmented and degraded this precious habitat. Compounding these environmental threats have been historically tense relationships between communities living within and around the park boundaries and the managing authorities. This long-standing mistrust often stemmed from differing land-use perspectives and a perceived lack of community involvement in conservation decisions, making the implementation of effective, long-term conservation strategies exceedingly difficult.
A New Chapter: Community Leadership and Restoration
Despite these significant challenges, a new dynamic has begun to emerge in Tunari National Park, signaling a hopeful shift towards collaborative conservation. Over the past several years, Asociación Armonía, a leading Bolivian conservation organization and BirdLife International partner, has been working intensively with local communities to initiate and drive restoration efforts. This collaborative approach has been instrumental in rebuilding trust and fostering a sense of shared stewardship.
A key milestone in this evolving narrative has been the significant progress made in forest restoration. To date, over 1.25 million native trees have been planted across the protected area, with more than half of these concentrated in the Tiquipaya municipality. This ambitious reforestation effort has not only begun to repair degraded landscapes but has also galvanized community participation, with local residents actively involved in nurseries, planting campaigns, and ongoing care for the saplings. Parallel to these reforestation activities, Armonía and its partners have invested in strengthening community wildfire brigades, providing training and equipment essential for mitigating the constant threat of fire. Crucially, new reservoirs have been constructed, enhancing water security for local communities and demonstrating tangible benefits of improved watershed management.
One of the most impactful actions undertaken has been the strengthening of the Organismo de Gestión de Cuencas (OGC), a vital watershed governance body. The OGC serves as a multi-stakeholder platform, coordinating restoration activities and collaboratively designing sustainable development strategies for communities residing within the park. This institutional strengthening has been pivotal in bridging the historical divide between communities, park authorities, and conservation organizations, creating a foundation for collective action. Notably, women leaders have played a profoundly important role in shaping and driving this work, bringing invaluable perspectives and leadership to the forefront of conservation and community development.
The Funding Conundrum: From Short-Term Projects to Long-Term Solutions
While the progress achieved in Tunari has been substantial, it has also brought into sharp focus a pervasive challenge confronting conservation efforts worldwide: the disparity between the long-term nature of ecological restoration and the typically short-term cycles of conservation funding. Forest restoration, particularly in complex Andean ecosystems like Kewiña forests, is a generational endeavor, requiring sustained investment over decades to achieve ecological maturity and resilience. However, the majority of conservation funding historically arrives through project-based grants, often with limited durations of three to five years. This intermittent funding model creates a precarious situation where restoration gains are difficult to maintain, and the momentum built through initial projects can quickly dissipate once funding ceases. This realization underscored the urgent need for a more stable, predictable, and locally-driven financial mechanism.
Designing a Sustainable Financial Mechanism: The PES Model
It was against this backdrop that the concept of a Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) mechanism emerged as a viable and transformative solution for Tunari National Park. The PES concept is elegantly straightforward: communities residing in the upper watershed, acting as custodians of the natural environment, undertake activities to protect and restore forests. In doing so, they provide essential ecosystem services such as water regulation, erosion control, and biodiversity conservation. Downstream users, who directly benefit from these vital services (in this case, the urban residents of Cochabamba), contribute financially to support this stewardship. This creates a direct link between the beneficiaries and the providers of these services, fostering a sustainable financial loop.
Over the past two years, Asociación Armonía, with strategic support from the Forest Impact Accelerator, has meticulously worked with municipalities, local communities, and regional institutions to explore the feasibility and design of such a PES mechanism for the Cochabamba region. This involved extensive studies, environmental assessments, and broad consultations across the seven municipalities of the Cochabamba metropolitan area. Crucially, these consultations revealed a widespread recognition among urban residents that protecting the high-altitude forests is directly and inextricably linked to their own water security. This strong public awareness and support have provided a robust foundation for the initiative.
Based on these encouraging results and comprehensive analyses, Armonía and its partners are now actively developing a regional trust fund, which will serve as the financial backbone of the PES mechanism. The proposed model envisions collecting small, regular contributions from downstream water users and potentially from local municipal budgets, directed into this transparent trust fund. The fund will operate with independent governance, ensuring accountability, efficiency, and community confidence.
How the Financing Model Would Work and Its Potential Impact
Once operational, the resources accumulated in the trust fund would be strategically invested across three primary areas, ensuring a holistic approach to watershed protection and community well-being:
- Forest Restoration and Reforestation: This includes continued tree planting, establishment and maintenance of native species nurseries, control of invasive species, and ecological monitoring to ensure the long-term health and expansion of the Kewiña forests.
- Watershed Management and Infrastructure: Investments would support the ongoing operations of community wildfire brigades, the maintenance and expansion of water reservoirs, implementation of erosion control measures, and other critical infrastructure necessary for effective watershed management.
- Community Sustainable Development and Livelihoods: A portion of the funds would be directed towards supporting sustainable economic activities for local communities, providing alternative income opportunities that reduce pressure on forest resources. This also includes ongoing capacity building for community members and continued support for the Organismo de Gestión de Cuencas (OGC) to strengthen local governance and participation.
This multi-faceted investment strategy offers profound benefits for all stakeholders. For the communities living in the upper watershed, the system formally recognizes and rewards their invaluable role as custodians of the natural environment, providing a stable income stream and fostering economic development. For the urban residents of Cochabamba, it offers a practical, tangible, and direct way to support the vital ecosystems that provide their most essential resource: water. For public and private partners, it creates a transparent, accountable, and scalable structure for long-term investment in landscape restoration, aligning environmental goals with socio-economic development. Once fully implemented and scaled, the mechanism has the potential to generate an estimated £3 million (approximately USD 3.8 million) per year for watershed protection and restoration, providing the stable, long-term financing that is critical for decades-long ecological recovery.
Building Enduring Institutions and Broader Implications
Beyond the financial architecture, the success of the PES mechanism hinges on robust governance and sustained community participation. Over the past two years, Armonía has been actively helping communities develop comprehensive ten-year sustainable development strategies. These strategies are crucial for identifying local restoration priorities, integrating traditional knowledge, and mapping out viable income opportunities that are both ecologically sound and economically beneficial. A multi-stakeholder platform, comprising representatives from communities, municipalities, park authorities, and civil society organizations, will be established to oversee the entire initiative, guiding decisions and ensuring equitable implementation. Furthermore, the park administration is receiving targeted support to strengthen its monitoring capabilities, enhance wildfire prevention protocols, and improve overall coordination with local stakeholders.
The work underway in Tunari National Park represents far more than just planting trees; it is about forging a durable, interconnected system that seamlessly links ecological restoration with empowered community leadership and resilient, long-term financing. Once the PES mechanism is fully operational, it is poised to fundamentally transform how the Tunari watershed is managed. Instead of relying on intermittent, short-term project cycles, the region will benefit from a locally supported and owned financing system that not only rewards environmental stewardship but also ensures the perpetual protection of the ancient Kewiña forests that have sustained life in the Andes for centuries. This model could serve as a powerful blueprint for other regions in Bolivia and across the Andes facing similar challenges, demonstrating how local solutions, combined with strategic partnerships, can create lasting environmental and social impact.
Critical Support and Future Expansion
This ambitious and transformative initiative has been made possible through the generous support of several key donors since its inception in 2020. Asociación Armonía and its partners extend profound gratitude to Accion Andina, the Darwin Initiative (both direct funding and through the Accelerator), Trillion Trees – BirdLife International, and FFBT (Flanders State of the Art – Agency Nature & Forest).
The Forest Impact Accelerator, a vital catalyst for such projects, has completed five successful years of operation, supported generously by the Hempel Foundation, the Waterloo Foundation, and the King Charles III Charitable Fund. This Accelerator program has not only provided crucial seed funding but has also facilitated the sourcing of an additional £6 million in funding in collaboration with partners. Its impact has been far-reaching, directly benefiting 38,000 local people, improving protection for 400 threatened species, and impacting over 1 million hectares of critical habitat globally.
In recognition of its significant achievements and potential, the Forest Impact Accelerator recently received an important Darwin Initiative Extra grant through the UK government’s Biodiversity Challenge Awards. This prestigious program is designed to support global biodiversity conservation, reduce poverty, and address climate change. The substantial award of £4,978,335 will enable the Accelerator to significantly expand and scale these achievements, aiming to secure an additional 1 million hectares of Key Biodiversity Areas while generating economic benefits for an estimated 200,000 local people. This expansion underscores the international community’s growing recognition of the critical importance of locally-led, sustainably financed conservation models like the one being pioneered in Bolivia’s Tunari National Park.
