$US9.3 Billion Spent to Protect Watersheds in 2008, Report Says
A report by researchers at Ecosystem Marketplace is the first to catalogue the dollar value of payments to landowners for watershed protection.
By Brett Walton - Circle of Blue View PublicationPayments to landowners for protecting water quality are gaining global popularity, especially in China, Latin America and the United States, with ecosystem service transactions totaling $US 9.3 billion in 2008, according to a report by Ecosystem Marketplace, an environmental market research organization. Meanwhile the value of water quantity markets is already well-established: Australian water markets alone traded $US2. 37 billion in quantity rights in 2008.