Bahia participates in dialogues to regulate the National Policy for Payment for Environmental Services

The Government of Bahia, through the Secretariat of the Environment (Sema), is present at the first meeting on ”Payment for Environmental Services: Series of Consultative Dialogues”, which takes place until Friday (3), in Brasília. The event is an initiative of the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change (MMA), in partnership with the Floresta+ Amazônia Project and the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), with the aim of welcoming contributions to the regulation of National Payment Policy for Environmental Services (Law 14,119/2021).

The event brings together experts and representatives from educational institutions, public authorities (municipal, state and federal), the business sector, social movements, indigenous peoples and traditional communities.

At the opening of the event, MMA minister Marina Silva, who participated via videoconference, highlighted the participation of the various social segments in the consultation process and congratulated everyone involved in listening and contributing to the PSA Policy. “I want to highlight that we have already had the participation of academia, the business sector and now we have civil society, with representations of indigenous peoples and traditional communities, it is essential that they can have the last word in these dialogues”.

“It is through regulation that we can make course corrections and add new approaches to payment for environmental services, mainly in creating a new cycle of prosperity for those who have natural resources as their basis of cultural, economic, social and reference identity. spiritual”, explained the minister.

Representing Bahia’s Environmental Management, Sema’s director of Environmental Policy and Planning, Luana Ribeiro, said that this is a time to consolidate the present and future of PSA policy across the country. “We are gathered here in this exchange of experiences, practices and effective contributions made by different social actors, with emphasis on the largest environmental agents, which are indigenous peoples, traditional communities and collectors of recyclable materials. It brought the experience of Bahia, which last year began the effective implementation of the state PES program, as a key instrument for conservation, generating sustainable benefits not only for environmental service providers, but for society as a whole”.

“Sema is carrying out partnerships and training for the development of Municipal PES Policies, in addition to supporting and valuing the numerous environmental services promoted by cooperatives and collectors of recyclable materials. Another point that we present here as alternatives is that, together with the Northeast Consortium, Bahia has been thinking about strategies to attract international investments, which today are concentrated in the Amazon, for other biomes, such as the Caatinga, which is predominant in our region and has several attributes eligible for the PSA.”

The program includes debates and lectures on the themes of incentives and resource mobilization, certification, national PES registry, among other approaches aimed at overcoming challenges and valuing agents providing environmental services. According to the MMA’s national secretary of Bioeconomy, Carina Pimenta, the results of the meeting will be systematized to support the development of effective guidelines for applying the law.

“In addition to theoretical discussions, the series of consultative dialogues also included practical examples of successful PES programs, highlighting the economic, social and environmental benefits generated by these initiatives, welcoming contributions from different sectors of society”, explained the secretary.

The concept of Payment for Environmental Services involves compensating individuals or communities who play an active role in protecting and preserving natural resources. These services can range from maintaining forests to protecting water resources and mitigating climate change.

Source: Ascom/Inema