The Spanish Association of Mountain Municipalities (Es Montañas) calls for the establishment of a scheme of Payments for Environmental Services (PES) in Spain. Is about incentives offered to farmers, ranchers and foresters in compensation for beneficial practices for the ecosystems they make. It is a question of completing the “who pollutes pays” with the “who does it well, receives”.
According to Es Montañas, the large number of fires this summer have revealed the serious environmental problems that have been created by the abandonment of the mountains. “It is evident that the environmental policies of recent decades have failed and we must give a change of direction in environmental management of our mountains”, declares the president of the association, Marcel Iglesiaspresident of the Ribagorza region and mayor of Bonansa.
They consider that in order to have a healthy environment and ecosystems capable of providing us with resources in an ecological way that is respectful of biodiversity, “we must have the only ones who can manage the entire territory: the people who dedicate themselves to agriculture , livestock and forestry”. “It is impossible to manage a territory as extensive as Spain with its back to the managers of the mountains”insist.
In his opinion, current environmental regulations have generally been shown to be ineffective in protecting nature. Prohibiting traditional activities and encouraging the abandonment of the mountains, together with the situation of global warming, have led the Spanish mountains to a “really dangerous” situation in terms of the possibility that they will be affected by large fires, “As we have seen this summer,” they remember.
“We can’t prevent fires from happening, but we can prevent fires from being so big and having devastating consequences. Getting people out of the forests is not the solution, the solution is sustainable management and landscapes adapted to the current environmental situation. As human beings we depend on the services that ecosystems provide us, not only materials such as wood or food, but also the water we drink, the purity of the air we breathe or the neutralization of CO2 emissions depend on the ecosystems of mountain are kept in good condition”, explains Iglesias. “Today we are ignoring the possibility that the social and environmental benefit of payment for environmental services would have,” she adds.
Mountain areas are environmentally very sensitive “and we have an obligation to take care of them.” From Es Montañas they propose that there be specific policies for mountain areas that encourage organic production and environmentally sustainable practices. “Policies that value the work of people who live in the mountains and work in it, those who take care of it. Policies that promote generational change and avoid rural abandonment,” they highlight.
In his opinion, payment for environmental services can fulfill an important double environmental and social function: improves the adaptability of ecosystems to the new environmental situation and combats rural abandonment, improving local economies and giving value to environmental aspects.
“Payment for environmental services is not a subsidy, nor a gift for living in a mountain area. It is about charging that person or company that can take care of that environmental resource and achieve its improvement”underlines.