WORKING TOGETHER TO INSPIRE SUSTAINABLE SOLUTIONS TECHNICAL REPORT RO 2014 SUSTAINABLE FINANCING IN THE MARAMURES PILOT AREA Author: Martini Monia Contributors: Maya Bankova-Todorova, Edit Pop, Mara Cazacu Technical adviser: Julio Tresierra, PhD and independent consultant Graphic design: Boyan Petkov, Ina Kalcheva Front cover photo: The valley between Mara and Cosau rivers with Rooster’s Peak Nature Reserve in the background. Copyright Mara Cazacu Published by WWF Danube-Carpathian Programme Romania. Any reproduction in full or in part must mention the title and credit the above-mentioned publisher as the copyright owner. Prior approval of WWF-Romania for any reproduction is also preferable. ©2014 WWF Danube-Carpathian Programme Romania All rights reserved WWF-Romania 26A Ioan Caragea Voda Street, 010537, District 1, Bucharest Tel. +4 021.317.49.96, Fax +4 021.317.49.97 [email protected], www.wwf.ro wwf.panda.org/dcpo - The Danube PES Project WWF is one of the world’s leading independent environmental organizations with 5 million volunteers and a global network, which operates in more than 100 countries. WWF’s team in the Danube- Carpathian region is responsible for leading and implementing WWF’s efforts to preserve, restore and sustainably manage the natural values of the Danube-Carpathian ecoregions. The team works across political borders developing model projects, influencing policy, capacity building, raising awareness and seeking solutions to the challenges that the region faces in order to ensure prosperity, sustainability and biodiversity conservation. Sustainable Financing in the Maramures Pilot Area | 2014 ABSTRACT This report describes the experience of the WWF Danube-Carpathian Programme (WWF-DCP) in implementing the Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) approach in the Mara - Cosau - Creasta Cocosului pilot area located in the county of Maramures, Romania. PES represents an innovative finance mechanism intended to reconcile nature conservation and development objectives and needs. Under the project Promoting Payments for Ecosystem Services and Sustainable Finance Mechanisms in the Danube Basin (Danube PES), WWF-DCP aimed at demonstrating and promoting PES and related financing schemes in the Danube River basin and to other international water basins. Romania and Bulgaria are the two countries selected for establishing the conditions under which PES schemes work in the Lower Danube region, and particularly to develop and demonstrate models of public and private sector PES and related schemes (Outcome 1 of the Project). The methodology used has involved the following steps: 1. Analysis of the pilot area in terms of geography, biodiversity, demography and economy; 2. Identification of a well-defined environmental problem affecting the delivery of benefits or ecosystem services that individuals, businesses, and communities receive from nature; 3. Definition of the PES approach as possible answer to reconcile conservation and development needs, and analysis of the conditions necessary to implement it; 4. Analysis of stakeholders as well as of all the options available to solve the identified environmental problem, including the proposed PES approach; 5. Definition of technical aspects of the PES approach or of intermediate strategies identified to establish PES conditions, such as management and governance structure, legal framework, payment system, timeframe of implementation, monitoring and reporting. In the Maramures pilot area, the project addressed the challenge that protected areas in Romania suffer from a lack of financial and human resources, which hampers effective management. In the analysis of the pilot area landscape degradation was identified as the main environmental problem, caused mainly by irresponsible and uncontrolled tourism behaviour. This is rooted in the fact that local tourism operators, particularly guesthouses, have a poor understanding of protected areas and do not recognise their values, while they could play a key role with respect to communication with tourists and improved use of natural resources. Also, a lack of infrastructure especially related to waste management and nature interpretation represent an important aspect of the problem as well as part of the solution. In response to this, the project team aimed at fostering the tourism sector contribution to conservation activities in protected areas and assessing whether a private funding scheme actually is a viable alternative to existing but insufficient public funding opportunities. With financial support from local guesthouses and tourism operators, landscape beauty affected by the irresponsible and uncontrolled tourism behaviour is to be maintained by promoting protected areas values and needs, improving the visiting infrastructure, Sustainable Financing in the Maramures Pilot Area | 2014 1 and encouraging a shift towards responsible tourism practices. The original objective of achieving an operational PES scheme by end 2013 was reached based on a strategy to reposition protected areas in the perception of local stakeholders through the development of the pilot area as an ecotourism destination, thus leading to testing of PES under the protected areas framework. The designation of ecotourism destinations is a key priority in Romania officially launched at the end of 2012; so far, the pilot area is one the first two micro-regions that have positively passed the official evaluation process. Romania is also the first country in Europe to have adopted ecotourism destinations criteria as guidelines, and the experience matured in the pilot area can be regarded as a reference for the set-up of cooperation among stakeholders and in particular for the establishment of conservation and development funds (CSDF). What is unique in the initiative of demonstrating the PES approach as adopted by the project team, is the fact that all options that can possibly solve the identified environmental problem of landscape degradation are analysed comparatively so that key stakeholders can see the net benefit of engaging in a sustainable local development strategy versus continuing with the Business As Usual behaviour. In the case of Mara - Cosau - Creasta Cocosului pilot area, on one side guesthouses are invited to adopt responsible tourism practices while being offered the possibility to build their capacity to do so, and to improve their understanding of protected areas including the importance of preserving landscape beauty as cornerstone for the long-term profitability of their business. On the other side, protected areas administrators are invited to improve the promotion of local protected areas highlighting their specific role and values. These activities are crucial in changing perceptions of local stakeholders about each other as well as of external actors and individuals about the area. Throughout the entire process of engaging local stakeholders, transfer of ownership has been a fundamental guiding principle. The strategy implemented in the pilot area is synthetised in the following Conceptual Model: 2 Sustainable Financing in the Maramures Pilot Area | 2014 Abstract Landscape beauty vs degradation Contribute to ES delivery Effective Implementation of management of responsible tourism protected areas practices Provide the framework to enhance Development of Implementation of ecotourism CSDF destination Supervises Manages Local Partnership Ownership Sustainability principle principles Guide Source: M. Martini Sustainable Financing in the Maramures Pilot Area | 2014 3 Abstract The report includes the following recommendations, identified by the project team to ensure the successful testing of PES under the protected areas framework, which is continued after Project end and is aimed at fine-tuning the PES approach: • The synergistic implementation of identified measures to protect and/or restore landscape beauty, including awareness raising, capacity building and the development of responsible tourism/ecotourism. • The use of financial resources collected in the CSDF and/or complementary funds offered by private/public entities for the implementation of the measures based on a mid-term workplan. • Focusing on development needs first as a crucial step to improve the behaviour of tourism stakeholders, particularly guesthouses, towards natural values and creating the context for responsible tourism and particularly ecotourism to become the main trend in the pilot area. • Gathering more information concerning the nature of the selected environmental problem (landscape degradation). • Developing and implementing a fundraising strategy to increase the amount of money collected in the CSDF as well as to proceed with the development of the ecotourism destination. Overall, specific methods of analysis applied in the Maramures pilot area have included the cost-benefit analysis, cashflow analysis, multi-goal analysis, phased approach for the development of the finance mechanism, the sustainability concept, and the ecotourism destinations criteria. The analyses conducted have the following limitations: • Lack of baseline data regarding socio-economic and environmental aspects. • Adoption of the phased approach at a later stage during project implementation, which has affected the logical gathering of data. Results of analysed data have shown that: • Local economic activities are strongly dependant on natural systems and resources, particularly forests and grasslands; • The younger population is increasingly detached from local traditions and the natural