Recent evidence showing shrinking clean water supplies and perceived water insecurity has made businesses and water utilities look at fresh water as they never have before –a valuable good that is produced, sold and consumed and deserves investment. Cities such as Bogota are investing in ecosystem management to protect water quality and help ensure long-term sustainability. There is an urgent need to replicate these experiences and give downstream users the opportunity to be proactively engaged in collaborative processes for protection of upstream areas. As pioneering market-based mechanisms, Water Funds are an innovative way to pay and compensate for nature’s services – in this case supplying clean freshwater and providing biodiversity-related services – and reinvest that money in conservation projects that protect the healthy habitat from which these services derive.
