Hydrological information, the first step to design a local policy of payment for ecosystem services

Abstract

Water resources have significant importance in countries with water scarcity. Part of this problem is attributed to the lack of relatedness between ecosystems service suppliers and users, and schemes of payment for hydrological ecosystem services (PHES) are emerging as a strategy to connect them. However, in the development of a scheme of PHES, one critical point is to find out if the protective land uses are adequately generating the service to sell. The aim of this study was to determine the hydrologic behaviour of land uses located in a hydrological recharge area of Sierra de Ocontepec. The land uses were secondary regeneration forest (SRF), African star grasslands (GWT), African star grasslands with shrubs (GS), disturbed Quercus oleoides forest (QF) and natural grasslands (NG). Indicators were precipitation, throughfall, runoff, soil moisture changes, evapotranspiration and percolation. Hydrological balances showed that percolation was higher in GWT (1 608 mm), GS (1 744 mm) and NG (1 314 mm), than in SRF (1 19 mm) and QF (974 mm). Results indicate that groundwater recharge during the study period generated adequate water shed services; however, the demand for piped water supply in the lowlands is at a maximum. This implies that the use of water should be regulated, more efficiently distributed, rather than relying on the increased availability.