Watershed management is a complex activity with constraints on funding and human
resources in many parts of the world, and there is a need for global effort to identify
strategies that can work. To complement regulatory approaches, attention is now also being
given to market-based incentives because of their potential cost-effectiveness. This study
seeks to provide impetus to the use of the most successful market-based incentives to
promote sustainable watershed practices through strengthening and increasing direct participation

South African researchers integral to UN ‘natural capital accounting’ pilot

by Leonie Joubert

Natural environments in and around the South African coastal city of Durban provide goods and services to the national economy that amount to an estimated US$ 350 million (R 4.2 billion) each year. This ‘conservative estimate’ includes the value of resources that people collect from their natural surroundings, such as wild-harvested foods, firewood and timber, or water taken from rivers for home use.