The role of Cloud Affected Forests (CAFs) on water inputs to dams

Leonardo Sáenz and Mark Mulligan

Ecosystem Services, 2013, vol. 5, issue C, 69-77

Abstract: Cloud Affected Forest (CAF) environments are among the most threatened forest ecosystems of the planet. Yet, they are responsible for the supply of stable clean water, through dams, to many human communities across the tropics. Payment for Watershed Services (PWS) schemes can play a key role to mitigate CAF degradation in dam watersheds. However, a thorough scientific understanding of the hydrological role of CAFs in achieving dam performance goals is paramount to ensure the correct implementation of such financial mechanisms. By creating the most detailed dam census across the global extent of CAFs (The King’s College London Tropical Database of Dams—KCL TDD) we explored the potential contribution of CAFs to water inputs to dams in order to inform implementation of regional PWS strategies. Results indicate that whilst CAFs cover only 4.4% of the tropical extent of dam watersheds they receive and filter almost 50% of the surface water balance over the same area. This remarkable finding reveals both, the vital role of CAFs in stable clean water supply to tropical dams, and the considerable opportunities to optimize the performance of dams by targeting the often limited resources to improved protection of CAFs in dam watersheds.

Keywords: Cloud forest; Dams; Tropics; Payment for Watershed Services (PWS) schemes; KCL TDD; Hydrology (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecoser:v:5:y:2013:i:c:p:69-77

DOI: 10.1016/j.ecoser.2013.02.005

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