Public values and preference certainty for stream restoration in forested watersheds in Finland

Lehtoranta, Virpi; Sarvilinna, Auri; Väisänen, Sari; Aroviita, Jukka; Muotka, Timo

doi:10.1016/j.wre.2017.02.004

Cited by 12 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 49 publications

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“…This may be because men are more cash rich than women in Nepal and are willing to pay more than women if asked to pay in cash [46] and because men often make financial decisions in a household [47]. Our results reinforce other watershed and forest related studies that have shown that older respondents tend to select policy alternatives less frequently than younger respondents [43,48]. This seems to indicate that younger people are more willing to seek change.…”

Section: Descriptive Statisticssupporting

confidence: 79%

“…This seems to indicate that younger people are more willing to seek change. As expected, household income is positively associated with watershed improving policy alternatives relative to the status quo [48]. Likewise, respondents who use more drinking water select policy alternatives more frequently relative to respondents using less drinking water.…”

Section: Descriptive Statisticssupporting

confidence: 65%

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Financing Watershed Services in the Foothills of the Himalayas

Kumar

Shyamsundar

Nepal

et al. 2018

Water

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Watershed management is critical for the sustainable supply of clean water to urban centers, particularly in areas of developing countries where large-scale infrastructure projects are costly to implement. In this paper, we discuss the potential for financing improvements in watershed services in the foothills of the Himalayas through Payments for Ecosystem Services. Through the use of a choice experiment to disentangle household preferences, we show that downstream water users are interested in improvements in water quality through source water protection. Households in Dharan municipality are willing to finance watershed management to the extent of USD 118,000 per year. These payments can be used to incentivize upstream households to decrease domestic livestock grazing, change agricultural practices and reduce open defecation to improve the drinking water quality and quantity in downstream areas. The estimated cost of these activities is less than $50,000 per year. Through discussions with local stakeholders, we propose a tri-partite institutional structure to facilitate transactions between downstream and upstream communities and to improve watershed services.

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Section: Descriptive Statisticssupporting

confidence: 79%

Section: Descriptive Statisticssupporting

confidence: 65%

Financing Watershed Services in the Foothills of the Himalayas

Kumar

Shyamsundar

Nepal

et al. 2018

Water

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“…In addition, compensation could offer business opportunities for farmers. Estimates of the willingness to pay (WTP) can be obtained from a previous primary valuation study about the positive effects of headwater brook restoration and associated improvement in ecosystem services for human welfare in sparsely populated areas in Finland [84]. The households' mean WTP ranged at 17.80-35.30 € per household per year for the combined benefits of improving water quality, biodiversity, and more natural flood cycles.…”

Section: Proposed Financing Reform Based On Optimal Targeting Of Two-stage Channels and Re-direction Of Public Fundingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Agricultural Water Management Using Two-Stage Channels: Performance and Policy Recommendations Based on Northern European Experiences

et al. 2021

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Conventional dredging of ditches and streams to ensure agricultural drainage and flood mitigation can have severe environmental impacts. The aim of this paper is to investigate the potential benefits of an alternative, nature-based two-stage channel (TSC) design with floodplains excavated along the main channel. Through a literature survey, investigations at Finnish field sites and expert interviews, we assessed the performance, costs, and monetary environmental benefits of TSCs in comparison to conventional dredging, as well as the bottlenecks in their financing and governance. We found evidence supporting the expected longer-term functioning of drainage as well as larger plant and fish biodiversity in TSCs compared to conventional dredging. The TSC design likely improves water quality since the floodplains retain suspended sediment and phosphorus and remove nitrogen. In the investigated case, the additional value of phosphorus retention and conservation of protected species through the TSC design was 2.4 times higher than the total costs. We demonstrate how TSCs can be made eligible for the obligatory vegetated riparian buffer of the European Union agri-environmental subsidy scheme (CAP-AES) by optimising their spatial application with respect to other buffer measures, and recommend to publicly finance their additional costs compared to conventional dredging at priority sites. Further studies on biodiversity impacts and long-term performance of two-stage channels are required.

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“…In Finland the hydropower capacity can only be increased in rivers with existing hydropower plants, as most of the rivers have already been built for hydropower generation and the remaining free-flowing rivers are legally protected (Soininen et al 2019;Similä et al 2021). The main thrust of the WFD is thus the review of existing permits, and the Directive is part of a regulatory setting that has started to shift the focus of governance actions from the management of aquatic resources to the restoration and rewilding of rivers (Polizzi et al 2015;Lehtoranta et al 2017;Oksanen et al 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hydropowering sustainability transformation: policy frames on river use and restoration in Finland

Albrecht¹,

Lukkarinen

Hakkarainen³

et al. 2023

Fennia

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Hydropower, as a flexible energy source, has sparked renewed interest in the ongoing decarbonisation of the society. Simultaneously, a wider transformation of the socio-ecological system towards more sustainable practices of energy production is required. Our paper draws from the sustainable transformation theory and the concepts of transformability, hydro-social cycle, and aquatic regime to study a system of water governance and regulation in Finland. Our case study data consists of 16 semi-structured interviews and 207 news articles from Yle national broadcast company. We studied the policy frames to reveal how the water governance actors understand, view and make sense of future river use and restoration, and how they utilise the frames for strategic purposes. Results demonstrate that the future river use and restoration were framed by four modes of thinking: 1) hydropower as a ‘cultural trauma’, 2) restoring rivers and dam removal after hydropower construction and operation to improve ecological flows in rivers, 3) improving the social acceptance of hydropower and dam removal, and 4) improving the efficiency of the hydropower regime as a flexible source of power. Our paper shows that to enable pathways for socio-ecological-technical transformations of aquatic ecosystems further scientific scrutiny should be focused on reconciliation of the interest of river restoration, recreational uses of aquatic environments and the flexible energy function of hydropower in energy transition. Removal of migration barriers and small-scale hydropower plants and building fishways and bypasses are part of this transformation. Furthermore, the river regulation needed to give impoundment facilities the flexibility, causes changes in water levels which may be a potential source of conflict between riparian residents and hydropower operators. Therefore, more emphasis should be placed on water governance that recognises the local dynamics and interactions within the social-ecological systems.

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Public values and preference certainty for stream restoration in forested watersheds in Finland

Cited by 12 publications

References 49 publications

Financing Watershed Services in the Foothills of the Himalayas

Financing Watershed Services in the Foothills of the Himalayas

Agricultural Water Management Using Two-Stage Channels: Performance and Policy Recommendations Based on Northern European Experiences

Hydropowering sustainability transformation: policy frames on river use and restoration in Finland

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