Running Pure: The importance of forest protected areas to drinking water

Well managed natural forests provide benefits to urban populations in terms of high quality Well managed natural forests almost always provide higher quality water, with less sediment and fewer pollutants, than water from other catchments Some natural forests (particularly tropical montane cloud forests and some older forests) also increase total water flow, although in other cases this is not true and under young forests and some exotic plantations net water flow can decrease Impacts of forests on security of supply or mitigating flooding are less certain although forests can reduce floods at a local headwater scale As a result of these various benefits, natural forests are being protected to maintain high quality Protection within watersheds also provides benefits in terms of biodiversity conservation, recreational, social and economic values However, care is needed to ensure that the rural populations living in watersheds are not disadvantaged in the process of protection or management for water quality Maintaining high quality water supply is an additional argument for protection: Many important national parks and reserves also have value in protecting watersheds that provide Sometimes this is recognised and watershed protection was a major reason for establishing the protected area – here watershed protection has sometimes bought critical time for biodiversity, by protecting natural areas around cities that would otherwise have disappeared In other cases, the watershed values of protected areas have remained largely unrecognised and the Where forests or other natural vegetation have benefits for both biodiversity and water supply, arguments for protection are strengthened with a wider group of stakeholders In some cases, full protection may not be possible and here a range of other forest management options are also available including best practice management (for example through a forest management certification system) and restoration The watershed benefits of forest protected areas could help to pay for protection: The economic value of watersheds is almost always under-estimated or unrecognised It is possible to collect user fees from people and companies benefiting from drinking water to help pay for the catchment protection benefits provided by protected area management – although Payment for water services can also be one important way of helping negotiations with people living in or using watersheds to develop land-use mosaics that are conducive to maintaining high Many of the world’s largest cities rely on drinking water from protected areas: Around a third (33 out of 105) of the world’s largest cities obtain a significant proportion of their drinking water directly from protected areas At least five other cities obtain water from sources that originate in distant watersheds that also In addition, at least eight more obtain water from forests that are managed in a way that gives priority to their functions in providing water Several other cities are currently suffering problems in water supply because of problems in watersheds, or draw water from forests that are being considered for protection because of their

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