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Local resolution for watershed management: the case of water and land allocation of Cotacachi, Ecuador

Rodriguez, Fabian Francisco
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1058798180

Abstract Details

2003, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Natural Resources.
Various environmental trade-offs arise in the Cotacachi watershed, located in the Andes Mountains north of Quito, Ecuador. Of particular concern to the local population are the declining quality and diminished reliability of water supplies for household and agricultural uses resulting from deforestation, poor pasture management, and related problems in the upper reaches of the drainage basin. The purpose of this study is to determine what, if anything, local people are willing to pay for the sort of watershed management that would make water supplies cleaner and less subject to interruption, and to estimate the shadow price of irrigation water for the efficient allocation of resources. Estimates of willingness-to-pay (WTP) were obtained using contingent valuation (CV), and estimates of the shadow price were obtained using a Linear Programming model (LP). Eighty households were interviewed in September 2002. Half these households are in communities below 3,200 meters elevation, which have irrigation, and the other half in communities above this elevation level, where agriculture is rain-fed. Along with questions relating to economic activities and income sources, which yielded data for the development of the LP model, the survey instrument contained referendum-style CV questions. Using the responses to CV questions, I estimated an econometric model in which WTP for water quantity and quality improvements was the dependent variable and right-hand side variables included household earnings and the portion of income derived from off-farm employment. The LP model yielded the shadow price of water: $0.27 per cubic meter of water in low-altitude communities and $0.26 per cubic meter of water in high-altitude settings. Econometric revealed that the majority of households, in low-altitude communities as well as high-altitude settings, are willing to pay between $1 to $3 per month (avg. 1.94) to make water supplies cleaner and more reliable – through improved watershed management, for example. This is a sizable payment relative to existing tariffs for potable and irrigation water. This study suggests that the costs of watershed management could be covered, at least in part, by capturing the local benefits of same. This has significant implications for the decentralization of water resource development in Ecuador.
Douglas Southgate (Advisor)
182 p.
Economics, Agricultural
watershed management; public policy; economics; Ecuador

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Rodriguez, F. F. (2003). Local resolution for watershed management: the case of water and land allocation of Cotacachi, Ecuador [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1058798180

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Rodriguez, Fabian. Local resolution for watershed management: the case of water and land allocation of Cotacachi, Ecuador. 2003. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1058798180.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Rodriguez, Fabian. "Local resolution for watershed management: the case of water and land allocation of Cotacachi, Ecuador." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2003. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1058798180

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

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This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.