Rentabilidad de un sistema mixto de pagos por servicios ambientales en una cuenca hidrográfica de Argentina[Profitability of a payment for environmental services mixed in an Argentinean hydrological basin]

The Payment schemes for Environmental Services (PES) support positive environmental externalities by transferring financial resources from the beneficiaries of such environmental services to those who supply or manage them. The objective is to analyze the economical and financial profitability of implementing two schemes of PES with a 10 year horizon each in the hydrological watershed of Los Pericos-Manantiales in Jujuy, Argentina using the Net Present Value (NPV) and the Cost-Benefit Relationship (CBR). The water supply service for farmers and drinking-water consumers, an electricity generating plant, and the scenery beauty service provided by Los Diques area to the basin were analyzed. The environmental services, their beneficiaries and providers were all identified. Both pre-feasibility and feasibility studies on three different scenarios of fund flows that the system might generate were carried out by means of economical and financial analyses. The following are the figures obtained at a 3% discount rate in dollars at an exchange rate of U$S 1 = $ 3.90: NPV(EI)= –3,080,546; NPV(E2)=–178,291; NPV(E3)= 1,684,555 while those for CBR at the same discount rate were: CBR(EI) 0.53; CBR(E2) 0.94; CBR(E3) 2.96.