Payments for ecosystem services in transboundary water allocation cases: An approach for China and its neighbours

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/reel.12378
• Author: Tianbao Qin,Jin Gu
• Date: 01 November 2020
• Published date: 01 November 2020

RECIEL. 2020;29:417–429. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/reel  

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 417© 2020 Wiley Periodicals LLC.

1 |  INTRO DUCTION

Forty perce nt of the world’s popu lation lives in inter national river

basins, which acc ount for 80 percent of global rive r flows.1 Damage

to ecosystems, c limate change, increase d populations and ecol ogical

awareness have led t o demands to protect wate r quantity.2 Conflicts

over water allocat ion between up stream and down stream ripar ian

States have become a s erious problem, as grow ing demands and en-

vironmental deterioration cause water to become scarce. Over two

billion people l ive in countries exper iencing high water str ess, partic-

ularly in Nor th Africa and Southern Asi a.3 This scarcity creates si g-

nificant chal lenges for interna tional water law. As th e global

population an d economies grow, many ri ver basins will lose w ater,

making it increasingly difficult to apportion water resources

‘reasonably and equitably’ among riparian States.4 When water is

scarce and upp er- and lower-riparian States have r easonable use

rights, a det ailed and flexib le mechanism for a llocating wate r is

needed.

Conflict bet ween riparian St ates of the Tigri s and Euphrates, 5

criticism of China’s activities on the Mekong River,6 tension on the

Jordan River an d disputes betwe en Egypt and Et hiopia over the

Great Ethiopian Re naissance Dam in t he Nile River basin h ave re-

vealed the need f or a mechanism to mitigate up stream–downstream

relations.7 Such disputes o ccur not only in upstream ripar ian States

near headwate rs with downstr eam riparian States but also in are as

with transbo undary river s. For example, L aos, a ripari an State

 1M Mohieldin , ‘Managing Water A cross Boundar ies’ (World Ban k 2013)

world bank.org/water/ manag ing-water -acros s-bound aries -0>.

 2See BC Bates et a l (eds), Climate Chan ge and Water (Intergovernmental Pane l on Climate

Change (IPCC ) 2008) 22, 30 ; HO Pörtner et al (e ds), IPCC Special R eport on the Oce an and

Cryosphere in a Changing Climate (IPCC 2 019) 2 8–29.

 3United Natio ns (UN), ‘Sust ainable Develo pment Goal 6: Syn thesis Repor t 2018 on

Water and Sanit ation’ (UN 2018) 12 .

 4CW Sadoff an d D Grey, ‘Coopera tion on Interna tional Rivers : A Continuum for S ecuring

and Sharing B enefits’ (20 05) 30 Water Inter national 420, 422 .

 5F Pearce, ‘Mid east Water Wars: In I raq, A Battle f or Control of Water ’ (Yale

Environment 360, 25 August 2014) res/midea st_water_

wars_in_iraq_a_battle_for_contr ol_of_water>.

 6K Johnson, ‘C hinese Dams Hel d back Mekong Water s During Droug ht, Study Find s’

(Reuters, 13 A pril 2020).

 7See RK Paisle y and TW Henshaw, ‘ Transboundar y Governance of t he Nile River Bas in:

Past, Pres ent and Future’ (20 13) 7 Environment al Developmen t 59; Pearce (n 5).

Received: 11 June 20 20 

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 Accep ted: 22 October 202 0

DOI: 10 .1111/reel .12378

SPECIAL ISSUE ARTICLE

Payments for ecosystem services in transboundary water

allocation cases: An approach for China and its neighbours

Tianbao Qin  | Jin Gu

Correspondence

Email: fxyqtb@whu.edu.cn Abstract

Given the geograph ical characteristics of rive r basins, a unidirectional exter nality prob-

lem exists bet ween upstream and d ownstream countri es. Current legal me chanisms

include remedial measures that address negative externalities, such as pollution, but

fail to recognize or provide s ystems to reward positive externaliti es that benefit down-

stream countries . Payments for ecosy stem services (PE S), which are widely app lied to

domestic water quality advancement practices, could be extended to transboundary

water allocation c ases to mitigate this conflict and b alance the interests of ups tream and

downstream States , providing incentives for both to conser ve riverine ecosystems. The

PES approach is consis tent with the princip les of international water law a nd founded

on similar domesti c and international pr actices. Drawin g on these experie nces and a

cooperative appro ach, China could negotiate PE S with its downst ream neighbours in

transboundar y water allocation cases . The PES mechanism could also be ap plied to sim-

ilar disputes among oth er primarily upper-riparian States and t heir neighbours.