The Guatemalan conservation group Defenders of Nature is completing negotiations with the private sector to establish an ambitious payment scheme aimed at getting users of freshwater resources to help pay for watershed conservation in an important yet under-funded national protected area. The so-called Water Fund was proposed by Oscar Núñez, director of Defenders of Nature, which is the co-administrator of the Sierra de Las Minas Biosphere Reserve. Intended to provide an ongoing revenue stream for the reserve, the fund would rely on contributions from major Sierra de Las Minas water users ranging from farms and ranches to towns and bottled-water companies. The Fund, designed by Núñez with help from the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), draws on similar financing mechanisms... [Log in to read more]