The Political Life of Natural Infrastructure: Water Funds and Alternative Histories of Payments for Ecosystem Services in Valle del Cauca, Colombia

ABSTRACT This article shows the two‐way relation between global norms and local conditions as they shape Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) theory and practice, through a case study of a water fund in Valle del Cauca, Colombia, the heartland of the country's sugarcane industry. Drawing on in...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Development and change 2020-01, Vol.51 (1), p.26-50
Main Authors: Nelson, Sara H., Bremer, Leah L., Meza Prado, Kelly, Brauman, Kate A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Case studies
Frame analysis
Historical analysis
Infrastructure
Local conditions
Payments
Sugar industry
Sugarcane
Water
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Summary:ABSTRACT This article shows the two‐way relation between global norms and local conditions as they shape Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) theory and practice, through a case study of a water fund in Valle del Cauca, Colombia, the heartland of the country's sugarcane industry. Drawing on interviews, survey data and historical research, the article argues that the water fund should be understood in the context of the history of infrastructure for the sugarcane industry in the region, and that this infrastructural perspective provides a more nuanced insight into the fund's political life than the traditional PES framing. Furthermore, the article shows how the norms embedded in this locally grown programme circulated through international networks to influence PES theory and design. This case offers one example of the need to attend to the multiple and geographically specific histories of actually existing PES in order to understand its diversity in the present.
ISSN:0012-155X
1467-7660
DOI:10.1111/dech.12544