CAN PAYMENTS FOR ECOSYSTEM SERVICES REDUCE SOIL EROSION? THE CASE OF EASTERN REGION OF MOROCCO

The fragile dryland areas in Morocco are seriously threatened by soil and water degradation. Each year, 100 million tons of soil are removed. Several soil conservation technologies have been developed in Morocco and are available for large diffusion but in many cases these technologies have not been permanently adopted. It seems that a large dissemination of these new practices requires some financial incentives that must be sufficiently high to stimulate farmers to adopt the technologies. The objective of this study is to identify the optimum level of payments for eco-system services (PES) that allows an acceptable adoption rate. In this study we used the Minimum data approach (MD) to assess the adoption rates of soil conservation technologies. Input data needed by this model are in general simple, compared to other data-intensive models. They are very often available from secondary sources.