Scan, Synthesize, Share New Report and Tools Support Learning About Freshwater

Freshwater is one of our most precious and valuable resources. And yet, across the globe, water supplies are often not dependable or simply insufficient to meet human and ecosystem needs, water quality is often poor, and climate change threatens to exacerbate existing challenges. One approach to reducing pressure on water resources is the use of incentive-based instruments, which employ financial means or regulatory relief to motivate people to better manage both the quantity and quality of freshwater.

But what do we know about how these instruments have performed to date?

A recently released synthesis report, interactive tool, and digital collection from the Pacific Institute and the Foundation Center provide key lessons from the review of hundreds of case studies, evaluations, journal articles, and white papers about incentive-based approaches to the management of freshwater resources.

Commissioned by The Rockefeller Foundation, this synthesis is an effort not only to better understand the conditions for successfully implementing these approaches but also to inform future initiatives and investments with already existing, practice-based knowledge from nonprofit practitioners, funders, and researchers. All of the results from this project are freely available for funders, practitioners, and researchers to use, contribute to, and build on in their work.

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