Ramaroshan Lake Complex is an area comprised of 12 lakes and 18 meadows interconnected with each other, forming the complex, which provides multiple ecosystem services at local, national, and international levels. The study accessed potential of the area for piloting the PES initiative through social survey measures such as semi-structured household surveys, focal Group Discussion, key informant interviews, stakeholder consultations, and field observations. Shrinking of lakes, eutrophication and lake pollution, landslide, and flood are ecological challenges, while limited finance and budgeting are financial challenges for the area. Despite a low level of knowledge on PES, the majority are willing to participate in PES if implemented in the area. Among respondents, 82% are willing to change their resource consumption behavior through either cash (13.5%), or by kind labor (35.5%), or by participation (35.5%), or (16.5%) by none. The majority prefer local government as the lead agency and public funding mechanism for pilot PES if implemented in the area. Water is the most prioritized ecosystem service, Tourism and religious significance were other most valued ecosystem services.
Milan et al. (Sun,) studied this question.