Water Funds: Field Guide

This publication is a compilation of the best practices, learnings, and experiences gathered across the different geographies where Water Funds are operating. The Water Fund model was pioneered in the high Andean grasslands in the late 1990s, when the water company of Quito began exploring with TNC how to partner with other water users and upstream communities to reverse the degradation of their water sources. While the structure of subsequent Water Funds varies from place to place depending on local conditions, the model pioneered in Latin America has since been successfully adapted in a dozen countries from the United States to China to Kenya.