Se revisa el marco teórico del análisis costo-beneficio y sus ventajas y limitaciones para su utilización en los procesos de toma de decisiones ambientales y referentes a la adaptación al cambio climático, particularmente en relación con la valoración económica del ambiente. Asimismo, se discute la relevancia del criterio económico frente a las consideraciones ambientales y sociales, y se plantea algunos puntos de vista del autor sobre esta cuestión.

Payment for Hydrological Ecosystem Services – PHES is presented as a market mechanism where two parts voluntarily agree, one, to recognize an ecosystem service provision and to pay for it, and the other one to receive this payment under the commitment to preserve the forest cover upstream, ensuring ecosystem services such as higher water availability and lower sediment content for the water users downstream. However, PHES application in Peru, firstly, does not warrant that the supposed benefits are really obtained, since no adequate monitoring has been carried out. And, secondly, the Peruvian experience clearly shows that PHES is not a market mechanism, as the conceptual foundations pretend, but in practice requires strong support from the government. In addition, it is observed that revenue collection is poor enough as not to become sufficient to induce the required behavioral change....

Se revisa el marco teórico del análisis costo-beneficio y sus ventajas y limitaciones para su utilización en los procesos de toma de decisiones ambientales y referentes a la adaptación al cambio climático, particularmente en relación con la valoración económica del ambiente. Asimismo, se discute la relevancia del criterio económico frente a las consideraciones ambientales y sociales, y se plantea algunos puntos de vista del autor sobre esta cuestión.

Water is an essential good for human life; therefore, it is not strange that in the history of humanity certain cultures have even attributed religious values ​​to it. Currently, fresh water seems to be becoming increasingly scarce and its management presents significant problems, which has led to reconsidering the values ​​attributed to this resource, and the way in which it is assigned to its different uses. Traditionally, water has been distributed through a variety of social agreements, but not through markets, based on the validity of private property rights over water.