Paying for ecosystem services to protect forests and waterways
Forests next to rivers and and streams act as 'living filters' by absorbing sediments and storing and transforming excess nutrients and pollutants - reducing nitrogen concentration by up to 90 percent and phosphorous by as much as 50 percent.
Trees also have the added benefit of fixing soil and potentially reducing soil erosion. So all in all they protect waterways, which is probably why when they disappear many of the communities that are affected by deforestation talk about the rivers and streams disappearing.
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