Landowners receive billions in subsidies to protect watersheds - study

By Chris Arsenault RIO DE JANEIRO (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Governments are offering more incentives to landowners who protect their watersheds to improve conservation, but must expand these efforts in order to provide reliable water supplies to growing populations, researchers said on Thursday. Subsidies for landholders who protect watersheds - land that absorbs rainwater - exceeded $23 billion last year, about $2 billion more than 2014, the study said. Direct subsidies to farmers and land