A review of Payment for Ecosystem Services for the economic internalization of environmental externalities: A water perspective

Governance of Payments for Ecosystem Ecosystem services influences social and environmental outcomes in Costa Rica

Financial incentives for large-scale wetland restoration: Beyond markets to common asset trusts

Gains and Losses in Ecosystem Services: Trade-Off and Efficiency Perspectives

This paper proposes and examines the economic efficiency of novel payment schemes for the provision of wetland ecosystem services. By definition, payments for ecosystem services typically involve voluntary transactions between the beneficiaries and providers of ecosystem services. We develop a theoretical model that addresses the role that a third party—such as a social planner or government agency, acting in the interest of society—can play to ensure the optimal provision of ecosystem services. We consider different regulatory frameworks combining payments for ecosystem services with a subsidy that the third party grants to the beneficiaries or providers of ecosystem services. We compare the outcomes of the different policy mixes characterized by different levels of involvement of the third party. Of particular interest is the comparison between the outcomes of payments for ecosystem services subsidy arrangements in which the third party plays decentralized and centralized roles. Our results show, among other things, that the third party is indifferent between a negotiated payment for ecosystem services combined with a subsidy scheme and the constrained first‐best payments for ecosystem services subsidy scheme, in the presence of transaction and administrative costs. However, beneficiaries and providers may have conflicting preferences over the two payments for ecosystem services schemes.

Determining the payment for ecosystem services of mangrove forests: The approach combining ecosystem services and social-economic level and application in Shankou National Nature Reserve, Guangxi, China

Payments for ecosystem services (PES) often serve multiple objectives, such as carbon emission reduction and poverty alleviation. However, the effectiveness of PES as an instrument to achieve these multiple objectives, in particular in a conservation-development context, is often questioned. This study adds to the very limited empirical evidence base and investigates to what extent Vietnam’s move to PES has helped protect forest ecosystems and improve local livelihoods and income inequality. We zoom in on Lam Dong province, where PES was first introduced in Vietnam in 2009. Changes in forest cover are analysed using satellite images over a period of 15 years (2000–2014). Socio-economic impacts are assessed based on rural household interviews with PES participants and non-participants as a control group over a period of 7 years (2008–2014). Our results show that PES contributes significantly to forest cover, the improvement of local livelihoods, and the reduction of income inequality.

The Philippines has been experiencing water-related crises affecting millions of Filipinos in recent years. In the quest for viable solutions to better manage water resources, Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) has received significant attention because of its positive impacts on improving water provision and natural resource conservation. However, many PES-related initiatives in various watershed areas in the Philippines were short-lived. This paper assessed the implementation of PES-related initiatives in various parts of the country and identified the catalysts and barriers in developing and implementing Payment for Water Ecosystem Services (P-WES). The paper also addresses the dearth of literature on PES in developing countries. Based on the Preferred Population, Interest, Context, Scope, and Time (PICoST) approach, the literature review was complemented with field research in seven (7) sites. Increasing demand for water while there is a decreasing water supply was the primary factor that led to the PES and PES-like initiatives. Catalysts and barriers were further analyzed based on the three pillars – science, economics, institutions, and governance. A well-defined framework, data for decision-making, functional markets, buyer-seller satisfaction, participatory/collaborative approaches, and capacitated stakeholders were identified as some of the catalysts. Among the barriers were issues related to site specificity, data, communication, administration, monitoring and evaluation, markets, valuation, policies, and enforcement. Prospects include PES as tools for natural resource conservation, sustainable financing mechanisms, localized modalities, knowledge enhancement, and institutionalized schemes. To realize the full potential of PES, its development and implementation should go beyond the local levels, and the enactment of a national PES policy is recommended to support this.

Climate change presents new challenges for the management of social-ecological systems and the ecosystem services they provide. Although the instrument of payments for ecosystem services (PES) has emerged as a promising tool to safeguard or enhance the provision of ecosystem services (ES), little attention has been paid to the potential role of PES in climate change adaptation. As an external stressor climate change has an impact on the social-ecological system in which PES takes place, including the various actors taking part in the PES scheme. Following a short description of the conceptual link between PES and adaptation to climate change, we provide practical insights into the relationship between PES and adaptation to climate change by presenting results from a case study of a rural watershed in Kenya. Drawing upon the results of a participatory vulnerability assessment among potential ecosystem service providers in Sasumua watershed north of Nairobi, we show that PES can play a role in enhancing adaptation to climate change by influencing certain elements of adaptive capacity and incentivizing adaptation measures. In addition, trade-offs and synergies between proposed measures under PES and adaptation to climate change are identified. Results show that although it may not be possible to establish PES schemes based on water utilities as the sole source of financing, embedding PES in a wider adaptation framework creates an opportunity for the development of watershed PES schemes in Africa and ensures their sustainability. We conclude that there is a need to embed PES in a wider institutional framework and that extra financial resources are needed to foster greater integration between PES and adaptation to climate change. This can be achieved through scaling up PES by bringing in other buyers and additional ecosystem services. PES can achieve important coadaptation benefits, but for more effective adaptation outcomes it needs to be combined with vulnerability assessments and climate scenarios to ensure that these are realized and potential trade-offs between PES measures and adaptation measures minimized.

In recent years, a number of opportunities have emerged for land managers in the United Kingdom (UK) to generate new income streams if they dedicate a portion of their land to nature restoration projects, thanks to novel ‘payments for ecosystem services’ such as carbon removal or biodiversity enhancement. To strengthen the economic attractiveness of nature projects, some landowners are considering whether it may be possible to accept multiple payments for different Ecosystem Services (ES) generated from the same piece of land. The improved returns from projects with multiple, ‘stacked’, revenue streams may in turn help to facilitate greater uptake of nature restoration activities in the UK. However, stacked payments present certain risks to the integrity of the UK's nascent ES market. The purpose of this policy analysis is to address these market risks by proposing solutions to enable the stacking of ecosystem service payments. Our methods are as follows: we propose a simplified concept of the market for ES in the UK, and describe how a functioning market should operate to deliver no net loss in ES, as a minimum. We then identify specific risks to integrity within this market. We describe two potential solutions to enable stacking, and argue for the comprehensive accounting of ES gains and losses among all market participants as an optimal solution. We conclude by discussing the implications and supporting policy for this solution.

Rethinking ‘Success’: The politics of payment for forest ecosystem services in Vietnam

It is imperative to comprehend the impact of payment for ecosystem services (PES) policies on local communities’ perceptions for effective environmental management. However, recent studies on how PES programs impact local communities’ environmental perceptions and conservation willingness remain limited. To better understand local communities’ perceptions of ecosystem services (ES) under various PES programs, we conducted 381 face-to-face household surveys in the Dashanbao Protected Area (DPA), China. Using path analysis and multiple correspondence analysis, we examined how participation experiences in PES program influence communities’ perceptions of ES and shape their conservation willingness and environmental decision-making intentions. The results indicated a significant difference in the perception of ES between PES program participants and nonparticipants. Respondents’ participation in payment for wetland ecosystem services (PWES) significantly and positively influenced their perception of ES, whereas involvement in unsustainable PES programs had a significant negative effect. Additionally, respondents’ perception of ES significantly and positively influenced subsequent conservation willingness and land-use-related environmental decision-making. However, livelihood income was not the primary driving factor. Instead, factors associated with ES perception and social background shaped local communities’ willingness to participate in conservation. These findings underscore the importance of well-designed and sustainable PES schemes. The results highlight the need to enhance our understanding of how PES initiatives influence human perception, conservation willingness, and environmental decision-making within the coupled human and natural systems of protected areas. It can also potentially shed light on related environmental management schemes aimed at achieving ecosystem health goals and sustainable community development worldwide.

Payment for Ecosystem Service (PES) scheme for certain ecosystem services is being used as a mechanism to provide incentive to suppliers of the services by the beneficiaries. In Nepal, PES like schemes is in practice since a long time, though the discussions on formal PES schemes have recently been started. This study has been carried out at Begnas Lake Watershed (BWS), a Ramsar site, at Pokhara-Lekhnath Metropolitan of Nepal. It aims to understand the perception of local residents towards the implementation of PES scheme in BWS. Furthermore, it also identifies key actors for PES implementation at BWS, their role in PES design and implementation as well as potential payment mechanism for the ecosystem services within the PES scheme at BWS. Finally, institutional structure for PES design and implementation is also presented. The study finds positive perception of local people towards initiating payment mechanism for the use of ecosystem services to ensure environmental conservation and sustainable management of the resources. Both upstream and downstream population favors mix of public/private PES scheme while upstream population favors cash-payment type scheme and downstream population favors the capacity building of upstream communities in conservation efforts. It is also noted that upstream people favor input-based mode of payment and downstream people are inclined towards output-based payments. The study found some ‘PES-like’ practices operational in the watershed. The study recommends the formation of ‘Begnas Watershed PES Advisory and Coordination Committee’ with due participation of identified stakeholders to initiate and institutionalize formal PES mechanism at BWS.

PDF HTML阅读 XML下载 导出引用 引用提醒 生态系统服务付费的诊断框架及案例剖析 DOI: 10.5846/stxb201304040602 作者: 作者单位: 北京大学 城市与环境学院,北京大学 城市与环境学院,北京大学 城市与环境学院 作者简介: 通讯作者: 中图分类号: 基金项目: 国家自然科学基金（41130534） A diagnostic framework of payments for ecosystem services and associated case studies Author: Affiliation: College of Urban and Environment Sciences,College of Urban and Environment Sciences,College of Urban and Environment Sciences Fund Project: 摘要 | 图/表 | 访问统计 | 参考文献 | 相似文献 | 引证文献 | 资源附件 | 文章评论 摘要:生态系统服务付费目前已成为生态系统服务研究的热点之一。参考Ostrom的社会-生态系统诊断框架，提取并总结影响生态系统服务付费执行效率的变量，建立了适合区域特点的项目绩效评估体系，并以哥斯达黎加（PSA）项目和中国退耕还林工程为例，探讨了该评估体系在生态系统服务付费效率诊断中的适用性。研究表明，依据该评估体系，未来中国在实施生态系统服务付费项目时应注意以下问题：建立生态系统服务付费的市场机制、实施多样化的付费方式；付费标准应考虑区域特征和供给方特征；建立生态系统服务付费项目的第三方监督和绩效评估机制；加强对生态系统服务的监测。 Abstract:The concept of payments for ecosystem services (PES) can be seen as a market-based model that provides ecological protection based on Coasean economics. Focusing on market mechanisms, PES uses certain funding constraints related to the management of ecosystem services in a way that is designed to maximize environmental benefits received from ecosystem management. The factors affecting PES include the potential ecological service providers, the relationship between land use and ecosystem services, the persistence of a PES project, perverse incentive policies, and the spatial positioning of ecological compensation objects. On the other hand, the implementation of PES involves several steps: (1) Determining types of land use change and analyzing the corresponding changes in ecosystem services supply; (2) Selecting a "reference point" as a standard to be used to measure the performance of PES implementation, namely determining incremental changes in land-use types; and (3) determining the amount and type of payment. At the end of 2002, 287 projects had been planned or implemented using payments for ecosystem services globally, which were mainly related to such ecosystem services as the aesthetic values of landscapes, forest carbon sequestration, watershed protection and biodiversity conservation, etc. All of these provide practical examples in theory and methodology of ecosystem services' payment. However, questions remain as to how one can ensure that these programs using PES actually improve the environmental quality while simultaneously providing benefits to local residents; that is to say, how can the established objectives be achieved? These problems have drawn the attention of researchers and practitioners alike. Because the methods used in ecosystem service research are very fragmented, this paper proposes a new diagnostic framework that imitates Ostrom's social-ecological systems. Based on the new diagnostic framework, the factors influencing PES are reorganized into a new system that allows for a more accurate analysis of the effectiveness of PES. The goals are to use an objective method to evaluate PES use, to extract and summarize the variables that affect the efficiency of implementing PES, and to establish a performance assessment system that can be adaptable to any region's characteristics. The assessment system consists of four core variables, i.e. Ecosystem Services, Providers, Buyers and Governance Systems; each core variable consists of a number of secondary variables. Relevance feedback is also conducted between each subsystem. This paper summarizes the variables that affect the efficiency of implementing a payment system for ecosystem services; this process is more intuitive and unambiguous than other research methods, and will be beneficial to policy makers tasked with making management decisions, policy-making and evaluating the efficiency of ecological engineering. The Pago por Servicios Ambientales program in Costa Rica, a successful case of payment for ecosystem services in Central America, is discussed as an example to discuss the framework' applicability to the efficiency assessment of PES programs. After diagnosing and analyzing the Sloping Land Conversion Program in China, some existing problems are pointed out that affect the efficiency of ecological engineering. Then the establishment of market mechanisms is discussed that can be used to establish payments for ecosystem services, together with the management of regional differences in payment. In addition, it is also proposed for the establishment of third party monitoring for ecosystem services payment projects and the use of associated performance evaluation mechanisms, which are all designed to strengthen the monitoring of ecosystem services payment programs.Physical geography, social economics and cultural background create significant differences in how a program of payment for ecosystem services should be established. Appropriate trade-offs need to be considered if a system is created to be adapted to local conditions. These considerations must be properly applied to the assessment system when evaluating the performance of a PES program. When all the variables that affect the efficient execution of a PES program are considered for the first time, some deficiencies are sure to remain; a need will still exist to constantly enrich and perfect the practice. 参考文献 相似文献 引证文献

Mangrove forests provide a multitude of ecosystem services, many of which contribute to Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) along tropical coastlines. In the face of rapid deforestation, Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) schemes such as Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) has been heralded as a potential avenue for financing conservation, although PES schemes remain in an embryonic state for mangroves. Several challenges must be overcome if mangrove PES is to advance. Firstly, challenges exist in quantifying multiple ecosystem services, especially those that contribute to DRR, such as wave attenuation and the control of coastal erosion. Secondly, the permanence of quantified ecosystem services is a central tenet of PES, but is not guaranteed in the dynamic coastal zone. Mangroves are affected by multiple stressors related to natural hazards and climate change, which are often outside of the control of a PES site manager. This will necessitate Financial Risk Management strategies, which are not commonly used in coastal PES, and introduces a number of management challenges. Finally, and most importantly, PES generally requires the clear identification and pairing of separate service providers and service users, who can potentially overlap in the context of DRR. This chapter reviews and discusses these emerging issues, and proposes potential solutions to contribute to the more effective implementation of mangrove PES. Ultimately however, difficulties in pairing separate and discreet service providers and users may render PES for DRR unfeasible in some settings, and we may need to continue traditional modes of DRR finance such as insurance and donor support.

Cultural ecosystem services, encompassing intangible benefits like spiritual enrichment, cognitive development, and aesthetic experiences, play a crucial role in enhancing individual well-being. Despite their profound impact, these services often face limited economic recognition and marketability, highlighting the importance of improved acknowledgment in future ecosystem assessments. The emergence of Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) as a market-based mechanism offers compensation to landowners for managing their land to deliver various ecosystem services. While PES provides incentives for conservation, challenges such as the lack of market information, participation avoidance, and mistrust hinder its widespread adoption, especially concerning the physical, emotional, and mental benefits derived from ecosystem services. Bridging this gap requires a focus on education and outreach, emphasizing not only the provisioning and regulating ecosystem services but also the cultural ones. PES programs, being information-intensive, demand a comprehensive understanding of ecosystem services and their management impacts. To address these challenges, we propose leveraging social media, specifically through local social media influencers (LSMIs), as online intermediaries in PES initiatives. In the modern world, social media has proven to be a potent solution for boosting awareness, trust, and promotion for various businesses, making it a viable avenue for PES. Unlike traditional offline intermediaries, LSMIs on social media platforms can effectively engage with local communities, fostering awareness and trust-building. Our research focuses on the European context, exploring the role of LSMIs in the preparatory phase of PES programs. Through a literature review, we identified a framework of potential key indicators of social media (SM) and LSMIs. To gain comprehensive perspectives from PES buyers and sellers in online social networks, we conducted a survey involving three PES case studies in Spain, France, and Austria. The findings underscore YouTube and Instagram's popularity as the preferred social media platforms among both buyers and sellers of ecosystem services within the cultural context. Photos and videos emerged as captivating mediums, with more than 50% expressing the affirmative impact of this contemporary tool in advancing cultural ecosystem services. Geographically, Spain led in leveraging social media for the promotion of cultural ecosystem services, followed by France and Austria. By understanding the dynamics between LSMIs, social media platforms, and PES initiation, our research contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of social media's role in promoting ecosystem services and sustainable environmental practices.