Abstract
AbstractThere has been a rapid expansion in the use of payments for environmental services (PES) as a key conservation finance policy. However, there is insufficient understanding of how gender can affect PES implementation and outcomes. We present results from a case study in Viet Nam, where a national PES programme has been in place for a decade. Through panel household survey data, focus groups and interviews, we examined how women have been involved in PES policies, what the impacts have been on decision-making by men and women, participation rates and use of PES income over time, and the potential conservation outcomes. Our research confirms that resource use varies between men and women, and changes in access rights can fall disproportionately on women. Participation in PES has been lower for female-headed households and for women within male-headed households, although gradually more equitable participation has evolved within households. Female-headed households reported expending more yearly effort on PES activities despite protecting less land, and also increased their conservation activities over time as they presumably became more familiar with PES. Use of income from PES also showed differences between male and female-led households, with men more likely to spend funds on non-essential goods. Within households, although men initially decided how to spend PES money, decision-making has become more equitable over time. We conclude with some recommendations on how to increase attention to gender in PES projects and future research to improve outcomes.
Highlights
There has been considerable work on how gender has influenced other conservation approaches, such as community-based natural resource management (Rocheleau et al, ; Resurrection & Elmhirst, ), we focus here on Payments for environmental services (PES) as a relatively new approach using financial incentives
There were gendered differences in forest use, as a women’s focus group in Lâm Đồng noted: in particular, women were in charge of water provisioning, biomass, food, and non-timber forest products (NTFPs), whereas men’s work included pest control, marketing of goods, and finding timber for house repair
By, we saw a considerable drop in income from NTFPs to zero in Lâm Đồng, with its complete replacement by PES income, and in Sơn La, income from fuelwood and honey had increased in value (Table )
Summary
There remain gaps in our knowledge regarding gender and PES (Cruz-Garcia et al, ). There have been arguments in favour of paying attention to women’s participation in PES on the basis of equity and inclusion (Pascual et al, ; Phạm & Brockhaus, ), there has been less empirical research on how gender roles and responsibilities affect PES implementation and outcomes for conservation, as well as how PES programmes could affect men and women in different ways (Boyd, ; Kariuki & Birner, ; Schwartz, ; Vardhan & Catacutan, ; Andeltová et al, ; Bee, ; Benjamin et al, ). We argue there is a need to have greater knowledge of the gender implications of the mechanisms of PES so as to improve outcomes
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