Payment for environmental services as a strategy to influence land use change dynamics.

Eric Bastos Gorgens,Vinícius Orlandi Barbosa Lima,Ilziane Carmem Martins,Bruno Hericlles Lopes Silva,Maria Luiza De Azevedo,Danielle Piuzana Mucida,Tamara Kelly Marques Rocha Nunes,Israel Marinho Pereira,Huezer Vigano Sperandio,Marcelino Santos De Morais

doi:10.31220/agrirxiv.2021.00051

Eric Bastos Gorgens, Vinícius Orlandi Barbosa Lima + Show 8 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.31220/agrirxiv.2021.00051

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Abstract

Abstract Payments for environmental services (PES) consist of a recent and direct way of promoting conservation by rewarding landowners to promote conservation strategies and influence the land use change dynamics. This study proposes an approach to quantify three different strategies for PES implementation and analyze if different social and environmental contexts would benefit equally from each process. To quantify the strategies to influence the land use change dynamics, we defined the following milestones: (a) characterize current land use; (b) characterize the agricultural aptitude; (c) determine protected areas by law; (d) identify land uses in protected areas; (e) identify land uses in low aptitude areas; and (f) contrast the socioeconomic contexts and the strategies influenced by PES. Strategies oriented to restore anthropized protected areas are less important than those aimed to increase the natural land value. The voluntary retirement can equally benefit different socioeconomic context. It is fundamental to develop public policies related to payment for environmental services that promote local communities' ties and development, and amplify the PES scopes to adopt strategies that can support equally different socioeconomic realities.

Highlights

Natural ecosystems provide several environmental services, including retaining rainfall, water regulation, soil protection, biodiversity, food, temperature regulation, and others (Pagiola and Platais 2002)
The land use change dynamics can be influenced by returning anthropogenic landscape to its natural form by mean of restoration, or avoiding land use change
The study area is largely covered by a natural landscape (80.5% - 189,848.39 ha), divided between native vegetation and rocky outcrops (Figure 3a)

Summary

Introduction

Natural ecosystems provide several environmental services, including retaining rainfall, water regulation, soil protection, biodiversity, food, temperature regulation, and others (Pagiola and Platais 2002). Payments for environmental services (PES) have been adopted as highlevel policy in many countries to promote conservation and influence the land use change dynamics (Ruhl et al 2021). The land use change dynamics can be influenced by returning anthropogenic landscape to its natural form by mean of restoration (flows b, c and d; Figure 1), or avoiding land use change (flow a, Figure 1). The land use change can be motivated by converting it to some productive processes (e.g., agriculture, silviculture, livestock farming, etc.) or to access a natural resource followed by the land abandoned (flow a, Figure 1). The area will gradually return to its natural status (Hasan et al, 2020), based on its ecosystems' resilience mechanisms (Weise et al 2020) (flow c, Figure 1)

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