Payments for Environmental Services: An Alternative for Sustainable Rural Development

Abstract

The Nevado de Toluca National Park, Mexico, performs important support, regulation, natural production, and cultural functions. Today these functions are severely endangered by the use of the Park's natural resources by people living within and near the National Park. Do payments for environmental services (PES), including schemes for carbon sequestration, offer alternatives that enhance livelihood options for local people and at the same time conserve the multiple functions of the protected area? This question was the basis of an assessment that elaborated the pros and cons of PES, with a special focus on the constraints of entering global carbon markets—the proposition emerging from today's increasingly globalized world. We compare the potential benefits of PES against the market value of forest resources for the local population. Alternative schemes, which do not necessarily involve monetary valuation, are proposed.