Preliminary analysis of the impact of payment for environmental services on land-use changes: a case study on livestock farms in Costa Rica.

Abstract

AbstractThe project "Integrated Silvopastoral Approaches for the Management of Ecosystems" (GEF-CATIE) promotes the establishment of silvopastoral systems. This is done by paying incentives for environmental services, mainly carbon storage and conservation of biodiversity. The hypothesis of the project is that the payment for environmental services will induce changes in land use, creating beneficial technological change in the well-being of the farmers and natural resources. For the payment of environmental services on each farm, an index of land use that represented the potential carbon storage and/or the conservation of biodiversity was constructed. Primary forests generated a greater index (2.0) and the degraded pastures and annual crops without trees provided a smaller index (0.0). The participatory method was used to identify the problems, necessities for training, planning of land use and technical assistance. In Costa Rica, 137 cattle farms participated in the project, with an average area of 230 ha (range 5.8-175 ha). The lower percentages of land uses were represented by: natural pasture (34%), improved pasture (11%), degraded pasture (21%), fodder bank (0.5%), forests and bushes (28%), infrastructure (1%) and other uses (4.5%). The payment for environmental services to 107 farmers at an average of US$172.6 per farm has been granted. In this case we have seen changes from areas with degraded pastures to fodder banks, improved pastures, live fences and/or secondary forests.