Payments For Ecosystem Services Research Articles

The effect of payments for ecosystem services on forest cover, land use, and capacity building in northern Mexico

The endorreic watershed of Laguna de Santiaguillo, located in Durango, Mexico, provides important ecosystem services to local communities. Due to its size and forest diversity, it is the refuge for many reptiles and migratory birds. It captures a large amount of carbon dioxide in its soil and vegetation, all while catching the water that will then be used for agriculture and aquifer recharge. To improve these ecosystem services, as well as maintain a collaborative relationship with the watershed, several community-owned properties in this area, known as ejidos, enrolled in a federally supported Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) program. This program grants economic subsidies to landowners to help protect forest resources. However, there is little information on the effect that this program has on these types of community-owned properties. Through a spatial analysis, the vegetation index was estimated, as well as the impact that this program has had on the communities and their resources. A Difference-in-Differences (DiD) method was used to test for differences in remotely sensed vegetation cover and land use between PES and non-PES ejido recipients. Socioeconomic indicators, obtained from surveys, were also evaluated. Results show that changes in vegetation cover and land use were significant in secondary forests but not in primary forests in the selected periods. The overall difference, given by the DiD model, show no significant differences in land use changes. This study can help resource managers to monitor the additionality on forest resources and internal organization of ejido participants.

Strong call to safeguard traditional agriculture as habitat for threatened crane species

This Scientific Impact Paper summarizes the changes in policy and practice of crane conservation that have occurred since our 2019 research in the Cheorwon Basin located in the Civilian Control Zone (CCZ) of the Republic of Korea (ROK). Changes in National Policy as well as increased engagement of conservation NGOs have led to more engagement of farmers in safeguarding crane habitat in their fields. Yet the current system of low-intensity rice farming is dependent on military land-use restrictions. The Cheorwon Basin in the Civilian Control Zone (CCZ) of the Republic of Korea (ROK) hosts the most important wintering site of two threatened crane species, the white-naped crane (Grus vipio) and the red-crowned crane (Grus japonensis). Both species predominately use harvested rice paddy fields as foraging sites (Kim et al., 2016). In 2019, we carried out a stakeholder analysis (Jin et al., 2021) revealing that local initiatives had successfully engaged farmers in conserving crane habitat on their fields, in part through the provision of direct and indirect financial incentives. Yet it proved challenging to engage stakeholders critical of crane conservation in our research (e.g., the military or firms interested in agricultural/ industrial development of the area). Here we summarize the changes in policy and practice of crane conservation that have occurred in the three years following our initial research. We report these insights based on expert interviews conducted in 2022 with a local farmer representative (I#1), and a local and international crane conservation specialist (I#2, I#3). At national level, the Biological Diversity Act (2002) was revised in 2019 allowing for the possibility of the private sector to co-finance the ROK government's system of Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES). The National Nature Trust owns a legal foundation to operate PES and has expressed interest in extending the payments to crane conservation (I#3). While the system of PES was already in place in other regions of ROK, enhanced funding by the local government and the Ministry of Environment allowed for its initiation in the Cheorwon Basin. Farmers now receive government payments for specific biodiversity-friendly methods. These include the restricted use of pesticides, leaving leftover grains on the field and keeping rice fields flooded throughout winter in order to provide foraging and roosting habitat for cranes (I#2). According to a local farmer representative, the process of engaging in interviews for our initial publication and thereby expressing diverse opinions increased trust relations, and respect among members of the Crane Coordinating Committee. Yet communication with stakeholders outside the committee is still perceived as challenging. (I#1). The International Crane Foundation has started a new project centered upon Cheorwon with the major components being citizen science, outreach to stakeholders and policy-makers, strengthening networks for crane conservation and education, and awareness raising for example, by initiating a local crane festival which can attract tourists to the region (I#2). The Cheorwon Basin is the only area in the ROK, in which low-intensity rice farming is still practiced and crucial roosting and foraging habitat for cranes are secured. Plans to protect the site and the traditional farming practices by establishing a nature reserve have not yet been successful (Kim et al., 2011). This means that the current state of successful cooperation between farmers and crane conservation largely depends on military land-use restrictions that have become less strict in recent years. The size of the CCZ has decreased (Figure 1) and even within the remaining area, greenhouses and ginseng farms have rapidly expanded while the pressure for further economic development persists. Karoline Hemminger: Conceptualization (lead); Conducting Interviews, Interview Analysis (lead); Writing-original draft (lead); Writing-review and editing (lead). Hyeyeon Sarah Jin: Conducting Interviews (lead); Writing-review and editing. Spike Millington, Jongsoo Choi: Writing-review and editing. Kisup Lee: Visualization; Writing-review and editing. Claudia Sattler: Conceptualization, Visualization (lead), Writing-review and editing. The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest. Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL. The interview transcripts are not available because they include clear names of individuals mentioned during the interview conversations as well as sensitive information which may allow to guess the identity of the interviewees.

Incorporating fire-smartness into agricultural policies reduces suppression costs and ecosystem services damages from wildfires

In southern Europe, land abandonment and an unbalanced investment toward fire suppression instead of prevention has gradually increased wildfire risk, which calls for a paradigm change in fire management policies. Here we combined scenario analysis, fire landscape modelling, and economic tools to identify which land-use policies would reduce the expected wildfire-related losses in the Transboundary Biosphere Reserve ‘Gerês-Xurés’ (Spain-Portugal). To do so, we applied the least-cost-plus-net-value-change approach and estimated net changes in wildfire damages based on their implications for the 2010–2050 period and five ecosystem services: agriculture, pasture, timber, recreation and climate regulation. Four land-use scenarios were considered: (1) Business as Usual (BAU); (2) fire-smart, fostering more fire-resistant (less flammable) and/or fire-resilient landscapes (fire-smart); (3) High Nature Value farmlands (HNVf), wherein the abandonment of extensive agriculture is reversed; and (4) a combination of HNVf and fire-smart. HNVf is the best scenario for suppression cost savings, but it generates the lowest net present value of societal benefits from climate regulation. In fact, the most efficient scenario with the lowest societal discounted net suppression costs and change on ecosystem services damages is the HNVf + fire-smart scenario, as it also generates suppression cost savings from agricultural expansion, and lead to a significant reduction in damages on timber and recreational benefits. Therefore, reverting land abandonment through recultivation and promoting fire-resistant tree species is the most efficient way to reduce wildfire hazard. In this sense, payments for ecosystem services should reward farmers and landowners for their role in wildfire prevention. This study improves the understanding of the financial and societal benefits derived from reducing fire suppression spending and ecosystem services damage by undertaking fire-smart land-use strategies, which can be essential to enhance local stakeholders' support for Payments of Ecosystem Services policies for wildfire prevention.

The monetary facilities payment for ecosystem services as an approach to restore the Degraded Urmia Lake in Iran.

This study analyzed the potential use of Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) as a strategy for improving water supply management. This study focused on the Siminehroud Sub-basin due to its high importance to the Basin of Urmia Lake (UL). Siminehroud is the second provider of water (by volume) to Urmia Lake. To evaluate the technical and economic feasibility of a PES scheme, the current land use map was extracted using satellite imagery. In addition, the two algorithms of Support Vector Machines (SVMs) and Maximum Likelihood (ML) are used for Landsat images classification, rather than analyzing the relationship between land use and ecosystem services. Then, the most relevant ecosystem services provided in the region were evaluated using the Benefit Transfer Method. In the last step, by designing and implementing a survey, on the one hand, the local farmers' Willingness to Accept (WTA) cash payments for reducing the area they cultivate, and on the other hand, the farmers' Willingness to Pay (WTP) for managing the water consumption were determined. The results illustrated that the WTA program is more acceptable among the beneficiaries. It is also notable that this program needs very high governmental funding. Furthermore, the results of the program indicate that the land area out of the cultivation cycle will gradually increase while the price of agricultural water will also increase.

Small tradeoffs between social equity and conservation outcomes in a freshwater payment for ecosystem services scheme.

Conservation programs around the world aim to balance social equity, economic efficiency, and conservation outcomes. Tradeoffs among these three objectives necessarily exist but have been quantified in only a handful of systems. Here, we use a multi-objective mathematical optimization model in a large, water-limited river basin to quantify these tradeoffs in a freshwater payment for ecosystem services (PES) program aimed at establishing environmental flows (e-flows). Across a range of budgetary and future climate scenarios, we find that tradeoffs between social equity and conservation outcomes are small. We also show that payment schemes in which incentives are allocated to a single water use sector are much less cost-effective than schemes in which incentives are allocated among multiple sectors. Thus, allocating payments equally among agricultural, municipal, and industrial sectors can be both more equitable and more cost-effective. Overall, our results illustrate how some carefully designed conservation programs may be able to achieve a triple bottom line of social equity, economic efficiency, and conservation effectiveness.

The Dynamics of Implementing Payment for Ecosystem Services Scheme in Lake Naivasha Basin Ecosystem, Kenya

Lake Naivasha Basin is located in Nakuru and Nyandarua counties in the Republic of Kenya. It is an important ecosystem to the economy of Kenya, consistently contributing upwards of 1% of the national Gross Domestic Production. However, this landscape is continuously and rapidly degrading due to intensive land use practices and land fragmentation in spite of the existence of various natural resource management policies in Kenya. The promotion of Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) as a policy option to foster ecosystems sustainability by increasing the capacity of government authorities and local communities in Kenya to conserve riparian and forest ecosystems so as to reduce the vulnerability of dependent communities and production enterprises to the observed and anticipated effects of climate change is implied in the key environmental and natural resources policies in Kenya. We examine whether the Lake Naivasha Basin Payment for Ecosystem Services (LNB-PES) scheme embodied the critical characteristics of an effective PES mechanism and if it achieved the desired ecological and livelihood results. A total of 1,191 heads of households and 11 key informants were interviewed for this study. The study results indicate that the LNB-PES scheme had some functional and conceptual inadequacies although it achieved remarkable adoption and compliance by participating farmers. Based on these results, we recommend that a new PES scheme with a conditionalities enforcement mechanism be initiated for the LNB with a view to informing the mainstreaming of the concept of enforceable PES in the existing policy framework, the development of a national or basin-level PES policy, and, support watershed restoration and climate change adaptation through the provision of forest technical extension services to land owners for the creation of woodlots and other watershed protection initiatives at farm level.

Structure of payments for the use of resources and services of aquatic ecosystems

The importance of developing and optimizing the structure of a modern payment system, which will facilitate not only the accumulation of these funds in the budget, but also to make relevant management decisionson their allocation for conservation measures and restoration of lost aquatic ecosystem functions was demonstrated. The methodological and theoretical basis of the study is the key concepts of modern economic theory, economics of environmental management and sustainable development, international ecosystem ecosystem accounting, institutional and neo-institutional theories related to the problem of scientific substantiation of payments for the use of resources and services of aquatic ecosystems. The key elements of the structure of payments for the use of water resources in Ukraine (rent for special water use, environmental tax for discharges of pollutants into water bodies, rent for water bodies, fines) are studied and analytical evaluation of these taxes were studied and performed their analytical evaluation. The main factors of low efficiency of payments for the use of aquatic ecosystem resources are identified. It is proposed scientific concepts to optimize the structure of payments for the use of resources and services of aquatic ecosystems taking into account the best models of international experience. Attention was focused on the necceserity of the creation in Ukraine a special extra-budgetary National Environmental Fund of Water Resources in the form of a legal entity, similar to the National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management in Poland, with the aim of accumulating payments for water ecosystem services and introducing tools to stimulate and support water protection measures. Perspectives for further research on this issue, in particular, with regard to the formation of a comprehensive strategic ecosystem approach to the introduction of payments for the use of resources and services of aquatic ecosystems, development of modern methodological approaches to assessing the services of aquatic ecosystems and formation of an optimal structure of payments for the use of water resources, taking into account their functional characteristics were identified.

Reforming a pre-existing biodiversity conservation scheme: Promoting climate co-benefits by a carbon payment

Protecting forests provides potential synergies for both biodiversity conservation and climate change mitigation. Payments for ecosystem services (PES) schemes are commonly used to promote biodiversity conservation in private forests, and including carbon as another target may be a cost-efficient way to promote both goals. We analyse a hypothetical reform on a forest biodiversity PES scheme by supplementing it with a carbon payment paid to landowners for also providing carbon benefits. With a site selection model, we examine how the proposed scheme could promote biodiversity and carbon values, and what level of the carbon payment would provide the highest synergy gains. We found that introducing the payment promotes both targets, but there is a temporal trade-off between selecting sites with high carbon storage or sites with good sequestration potential. The highest synergy gains are obtained in most cases by a second-best payment level of 10–20 € tCO2−1.

Influence of Tree Vegetation and The Associated Environmental Factors on Soil Organic Carbon; Evidence from “Kulon Progo Community Forestry,” Yogyakarta, Indonesia

This study aimed to assess the influence of tree vegetation and some environmental factor on soil organic carbon (SOC), which is part of soil organic matter (SOM). Vegetation survey and soil sampling were carried out in five stand types in the protected forest of Kulon Progo Community Forestry, including Pinus (PN), Aleurites-Swietenia (AS), Swietenia-Acacia (SA), Melaleuca-Acacia (MA) and Tectona-Dalbergia (TD). Tree vegetation composition and characteristics (diversity, basal area, density, canopy height and canopy cover), SOC and SOM were analyzed using some comparative analyses. The influence of tree vegetation characteristics and environmental factors related to topographic, edaphic and anthropogenic aspects on SOC was performed by employing principal component analysis (PCA) and redundancy analysis (RDA). Our result confirmed that species composition among stand types was significantly different. Characteristically, PN was relatively close to MA, having similarities in canopy cover, canopy height and basal area. While AS, SA and TD were relatively similar to each other in diversity, basal area, density and canopy cover. Moreover, PN and MA similarly hold less SOC and SOM compared to TD, while AS and SA showed not significantly different from TD. RDA confirmed the high influence of tree vegetation, where the most influencing factor for SOC and SOM was an interaction among canopy cover, canopy height and below-stand utilization, where canopy cover was directly proportional to canopy height and increased with decreasing below-stand utilization. We concluded that in relatively small variations of environmental factors, selecting dense-canopy trees and adaptive management of below-stand utilization promised SOC sequestration and storage. Our findings provide fundamental information for maximizing the potential of forest carbon to meet the global payments for ecosystem services and contribute to low-carbon development strategies and emission reduction.

Land use/land cover dynamics driven changes in woody species diversity and ecosystem services value in tropical rainforest frontier: A 20-year history

Land use/land cover (LULC) change is a prominent problem in tropical forests. However, the fundamental question of how much woody species diversity was lost and ecosystem services value (ESV) changed in response to LULC conversion has rarely been studied. Therefore, the objective of this study was to assess the impact of LULC change on woody species diversity and ecosystem service value in the last two decades in the tropical rainforest frontier taking the case of Sheka Forest Biosphere Reserve (SFBR), Southwest Ethiopia. Supervised image classification with a maximum likelihood approach was employed and 90 quadrants were laid for the woody species inventory. Diversity indices and descriptive statistics were computed and the non-parametric test (Kruskal-Wallis) was used to test the effect of LULC change on woody species diversity. The benefit transfer method was used to estimate the monetary value of ecosystem services adopting coefficients from empirical studies. The woody species richness, diversity, and evenness varied (X2 = 71.887, p < 0.05) across LULC types. The highest diversity was observed in the forest followed by cropland, coffee plantation, homegarden, and tea plantation. The estimated total ecosystem service value (ESV) was reduced by 21.56% from 309.11 million US$ in 1999 to 242.47 million US$ in 2020. Transition to mono-crop like tea plantations to maximize income not only altered native woody species but also induced the expansion of exotic species and reduced ESV, indicating a detrimental impact of LULC change on ecosystem integrity and stability in the future. Although LULC conversion destruct woody species diversity, cropland, coffee plantation and the homegardens were the refuge for some endemic and conservation priority species. Further, addressing contemporary challenges of LULC conversion through introducing mechanisms such as payment for ecosystem services that increase the economic and livelihood benefits of natural forests to local communities is important. Effective conservation and sustainable use approaches in which such species are systematically integrated into land use practices have to be planned and implemented. This could contribute to strengthening the conservation effectiveness of the SFBR of UNESCO and serve as a showcase for such conservation areas around the globe. The LULC challenges, particularly those emanating from local livelihood needs, could impede our efforts to conserve biodiversity, jeopardize the reliability of future projections, and have an impact on the conservation of threatened ecosystems, if it is not adequately addressed in time.

Integrating payment for ecosystem services in protected areas governance: The case of the Po Delta Park

The effective inclusion of Ecosystem Services (ES) in the governance of Protected Areas (PAs) is a key challenge for future environmental governance. In this sense, Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) have been conceived as instruments to internalize costs of environmental management and establish a consequential link between ES users and providers. Thus, while there is a current pressingly need for genuine PES mechanisms, in very rare cases it has been possible to satisfy this requirement. This paves the way for the study of alternative methods, such as PES-like schemes, which may be already in practice in PAs.In order to support and discuss the feasibility of this approach, we present four successful PES-like schemes currently working in the Po River delta Park of the Emilia-Romagna region (Northern Italy). They involve traditional activities, as hunting, fishing, mushroom and truffle (M&T) picking and cultural services, coherent with the UNESCO Man and Biosphere declaration.With the aim of using the peculiar case of the Po Delta Park as a study model, we studied services with direct market value that cover a variety of strategy cases and positive side effects typically observed in genuine PES schemes. The Park authority is a crucial actor with different roles: i) regulator/intermediator in the context of a “command” strategy (for hunting and M&T) and in a public–private partnership (for cultural services) and ii) provider in a trade context (for fishing).Although not originally conceived under the vision of an ES approach, these practices, developed as endogenous processes, were effective in supporting conservation and ES provision. While not accounting for regulating services, PES-like schemes constitute practical evidence of broad interest concerning the role of existing, yet overlooked, mechanisms involving important ES, which could be reframed within the terminology of PES to strengthen their functioning and strategic value.

Multicriteria optimization to develop cost-effective pes-schemes to restore multiple environmental benefits in the Brazilian Atlantic forest

Understanding the cost-effectiveness of restoration initiatives is critical for their successful implementation. In this context, this study presents a new approach to investigating the cost-effectiveness of different forest landscape restoration strategies for achieving multiple restoration goals. The approach is based on an optimization model that allocates forest restoration to maximize three environmental benefits (biodiversity conservation, carbon stock increase, and soil loss reduction) while minimizing the cost. We explore scenarios based on the Brazilian Forest Code and the National Policy for Payment for Ecosystem Services. Our optimization approach simultaneously achieves high levels of multiple environmental benefits - more than 90% of the maximum possible biodiversity, carbon, and soil in a cost-effective manner for all scenarios. Variation among the scenarios in the absolute performance concerning the three objectives was small (within 2.5%) compared to variation in costs (up to 19.4%). These results reinforce the importance of quantifying trade-offs among objectives to a better understanding of the cost-effectiveness of restoration initiatives before their implementation.

The inherent trade-off between the environmental and anti-poverty goals of payments for ecosystem services

Conservation programs in low-income countries often have dual goals of protecting the environment and reducing poverty. This article discusses the tension between these two goals in payments for ecosystem services (PESs) programs. Participants who undertake a pro-environment behavior receive a payment, which can be decomposed into two parts: the amount that compensates them for the cost of changing their behavior and the extra amount that is a ‘pure transfer’ to them. To maximize the program’s environmental benefits, a policy maker would like to set the pure transfer component to zero, yet the pure transfer is the only part of the payment that increases participants’ economic well-being. In practice, PES programs pay out some pure transfers, and the extent of the anti-poverty benefits depends on whether the pure transfers are de facto targeted to the poor. I lay out these points and then illustrate them with data from a randomized trial of payments for forest protection in Uganda. I provide evidence that the economic gains from participation in PES are indeed larger for those with low costs to fulfill the program’s conservation requirements. I also show that, in this context, poorer eligible households enjoyed more improvement in their economic well-being than richer ones did.

Production pathways for profitability and valuing ecosystem services for willow coppice in intensive agricultural applications

Increasing agricultural sustainability is a key challenge facing the globe today. Energy crops, planted as riparian buffers are one way to support this, simultaneously mitigating water quality degradation and climate change. However, the economics of implementing such riparian buffer systems is under researched. Hence this work conducted a bottom-up economic analysis of willow coppice riparian buffers on a Northern Irish dairy farm, which is indicative of agricultural intensification across Europe. This work includes an economic assessment of a willow coppice riparian buffer strip, using harvested yield data from an established willow buffer site for the first time. It also considered the impact of harvesting technology on the economic performance of a willow coppice riparian buffer strip for the first time. The analysis considered three willow production pathways: 1) direct chip harvesting, 2) full-stem harvesting, and 3) a scenario with a guaranteed purchasing contract for fresh chip. Economic performance was considered using net present value over a 25-year plantation lifetime. The full-stem scenario provided the highest economic return over its lifetime with an average yearly net present value of £497 ha−1 (in £ sterling). This system was then considered for integration into a typical dairy farm, assuming 5 % land usage and including government grants for establishing riparian zones. The result was a drop in value of £28 ha−1 yr−1 compared to a dairy-only scenario; however, per litre of milk the farm employing willow coppice riparian buffer strips outperformed a typical dairy farm both environmentally and economically. Further analysis considered a novel approach that included payments for ecosystem services in the economic analysis. This analysis found that the implementation of government payments for ecosystem services (nutrient removal) increased the economic return of the willow coppice riparian buffer system by £400 ha−1 yr−1, resulting in minimal impact on the return from dairy land.

Optimizing payment for ecosystem services in a drinking water source watershed by quantifying the supply and demand of soil retention service

Payment for ecosystem services (PES) plays a vital role in coordinating the relationship between ecosystem services supply and demand sides in watersheds. The upstream soil retention service brings significant off-site benefits to the downstream stakeholders. To fill gaps in the supply and demand of soil retention services for PES, we developed an approach that combined long-term observation data, hydrological model, and cost-benefit analysis. We applied and demonstrated the approach in a typical drinking water source watershed. By constructing the relationship between water clarity and the demanded trophic state, we identified the demand for soil retention as the suspended sediment concentration ≤4.4 mg L−1 at a transboundary station. Then, a well-calibrated hydrological model was applied to simulate the downstream sediment reduction under 36 upstream reforestation scenarios. Results showed that cropland reforestation effectively reduced downstream sediment loads by up to 37.8%. However, the efficiency of cropland reforestation for soil retention supply was influenced by its area, slope, and location. The cost-benefit analysis revealed that the feasible sediment reduction was 11,000 t per year, and the market-equilibrium price was 5800 CNY (Chinese Yuan, 7 CNY equaled 1 USD in 2020) per ton. The downstream side should pay 64 million CNY annually for soil retention provided by reforesting at upstream sloping cropland of 8° or above. This study suggested that the approach was helpful for integrating soil retention service supply and demand at a watershed scale to support PES decision-making.

Collective payments for ecosystem services: a counterpart of commodification and privatization trends in nature conservation?

Payments for ecosystem services (PES) gained an increasing importance in science and politics within the last decades. Although the enthusiasm about PES is particularly high in Environmental Economics, opponents criticize the market-based character of PES and the associated commodification as well as privatization trends. By means of a systematic literature review we aim at shedding light on the complex and controversial debate about how to define commodification and related privatization processes and how they are linked to PES outcomes. We do so by setting a particular focus on the potentials and challenges of community-based and collective PES (C-PES), also in contrast to PES targeting land under private land tenure (P-PES). Our results reveal that C-PES show promising results when targeting local communities with a high level of social capital. However, there is a lack of studies that systematically assess the relations between different degrees of commodification and the ecological and social outcome of PES programs. For this reason, we provide a new conceptual framework of commodification by highlighting two interrelated spheres, where PES-related commodification processes take place: The first sphere relates to the commodification of ES-providing land, which greatly depends on the land tenure regime in place. The second sphere addresses the commodification of ecosystem services (ES). Our review indicates that C-PES show rather low degrees of commodification in the first sphere because the ES-providing land is often less embedded into private land markets. This is due to often missing alienation rights, more complex decision-making processes, and a potentially lower profit-orientation of the landowners. Empirical long-term studies are needed to investigate changes in both spheres of commodification over time, their potential interactions, and how they affect the outcome of C-PES and P-PES programs.

Payment for ecosystem services (PES): a holistic tool for sustainable forest management-a case study from Pakistan.

Economic valuation of ecosystem services is a new concept in forest management. Economic valuation provides basis for payment for ecosystem services (PES). Therefore, objective of this study was to evaluate eco-tourism and carbon stock services of the Maindam valley, District Swat, Pakistan. For the carbon stock calculation, a sample size of 155 plots of 0.1 hectare (Ha) was taken using preliminary survey at 95% confidence interval and 10% allowable error. The data for tourism services was collected from owners of all the hotels, 100 tourists and key informants of the area at 10% sampling intensity on pretested questionnaire for twenty years period (1997-2017). Results showed that Miandam valley has carbon stock worth US$ 16,306,000 while the value of eco-tourism was US$ 1,578,458 on annual basis. The results also showed that trend of tourism has drastically declined after the 9/11 incident for foreigners and locals and the situation was further deteriorated during the era of Talibanization or militancy from 2008-2011. This study recommends implementation of PES strategy at the rate of 5%, thus a total of US$ 78,922 can be earned from eco-tourism and carbon crediting in the study area annually, which could play important role in sustainable forest management.

Evaluating the impacts of Payment for Ecosystem Services (water supplies) in an agricultural system of the Brazilian Cerrado.

In this study, we investigated the effects of the Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) in an agrisystem located in the Brazilian Midwest. This PES benefits the owners of rural properties that encompass springs that feed the Abóbora River microbasin which supplies water for consumption in the city of Rio Verde, Goiás. We evaluated the percentage of native vegetation cover around the springs of the watercourses and also estimated its change over time (2005, 2011 and 2017). The vegetation cover of the Areas of Permanent Preservation (APP) increased by 2.24% on average, seven years after the implantation of the PES. There was little difference in the change of vegetation cover maintained over the study years (2005, 2011, and 2017), however, the vegetation cover increased for 17 springs, decreased for 11 springs, and was completely degraded for other two. To improve the performance of this PES, we recommend (1) expanding the program to include the APPs surrounding the springs, together with the legal reserves of each property, (2) implementing measures to ensure that properties are environmentally adequate, (3) including the properties in the Brazilian Rural Environment Register (CAR), and (4) obtaining environmental licensing for the activities undertaken within the Abóbora River basin.

Everyday Environmental Justice in Payments for Ecosystem Services: Insights From Two Protected Areas in China

Everyday Environmental Justice in Payments for Ecosystem Services: Insights From Two Protected Areas in China

Adapting ecosystem restoration for sustainable development in a changing world

Adapting ecosystem restoration for sustainable development in a changing world