Payments For Ecosystem Services Research Articles

Recurrent forest fires, emission of atmospheric pollutants (GHGs) and degradation of tropical dry deciduous forest ecosystem services

Forest fires threaten to biodiversity, ecosystem productivity, multiple ecosystem services, and it influences the emissions of large amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. This scientific study has been conducted at Ayodhya hill range of dry deciduous forest of Chota Nagpur plateau (India).The principal objectives of this research are (1) to measure the terrestrial ecosystem productivity by Vegetation Photosynthesis Model (VPM); (2) to estimate the greenhouse gases (GHGs) emission through forest fire following IPCC guidelines; and (3) to quantify the ecosystem service value and degradation of ecosystem services (ESs) by specific indices and focus group discussions (FGDs). Results show that biophysical, climatic and environmental factors notably affect the growth of ESs. A significant reduction of net primary production (NPP) and biomass has been measured in fire month (100.71 and 223.59 gC m−2 month−1) and values of spectral indices also show negative trend during fire month (-0.1279 to −0.2104) respectively. Total 294.15 g, 1.44 g, 21.03 g, 0.0099 g and 0.0231 g of CO2, CH4, CO, NO2, and NOX have been emitted respectively through forest fire from this hill range during forest burning period (March 2021). This study also revealed that average (18.50%) forest dependency or relative forest income (RFI) has been fallen in the recent years due to recurrent forest fires, execution of different developmental works and deforestation. The effective management of forest resources (through payment for ESs and willingness to pay approaches) is highly necessary in strengthening the rural economy and welfare of indigenous tribal people.

Direct and Indirect Payment for Ecosystem Services in Bac Kan Province, Vietnam: Are Households More Satisfied When There Is No State Involvement?

Direct and Indirect Payment for Ecosystem Services in Bac Kan Province, Vietnam: Are Households More Satisfied When There Is No State Involvement?

Incentives, Ecosystem and Communities: A Possible Incentive Mechanism for Mid Hills of Nepal

Payment for Ecosystem Service (PES) is one of the instruments increasingly used and recognized as a tool to sustaining ecosystem services flow while contributing to local livelihoods of the resource dependent communities. It is described as a free market-based approach to conservation where ecosystem service consumer pays to the producers/managers. However, a ‘’true PES’’ based on free market is either difficult to establish, or hardly existed in practice. Several arguments resonance against purely market-based PES schemes that commoditize ecosystem or nature under neoliberalism and does not necessarily benefit the poor. Our study in the Hindu Kush Himalaya, thus suggests to shift from a purely market-based mechanism to incentive-based mechanism for ensuring long term benefits to local mountain communities by rewarding their efforts on managing and restoring the ecosystems. We also argue that the concept of PES, if well integrated into the policy instrument could effectively ensure continued supply of ecosystem goods and services in Nepal Himalaya.

Incentivizing endemic biodiversity conservation under a warming climate through market-based instruments

ABSTRACT This study investigates the potential of utilising payment for ecosystem services (PES) led incentives to support the conservation of endemic biodiversity and the development of alternative livelihood opportunities, specifically through ecotourism, in regions facing water scarcity. It highlights the ability of PES programmes to not only generate additional income for communities but also encourage land use practices that safeguard biodiversity and enhance water recharge. Moreover, when social norms adapt and transform as water availability improves and PES incomes increase, it may promote the emergence of community-driven ecotourism ventures. Using the case of the lateritic plateaus in the Konkan region of Maharashtra, India, we design a dynamic optimisation model of the local community's utility maximisation problem under land use choices that could potentially provide them with water security and alternative livelihoods through ecotourism. The findings indicate that when PES income is substantial, community norms and social enterprises undergo a synergistic transformation, thereby offering livelihood resilience in the context of a warming climate. Moreover, as rising temperatures diminish the productivity of conventional land use choices like mango orchards, timely intervention through PES programmes can effectively avert an irreparable degradation of the lateritic plateaus while ensuring sustainable water resources in the long run.

Who benefits from payments for ecosystem services? Policy lessons from a forest carbon sink program in China

To secure effective and sustainable climate change policies, it is of the utmost importance to create synergies between socioeconomic and environmental development goals. Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) programs are being promoted as a suitable mechanism furthering, among others, carbon offsetting and poverty reduction in ecologically fragile areas of developing countries. Rural households are compensated for the loss of property and business income through income transfers and potential job opportunities connected to environmental programs. While the potential pro-poor effects of such policies are well recognized, the impact of PES on extremely poor households has not been systematically reviewed. Drawing on a pooled cross-sectional dataset of 5225 households in the Province of Sichuan, this paper analyzes the income and distributional effects among poor households in rural China participating in a forest carbon sink (FCS) program. To be able to make causal inferences, we employ an Instrumental Variable (IV) approach to control for potential endogeneity and self-selection. Our results indicate a strong need to adjust the PES program: While moderately poor rural households benefit from program participation, extremely poor rural households, in fact, suffer net losses. The main reason is that income reduction resulting from limited access to forest resources is compensated mainly via wage income from participating in forest tending work. Extremely poor households with low labor ability cannot make use of these job opportunities, and thus they'll not only fail to benefit but even incur losses from a PES program. While PES programs can be a viable tool for poverty reduction in underdeveloped regions due to their overall pro-poorness, they need to be accompanied by additional benefits for extremely poor rural households to avoid net losses among marginalized population groups especially.

Struggles for recognitional justice through payments for ecosystem services contracts in Ecuador’s Andes

Programs based upon payments for ecosystem services may carry pervasive attitudes, ideas, and language that confront pre-existing institutional arrangements for land management and local concepts of socio-environmental relationships. Through an empirical case study of a water trust fund payments for ecosystem services model in the Ecuadorian Andes, this research examines contracts as an important component of conservation incentive projects that can reveal contention over the representation of human-environment relationships and environmental governance institutions. The study highlights how neoliberal visions of environmental management are challenged and reworked by communities in an effort to gain justice through recognition and visibility for pre-existing collective land management practices. While this analysis demonstrates how underlying neoliberal assumptions about socioenvironmental relationships may inform water trust fund conservation interventions, it also shows the role of local agency in co-constituting landscape management outcomes and underscore the unevenness of neoliberalism present in the various components of a payments for ecosystem services model operating at different sites and scales.

Incentives, Rewards or Both in Payments for Ecosystem Services: Drawing a Link Between Farmers' Preferences and Biodiversity Levels

Agri-environmental-climate schemes provide payments for ecosystem services by compensating farmers to implement management actions or obtain ecological results. To compare farmers' preferences for action-based schemes, result-based schemes, or a hybrid, we conduct a discrete choice experiment in a case study from Germany. We elicited farmers' preferences for alternative grassland biodiversity payments through an in-person survey and measured farm ecological performance using a biodiversity index. Our findings indicate that farmers are more reluctant to accept action-based schemes. However, the payment mechanism is not the only driver of farmers' decision-making. The applicability of the prescribed management practice to the farming system, and the achievability of the outcome, are also key for adoption. Intensive farmers are more likely to choose hybrid solutions than extensive farms, which prefer a result-based approach. Farms with higher biodiversity tend to accept result-based schemes more frequently and are willing to enrol a greater share of their land. Our findings suggest a potential lack of additionality, but also that farmers' awareness about their farms' ecological potential influences the adoption of result-based payments. To encourage farmers to participate and enrol more land in these schemes, policy-makers should tailor the payment-mechanism to different farmers and provide on-site technical advice.

Do individual PES buyers care about additionality and free-riding? A choice experiment

Based on a survey of the French population, this study investigates consumer preferences for forest ecosystem services (FES) provision towards efficiency and equity in the context of additionality, and differences in willingness to pay (WTP) for FES between a tax-based and a donation-based payments for ecosystem services (PES) scheme. We show that consumers prefer equity to strict additionality adherence, with this preference being significantly stronger among females. However, consumer preferences are heterogeneous, and respondents with a closer connection to forests express the opposite preference. Regarding WTP, we find no systematic difference between the two payment vehicles, though WTP does vary depending on how respondents perceive potential free-riding. When considering that non-contributors also benefit from a particular PES scheme, a small group perceived this as unfair and reacted by reducing their contribution. A second, significantly larger group interpreted this as an opportunity to contribute to the common good and showed a higher WTP, indicating a markedly altruistic attitude towards FES provision in French society. We conclude by discussing the role of altruism in PES, the dilemma posed by the partial economic and legal incompatibilities of additionality and equity, and the environmental impact of environmental credits when credit buyers do not account for additionality.

Agro-extractivism and neoliberal conservation: campesino abandonment in the Boyacá páramos, Colombia

Colombia is in the midst of an important shift: trying to balance its society and economy in the wake of the 2016 peace-agreement, with protection and restoration of important ecological regions. The mountainous Andean páramos ecosystem and paramuno/paramero campesinos of Boyacá have found themselves at the centre of some of these challenges. The páramos and their people – predominantly socio-economically precarious campesino farmers – are facing conservation policies to delimit, protect and control their livelihoods. Using a combination of qualitative methods, including interviews and participant-observation, to foreground campesinos' experiences, this paper explores the socio-environmental tensions emerging amidst this context of conservation. This paper argues that the delimitation process is constitutive of neoliberal conservation, which prioritises land sparing, ecosystem service payments and other ‘green business’. Furthermore, the delimitation process does not address the structural factors driving environmental degradation in the páramos, which is linked to an agro-extractivist model. Over recent decades, campesinos have been driven into increasingly agro-extractivist farming which encourages specialisation, monocropping, intensification, and dependence on external inputs. Spatially this has pushed them up to expand the agricultural frontier, as well as pushed them down within and out of the páramos and farming livelihoods. Now additionally squeezed by conservation restrictions, the delimitation is exacerbating historic inequality and mistrust. As a mountainous, small-scale farming case-study, in a conflict setting, this is a novel and unique addition to agro-extractivism research. Analysing the delimitation process through neoliberal conservation and agro-extractivism provides a systemic approach, which highlights the inconsistencies and contradictions of the policies promoted in the páramos. The paper thus demonstrates how the neoliberal conservation agenda is not only compatible with but integral to the agro-extractivist landscape, as it compensates for environmental spill-overs without questioning the prevailing market model. Rather than seek more socio-ecologically just farming practices, it opens new frontiers for capital and compromises socio-environmental peace.

MARCHI: A serious game for participatory governance of ecosystem services in multiple-use protected areas

The management of multiple-use reserves is challenging due to trade-offs between the conservation of natural capital, the provision of different ecosystem services (ES) and the capture of its benefits, as well as a poor governance. In this context, the potential of serious games for simultaneous training of decision-makers and informing researchers is of special interest. Here we present MARCHI, a serious computer game inspired by a MAB Biosphere Reserve from Argentina, through which we evaluated player's preferences for investing annual budgets in different management instruments, and player's ability to feedback their investing decisions on the outcomes from previous games. The main objective for MARCHI players is to maximize the sustainable capture of benefits from natural capital under unpredictable changes in the rate of natural capital loss. Different social actors played the game in their simulated role of members of a management committee. Each game comprises 15 consecutive runs, and each run is an opportunity for players to allocate limited annual funds to Monitoring and Prospective, Control, Payment for ES (PES), Access to ES, and Land Use Planning. MARCHI was able to induce significant and relevant changes of initial preferences for conventional conservation instruments (Control) towards instruments that are little known and practically not applied in the country, such as the PES, or still poorly prioritized in the context of protected natural areas like the access to the ES. Mean Learning Index, an indicator of players ability to improve their game scores along successive games, was positive and significantly different from zero (18.29% ± SE = 4.46%). Final players' performance was not related to their allocation of time to reviewing tutorials, but to their time spent with a review screen after each game. This study illustrates the utility of serious games as a research-action tool for the participatory governance of ES.

Rawls in the mangrove: Perceptions of justice in nature‐based solutions projects

Abstract Adapting to and mitigating against climate change requires the protection and expansion of natural carbon sinks, especially ecosystems with exceptional carbon density such as mangrove forests (an example of ‘blue carbon’). Projects that do this are called ‘nature‐based solutions’ (NbS). International norms regulating NbS stipulate the importance of justice, in contrast with some of the history and practice in wider conservation. However, what justice means and how it manifests in practice remain contentious. Selling carbon credits on the voluntary market is a growing source of funding for NbS. A large literature examines the ethics, economics, science and politics of such payments for ecosystem services (PES), including for blue carbon. The interpretations of justice in this context are particularly contentious, but operational blue carbon projects have not been examined from a justice perspective. Here we report on a case study involving the first blue carbon project, Mikoko Pamoja, and its sister project Vanga Blue Forest, both based in Kenya. We consider how justice is conceived by local participants and beneficiaries, using interviews, focus groups and participant observation to collect data, as well as by international stakeholders and in relevant governing documents and policy. We compare these perceptions with expectations and critiques derived a priori from the literature, including a classic thought experiment that influential justice philosopher John Rawls called the ‘original position’. In contrast to high‐level policy and much of the literature, but in common with Rawls, local stakeholders emphasised distributional aspects of justice. Locally situated interpretations of contentious issues such as elite capture and commodification differed markedly from common interpretations in the literature. Our work emphasises the importance of situating abstract concepts in their local contexts when evaluating justice in NbS projects. It shows how narratives advocating technical precision and economic efficiency in NbS can militate against transparency and agency at a local level and emphasises the critical importance of benefit sharing that is perceived to be fair. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

Combining Markowitz Portfolio Model and Simplex Algorithm to Achieve Sustainable Land Management Objectives: Case Study of Rivadavia Banda Norte, Salta (Argentina)

Land use planning involves making an appropriate decision and selecting a use over other alternatives. A step-by-step methodology was developed to evaluate the optimal combination of regional land use technologies and the spatial allocation. For a realistic approach, a case study (specifically Rivadavia department, Salta, Argentina) is considered, which has deforestation problems and the advance of intensive and extractive agriculture. Five management techniques are considered for the area: precision agriculture (T1), advance livestock farming (T2), payment for ecosystem service (T3), traditional agriculture–livestock farming—Criollo (T4), and traditional forest management—Wichi (T5). A land evaluation on a GIS model is carried out to obtain the land suitability for each technique. Analyzing local experts’ opinions using the Markowitz portfolio methodology allows us to obtain an optimal combination of techniques. Finally, a Simplex method analysis linked with the GIS is performed to allocate the five techniques over the territory maximizing land suitability and in compliance with percent surface assignments. The result assigns each GIS polygon to a specific technique, reaching optimal land suitability in 92% of the territory. Natural capital and social attributes had a significant and complex impact on technology choice, but objective and optimized approaches in their allocation were possible and provides valuable information to guide public policies.

Psychological distance and physical distance induced residents' heterogeneous willingness to pay for transboundary watershed ecosystem services in the Wei River Basin, China.

Under the framework of payment for transboundary watershed ecosystem services (ESs), identifying midstream and downstream residents' preference and willingness to pay (WTP) for ESs provided by the upstream is crucial for sustainable watershed management. The residents' preferences and WTP are not evenly distributed within the watershed. This study uses a choice experiment assessing the spatial impact of physical distance (including residents' watershed location and distance to waterbody) and psychological distance on residents' preference and WTP for the Wei River Basin ESs. The results showed that midstream and downstream residents' preference and WTP for the ecological attributes have a significant distance-decay effect, either the physical distance to the upstream exit or physical and psychological distance to the waterbody. However, compared with the residents in the midstream, the residents downstream have a stronger preference and WTP for upstream ecological governance. Besides, the distance-decay effect differs between urban and rural residents. There is a psychological distance-decay effect in rural residents' preference for water quality and a physical distance-decay effect in their preference for water quantity, entertainment area, and cost; there is a physical distance decay effect in urban residents' preference for entertainment areas. The above differences lead to heterogeneity in WTP and total economic value (TEV) for ESs. When calculating the TEV of the transboundary watershed ES and charging the public, policymakers should consider the location of the residents, the physical and psychological distance to the water body, and the difference between urban and rural areas.

Comparing Stakeholders’ Economic Values for the Institution of Payments for Ecosystem Services in Protected Areas

In order to maintain the provision of high-quality ecosystem services in wetlands, it is important to protect the ecosystems through the designation of protected areas. However, the process of designating protected areas can potentially give rise to social conflicts or problems by the acquisition of private lands. As an alternative, the institution of payments for ecosystem services (PES) can be a more viable solution. This study intends to propose reasonable contract standards for PES that consider the preferences of both beneficiaries and providers, which are necessary for the successful introduction of PES in wetland protection areas in Korea. In doing so, we employed choice experiments to estimate the willingness to pay (WTP) and willingness to accept (WTA) of different stakeholders. Our findings indicate that both beneficiaries and providers had a positive perception of PES contract terms. Moreover, the WTP and WTA values were comparable, suggesting that the unit price of PES could be determined within a reasonable range. These results can serve as a foundation for acquiring additional funds required for the introduction of PES in wetland protected areas.

Transforming the Yardstick Used to Measure Benefits From the Farm Sector

Traditional systems of accounting for agricultural productivity focus solely on yield-based contributions and totally ignore the biodiversity and ecosystem services derived from agriculture. The study uses a framework and approaches developed under ‘The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) AgriFood ‘initiative to demonstrate the hidden values of Agri-systems through valuation of agro-ecological elements using subsidies for hidden costs and incentivizing unaccounted benefits. These unaccounted benefits could be monetized through policy and economic instruments to supplement farmers’ income. The paper recommends a mix of policy and fiscal interventions such as Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) or Remuneration of Positive Externalities (RPE), tax rebates, and subsidies which can promote sustainable agricultural practices.

Determinants and costs of strategic enrollment of landowners in a payments for ecosystem services program in a deforestation hotspot: The Argentine Chaco forest

Understanding landowners’ decisions about how much land to enroll in payments for ecosystem services (PES) programs is essential to strategically target lands for conservation, prevent forest fragmentation, and thus maintain ecosystem services. In this study, we targeted private lands surrounding and connecting public protected areas in a deforestation hotspot, the Argentine Chaco forest. We used alternatively configured PES contracts in choice experiments to understand landowners’ decisions regarding how much land to enroll in PES. We found that factors influencing decisions on how much land to enroll differ from those influencing willingness to participate in PES. The percentage of their property that landowners were willing to enroll in the program increased with higher payments and permitted land use that closely aligned with traditional land use, specifically cattle ranching under tree canopy. Contract length was important in willingness to enroll but not in amount of land enrolled. Payments required to enroll all land in our study area, and thus conserve an unfragmented landscape, exceeded the financial resources of the Argentine PES program. Designing PES to enroll private lands on smaller strategic areas, in conjunction with other conservation initiatives, would be more effective than attempting to use PES alone to conserve large landscapes.

Promoting agroforestry on sand dunes for desertification control in arid regions

This research focuses on tackling the issue of fertile land turning into desert in arid regions. It proposes a solution involving financial incentives based on payment for ecosystem services (PES) to encourage the transformation of privately owned sand dunes into agroforestry systems. Under the proposed mechanism, farmers plant Acacia nilotica trees along with pearl millet on sand dunes, which provides resilient economic returns in regions with harsh climatic conditions. In addition, acacia trees help to prevent crop damage on neighboring farms through stabilizing sand dunes and serving as shelterbelts. A dynamic optimization model of land-use decisions between open millet farming and acacia-based agroforestry derives optimal afforestation of sand dunes under varying PES payments, crop incomes, and farm size endowments. Results suggest that such agroforestry systems can be effective towards preventing the spread of desertification in arid regions. Further, PES incentives can improve agroforestry uptake as well as augment farmers’ livelihoods.

Promoting private forests for biodiversity conservation and ecosystems restoration in the Sahel region

Private forests have the potential to mitigate biodiversity loss and improve community livelihoods. However, information on the socio-ecological factors that drive their establishment and long-term management are limited. This study aimed to narrow this gap by assessing the potential of privately-owned forests in conserving biodiversity and supporting the livelihoods of communities in northern Burkina Faso. Floristic data were collected within 26 plots (900 m2 each) equally distributed between private Gourga forest, established in 1980) and its adjacent communal areas. Sixty-three (63) private landowners were interviewed in order to underpin their motivations and associated traditional knowledge and a stakeholder’s workshop was conducted to develop conservation models for private forests and participatory implementation roadmap. Findings revealed that species richness was 132 in the Gourga forest and 85 in the communal areas, highlighting the importance of private forest in species conservation. Local communities recognized the provisioning (36.46%), regulating (28.46%) and supporting (22.48%) of ecosystem services provided by the Gourga forest as motivating factors. The main barriers to their establishment and management include lack of financial resources (35%), scarce lands (26%) and human pressures (8%). The implementation of private forests will need to be supported by the enactment of a secure land tenure policy, as well as payment for ecosystem services (PES) policies, incentivizing locals. We suggest decision makers mainstream privately-owned lands into national conservation strategies and design incentives policies to motivate local communities’ engagement.

The soil organic carbon: Clay ratio in North Devon, UK: Implications for marketing soil carbon as an asset class

AbstractBuilding up stocks of agricultural soil organic carbon (SOC) can improve soil conditions as well as contribute to climate change mitigation. As a metric, the ratio of SOC to clay offers a better predictor of soil condition than SOC alone, potentially providing a benchmark for ecosystem service payments. We determined SOC:clay ratios for 50 fields in the North Devon UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve using 30 cm soil cores (divided into 0–10 cm and 10–30 cm depth samples), with soil bulk density, soil moisture and land‐use history recorded for each field. All the arable soils exceeded the minimum desirable SOC:clay ratio threshold, and the ley grassland soils generally exceeded it but were inconsistent at 10–30 cm. Land use was the primary factor driving SOC:clay ratios at 0–10 cm, with permanent pasture fields having the highest ratios followed by ley grass and then arable fields. Approximately half of the fields sampled had potential for building up SOC stock at 10–30 cm. However, at this depth, the effect of land use is significantly reduced. Within‐field variability in SOC and clay was low (coefficient of variation was ~10%) at both 0–10 cm and 10–30 cm, suggesting that SOC:clay ratios precisely characterized the fields. Due to the high SOC:clay ratios found, we conclude that there is limited opportunity to market additional carbon sequestration as an asset class in the North Devon Biosphere or similar areas. Instead, preserving existing SOC stocks would be a more suitable ecosystem service payment basis.

Critical Analysis of Payments for Ecosystem Services: Case Studies in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania

The concept of payments for ecosystem services (PES) has been identified as a promising mechanism for use in Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania, with several potential advantages and benefits, including the ability to raise new funding for landscape management, increase the efficiency of conservation approaches, secure ecosystem services (ES), and benefit poor rural communities. Starting from understanding the complex relationship between human dependence on natural resources and the environment, this paper aims to determine the degree to which the various criteria affect the success of PES that involve forests. Primary data were collected using a mixed questionnaire that was sent to institutions that had implemented PES schemes in the region and 25 case studies of PES implemented in the region from various publications were used for the secondary data. The data were mainly analyzed using comparative analysis. The results indicated that PES success is higher when bundled ES are considered, financing is medium- to long-term, implementation is at the regional level, combined transaction types (cash and in-kind) are used, and both private buyers and public sellers are involved. This paper provides a good benchmark for decision makers on PES performance and the model presented may serve as one of the tools for improving livelihoods and ensuring the achievement of sustainable development goals.