Payments For Environmental Services Implementation Research Articles

Evidências quali-quantitativas da qualidade da água por um processo de governança com pagamento por serviços ambientais em uma bacia hidrográfica de abastecimento de água

ABSTRACT For the efficient management of water and soil conservation, quality and quantity aspects must be integrated. However, there is still a lack of studies with this synergy including governance processes. The present research evaluated for ten years (2010-2019) quality and quantity aspects of a water supply source and the Payment for Environmental Services (PES) implementation to investigate public policy efficiency and its effect on water resources. We used statistical analyses for comparing means, graphical analyses (trends, time series, duration curve, standard deviation), and correlation and multivariate analysis to evaluate parameters’ behavior after the PES implementation. Results showed that there was a significant reduction in turbidity, COD, and total suspended solids. Furthermore, water flow rate, total nitrogen, total phosphorus, and dissolved oxygen remained stable after the implementation of conservation practices, as confirmed by the multivariate analysis. Water quality index (WQI) between “Good” and “Great” and chemical and hydrobiological parameters below the maximum allowed values reflected on the water quality maintenance. Participative decision-making based on dialogue between stakeholders and trust in PES were key elements for success.

Assessing Payment for Ecosystem Services of Panchase Conservation Area: Exploring the Potentialities

Adoption of “Payment for Environmental Services (PES)” scheme can be one option to protect the forest area and the Phewa Lake for sustaining the existing benefits. The study was carried out to explore the adoption possibility of PES mechanism in Panchase Conservation Area (PCA) for the sustainable management of the forest and the Phewa Lake. The study was focused on people of Bhadaure and Chapakot villages of Panchase area as upstream dwellers and different downstream communities benefitted from the lake. Major environmental services were prioritized for both upstream and downstream dwellers and the major impacts on the downstream communities were also found out. Multiple linear regression model was adopted to assess the factors affecting the downstream communities for providing suitable incentives to upstream dwellers. Watershed protection was found to be the major environmental service prioritized by both upstream and downstream respondents. Most of the people of both upstream and downstream communities are willing to accept (WTA) and pay (WTP) for the protection of the prioritized environmental service. Hotel communities were seem to have highest WTP followed by boating, fishing and agricultural communities. Also, Income, education, household member and residential distance were statistically significant to WTP of downstream beneficiary group. Based on the WTP of the downstream beneficiary groups, it is concluded that the area is potential for initiating PES mechanism for the sustainable conservation of watershed and regulate benefits on sustained basis. Education based activities should be organized to enhance participation of more beneficiaries and upstream dwellers whereas proper policy mechanism should be formulated for assuring community people before the implementation of PES.

Additionality and Leakage Resulting from PES Implementation? Evidence from the Ecuadorian Amazonia

Payments for Environmental Services (PES) are instruments which seem well suited for forest conservation. However, their impact on reducing deforestation might be weakened by negligible additionality and leakage effects; the first refers to the low variation in net deforestation rates even in the absence of PES, and the second refers to the displaced deforestation behavior to other areas not covered by PES. For the case of Ecuador, we examine both issues by assessing the historical deforestation trend of selected PES-enrolled areas and that of their adjacent areas to identify deforestation patterns before and after PES implementation. We analyze the additional effect of PES on reducing deforestation by comparison to a baseline as well as to comparable reference sites at two different spatial scales. We also analyze potential leakage effects of PES by comparing deforestation development in adjacent areas. We show that PES has achieved marginally low conservation impacts in enrolled areas with an average difference in net deforestation rates of 0.02 percent points over a period of 28 years. Overall, PES-enrolled areas depict lower annual net deforestation rates than unenrolled areas, albeit at a negligible rate, and there is also some evidence that deforestation decreased in adjacent areas after PES implementation. Additionally, there exists a statistically significant linear increasing deforestation trend in adjacent areas as distance increases from the PES-enrolled area. Our empirical results, however, raise the suspicion that the choice of PES-enrolled areas might have been influenced by self-selection.

Gender and payments for environmental services: impacts of participation, benefit-sharing and conservation activities in Viet Nam

AbstractThere has been a rapid expansion in the use of payments for environmental services (PES) as a key conservation finance policy. However, there is insufficient understanding of how gender can affect PES implementation and outcomes. We present results from a case study in Viet Nam, where a national PES programme has been in place for a decade. Through panel household survey data, focus groups and interviews, we examined how women have been involved in PES policies, what the impacts have been on decision-making by men and women, participation rates and use of PES income over time, and the potential conservation outcomes. Our research confirms that resource use varies between men and women, and changes in access rights can fall disproportionately on women. Participation in PES has been lower for female-headed households and for women within male-headed households, although gradually more equitable participation has evolved within households. Female-headed households reported expending more yearly effort on PES activities despite protecting less land, and also increased their conservation activities over time as they presumably became more familiar with PES. Use of income from PES also showed differences between male and female-led households, with men more likely to spend funds on non-essential goods. Within households, although men initially decided how to spend PES money, decision-making has become more equitable over time. We conclude with some recommendations on how to increase attention to gender in PES projects and future research to improve outcomes.

Factors affecting payments for environmental services (PES) implementation in the Garang watershed management

Watersheds has essential functions in human life and other living things that include hydrological and ecological functions. However, the number of critical watershed conditions are increasing and resulting in the degradation of the watershed function. The number of critical watersheds according to the 2009 forestry ministerial decree is 108 watersheds including Garang watershed. The landscape degradation of the upper areas will significantly affect hydrological conditions in downstream areas. Payment for environmental services (PES) is one of the alternatives of watershed management that combines interests in the upstream - downstream watersheds, especially in the form of water distribution. This study aims to identify important factors or criteria needed, especially related to the water environment services as a part of the integrated watershed management. The qualitative and quantitative method was used in this study with descriptive and CVM analysis used through the review literature, interview and survey. The analysis identifies important factors for PES in a sustainable watershed management which include its context, actors, financing systems, operations, and monitoring evaluation. The study also shows that some factors need improvement such as context (local regulation), actors (public understanding of the PES mechanism), operation (planning design), and low willingness to pay for PES implementation in Garang watershed. By properly defining the criteria of PES, watershed management can be managed in a way that the upper and downstream areas can be linked in an integrated way.

Potentials of Participatory Mapping to Approach Perceived Community Limits in the Central Andes of Ecuador

<p>W artykule przedstawiono, w jaki sposób mapowanie partycypacyjne może przyczynić się do zrozumienia lokalnych znaczeń w zakresie ograniczeń społeczności i postrzegania bezpieczeństwa posiadania wśród rolno-pasterskich społeczności Andów, które uczestniczą w programie płatności z tytułu świadczeń na rzecz ekosystemu (PES). Literatura przedmiotu wskazuje, że zwiększenie bezpieczeństwa posiadania może być dodatkowym elementem uczestnictwa w takich programach. Autorzy skupili się na programie ochrony „Socio Páramo” w celu przeanalizowania, w jaki sposób włączenie gruntów do tego programu wpłynęło na kwestię postrzegania limitów oraz bezpieczeństwa wśród lokalnych społeczności. Zostały zrealizowane dwa studia przypadków na wysoko położonych pastwiskach (páramo) w Ekwadorze. Najpierw użyto map szkicowych, aby dowiedzieć się, w jaki sposób obszar wpisany w program zmodyfi kował struktury przestrzenne terytorium społeczności i jaki typ ograniczeń znajduje się w danej strukturze. Następnie przeprowadzono spacery narracyjne. Badanie ujawniło, że: a) tytuł własności gruntów uzyskany w ramach wdrażania programu jest postrzegany jako warunek wstępny uczestnictwa w programie; b) kwestia wiedzy na temat ograniczeń społeczności páramo jest głównym problemem w przypadku osób starszych, którzy uważają taką wiedzę za kluczowy aspekt, jeśli chodzi o utrzymanie spójności danej społeczności. Wnioskujemy, że mapowanie partycypacyjne jest skutecznym narzędziem służącym wyjaśnianiu obaw dotyczących ograniczeń, zasad i kontroli użytkowania gruntów oraz trwałości życia wspólnotowego, czyli elementów, które należy uwzględnić przy wdrażaniu PES.</p>

Possibility of Harnessing Social Capital to Support the Development of Payment for Environmental Services in Small-Scale Forests: A Case of Jatigede Catchment Area

The concept of social capital has gained attention as a source of support in implementing Payment for Environmental Services (PES). Environmental services, in the context of better water yields in watersheds, is affected by good land cover conditions of forests including small-scale private owned forests. Although some research results indicate that private owned forests are more economic oriented than environmental functions, but its existing social capital can be harnessed to implement PES in small-scale forests. The aim of this study was to analyze the potential of social capital as a source of support in the implementation of PES. The research was conducted by survey method. This research revealeds that the level of trust in local community leaders is very high. This role models can be an key entry point for realizing the PES scheme by strengthening the common knowledge of environmental benefits of small-scale forests and strengthen community norms related to the protection of water resources. Leadership and networking capabilities of the community institution leader give a real influence in collaboration between groups.

Let’s not Miss the Forest for the Trees: A reply to Pinto et al. Forests 2017, 8(7), 230

We welcome the comments of Pinto et al. [1] to our article [2]. These comments provide an opportunity to further discuss the general objective of our paper, and also to respond to the specific concerns they raise about the outcomes of the Amazon Environmental Research Institute (IPAM) Sustainable Settlements’ project. Our response underscores three points. Firstly, it is important to restate that the main objective of our analysis is not to evaluate the performance of payments for environmental services (PES) of any specific project in the Amazon. Instead, our contribution aims to present a discursive analysis of REDD+ in the Brazilian Amazon (and possibly elsewhere, to the extent that there are common elements in how REDD+ is presented and talked about elsewhere). We used six examples to illustrate our general argument, of which IPAM’s project is one. Thus, the analysis in our paper is a conceptual and critical theory-building effort, not a theory-testing attempt. Pinto et al.’s comment seems to elide the main thrust of our contribution, and instead focuses on a specific empirical aspect of one of the examples regarding which we in fact provide relatively little discussion or detail (more on this below). Little if any of the work on REDD+ or on PES is attentive to insights from Foucault’s oeuvre, or to the kinds of analytical directions that work on governmentality opens and makes available. We must therefore clarify that their summary statement about our paper, being an interesting analysis to evaluate the performance of payment for environmental services (PES) initiatives in the region (Amazon) is a basic misrepresentation of what the paper does. Secondly, the information we provide in Table 2/on which the larger part of their comment focuses/is not about the performance of REDD+ or PES in the initiatives. Rather, we focus on the needs (i.e., definition of local wellbeing; what is needed to reduce deforestation), hopes and worries of smallholders in relation to REDD+ linked interventions. Smallholders were directly asked about what is wellbeing to them, and about their hopes, as well as their fears, in relation to REDD+ and the initiatives being implemented in the different cases used as examples [3]. In this sense, Table 2 data are not related to the implementation of PES specifically. We indeed state clearly on p.13 of our paper that adequate evidence of PES outcomes in increasing the wellbeing of smallholders in IPAM’s initiative is not yet available. Additionally, the fact that just a small proportion of respondents are now participating in the project does not change how they perceive REDD+ interventions or what they require in order to reduce deforestation or increase their wellbeing. It even raises the question of why they have decided to not be part of the project anymore. Moreover, in this specific case, smallholders had previously participated in the first federal PES program in Brazil/the so called Proambiente. In fact, their participation creates the grounds to try to understand their perceptions and experiences. Investigating their understandings is likely to be useful in thinking about the heterogeneous constructions of subjects, as well as their motivations, interests, and responses to

The PES Conceit: Revisiting the Relationship between Payments for Environmental Services and Neoliberal Conservation

Payments for Environmental Services (PES) has become a popular means to neoliberalize biodiversity conservation throughout the world. Yet research on PES is increasingly focused on debating exactly how neoliberal programmes really are, documenting complexities in PES implementation and concluding that few programmes are very market-based in practice. While we agree that ideal neoliberal implementation of PES does not and cannot exist, we argue that focusing (only) on micro-politics misunderstands the importance of analysing PES as a form of neoliberal conservation. The question is not just whether PES is innately neoliberal but how it functions within a broader neoliberal political economy. By focusing on the overarching governance and power structures that gave rise to PES in the first place, we more clearly see what we call ‘the PES conceit’, namely that the approach implicitly accepts neoliberal capitalism as both the problem and the solution to the ecological crisis. This strategy is not only contradictory but also commonly fails to achieve intended outcomes, falling far short of conservation objectives while also often exacerbating socioeconomic inequality. This problematic conceit, we conclude, cannot be addressed through only micro-oriented studies; it demands connecting micro- and macro political economic analyses to confront broader neoliberal power structures.

PES hydrosocial territories: de-territorialization and re-patterning of water control arenas in the Andean highlands

This article explores how payment for environmental services (PES) approaches envision, design and actively constitute new hydro-social territories by reconfiguring local water control arenas. PES aims to conserve watershed ecosystems by repatterning and commoditizing the link between ‘water service providers’ upstream and ‘water consuming’ populations downstream. Two case illustrations from the Ecuadorian highlands are used to clarify how PES implementation – though presented as if it were apolitical and neutral – weakens locally crafted hydrosocial territories in favour of dominant interests. If consolidated, this depoliticized PES implementation fosters the consolidation of new (market-environmentalist) territories, subjects and interactions, further marginalizing the less powerful upstream communities’ livelihood strategies.

A Perspective on the Payment for Environmental Services' Implementation in the Brantas Watershed

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'Growing together': transnational policy networks and environmental policy change in Costa Rica

Costa Rica's Payments for Environmental Services (PES) has been held as a promising option for valuing environmental services in developing countries. We undertook a systematic evaluation of academic and grey literatures and used narrative analysis and policy transfer evaluation to identify the global and local interactions that underpinned the successful implementation of PES. Our work shows that PES was an example of 'growing together' unique to Costa Rica and resulted from complex sharing of policy ideas, knowledge, and institutional and financial arrangements over time. We show that Costa Rica's PES represents a long–term developmental process rather than a simple and straightforward example of policy transfer. We conclude that the development and implementation of programmes valuing environmental services requires a set of underlying social, political, and economic conditions as well as evolving interactions between global and domestic policy arenas specific to each particular nation.

The Potential of Social Capital in the Implementation of Payment for Environmental Services in Tawang Retention Pond

A high level of space and land utilization in the city of Semarang, Indonesia, has caused degradation of natural resources, both terrestrial and aquatic. In particular, the impact of flooding and high spring tides has worsened over time. Payment for Environmental Services (PES) is now being developed globally as a market-based instrument to attribute value to ecosystem, environmental and social services provided by natural resources, recognizing the value of social capital. Local networks and communities play important roles and have positive impacts on economic welfare and local development. The aim of this study is to analyse the potential of social capital as source of support in implementation of PES in Tawang Retention Pond. This research use mixed methods (both qualitative and quantitative approaches) to produce a more complete pictureby combining and comparing informationfrom different sources.The result shows that the characteristics of the community surrounding Tawang retention pond is included in a type of Bridging Social Capital which is characterized by a sense of spontaneous (reciprocity), mutual trust and social networks such as members of the SHGs (Self-Help Groups) who indulge in the activities of gathering, social funds that bridge the poor to join a self-help community groups. This qualitative result is strengthened by the results of correlation analysis where there is a significant correlation between social capital and PES with a coefficient of 59.5%. Thismeans social capital is potentially an important factor in the application of PES.