Payments For Environmental Services Programs Research Articles

Vietnam's Payments for Forest Ecosystem Services scheme's puzzling role in protecting longstanding forests as deforestation rates rise

Research on payments for ecosystem services (PES) schemes indicates that few of them in fact implement full marketization, highlighting the need for better understanding of the performance of incompletely marketized PES models. One prominent example of a PES program with limited marketization is Vietnam's Payments for Forest Environmental Services (PFES) scheme, a payment for environmental services program that has been progressively rolled out in 45 provinces since 2008. The program is notable both for its spatial extent and governance structure, collecting funds primarily from taxes on water consumption in hydroelectric dams and water companies, which are then redistributed via contracts managed at provincial and national levels to protect, restore, and plant new forests. We assess the impact of PFES's impact on longstanding forest loss using matched two-way fixed effects models and matched multi-period difference-in-differences estimation. These methods both suggest that PFES restrains forest loss at a rate comparable to or greater than state-managed protected areas but impacts are weak or nonexistent until PFES has been established for over three years. Taken together, these findings provide further evidence PES-like programs can perform well in forest protection even if they lack full marketization.

Environmental Governance in Urban Watersheds: The Role of Civil Society Organizations in Mexico

Cities depend on several watersheds’ ecosystems as the main source of ecosystem services for urban populations; however, this connection is not visible to decision-makers and citizens. The current governance structures do not contemplate the integrated management of the urban-rural territory by watershed; they establish few spaces for citizen participation, and limit the transparency of information. We use qualitative methods to analyze the work of the Civil Society Organization (CSO) in seven urbanized watersheds in Mexico, located under different socio-environmental conditions, to incorporate the watershed cities’ management processes through new spaces of collaborative governance. Through environmental education campaigns, the CSOs raised awareness of the importance of watershed ecosystems to provide water for cities, explored the willingness to pay for their conservation, and the perception of the work of municipal water utilities. By promoting alliances between social sectors, the private sector, communities, and different levels of government, the CSOs built new institutions to increase the collaborative decisions and facilitate public participation, such as Watershed Committees, Citizen Observatories for Water and Consultative Councils. The incorporation of cities and citizens in the conservation of environmental services of the watershed was promoted through payment for environmental services programs. These processes of building new forms of governance are not linear. They depend on the convening and organizational capacity of the CSOs, the political will of the municipalities and states, as well as the socioeconomic conditions of citizens. In general, our results suggest that CSOs allow the formation of alliances that strengthen collaborations among stakeholders at different scales, increase government transparency and accountability, and provide a bridge of trust between upstream and downstream users in the watersheds.

Land use dynamics under the Bolsa Floresta Program: a case study of the Uatumã Sustainable Development Reserve (Amazonas, Brazil)

ABSTRACT The effectiveness of a program of payment for environmental services (PES) in the Brazilian Amazon was analyzed through an accurate mapping of deforested areas. The Bolsa Floresta Program (BFP) in Amazonas state (Brazil) was chosen as an example of a PES program that aims to compensate farmers for their commitment to zero deforestation of primary forests while opening swiddens only in secondary vegetation areas. However, the official measurement of opened swiddens is not effective since only deforested areas larger than 6.25 ha are mapped, whereas most areas opened for cassava crops are approximately 1 ha in size. The effectiveness of the BFP was evaluated in the Uatumã Sustainable Development Reserve (SDR). We tested a methodology for mapping areas from 0.45 ha upwards that have been opened for cassava swiddens. The years 2006 (before the implementation of the BFP), 2011, 2015 and 2019 were analyzed. The results indicated that 88% of the areas opened for swiddens were between 0.45 and 6.25 ha in size. After the implantation of the BFP, the cumulative total deforested area decreased, and there was a reduction in deforested areas in primary forests. An intensification of swidden cultivation was also observed, which could cause a decline in productivity. The monitoring by land-use zoning showed that the majority of opened areas were located in intensive use zones, following the rules of the SDR management plan. The results show the efforts of local families to fulfill the BFP rules.

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.

Como se paga pelo serviço ambiental hídrico? Uma revisão das experiências brasileiras

O número de programas de Pagamento por Serviços Ambientais (PSA) voltados aos serviços hídricos tem aumentado substancialmente, inclusive no Brasil. Embora o PSA tenha o potencial de incrementar o fornecimento de recursos e serviços ambientais, os ganhos reais dependem do design dos esquemas e, no Brasil, há uma diversidade de possibilidades metodológicas para esse pagamento. Nesse sentido, a presente pesquisa sistematizou os critérios que norteiam a operacionalização dos programas brasileiros de pagamento por serviços hídricos em nível nacional e subnacional, e que atuam como filtro de seleção para áreas provedoras, para produtores beneficiados e para valores de pagamentos praticados. Apesar das múltiplas variáveis envolvidas nos programas que garantem uma abordagem interdisciplinar e sistêmica das experiências brasileiras, verificam-se padrões metodológicos comuns. Várias iniciativas priorizam: (1) agricultores familiares como público-alvo e produtores que possuam a titularidade da terra; (2) propriedades com áreas obrigatoriamente protegidas cercadas e bem conservadas ou em processo de restauração, sendo as áreas de preservação permanente prioritárias; (3) propriedades localizadas em área de relevância ambiental/hídrica e que possuam nascentes em seus limites; (4) o custo de oportunidade da terra para definição do valor do hectare pago pelas áreas destinadas ao PSA. No geral, os programas priorizam variáveis que influenciam na proteção do ciclo hidrológico como um todo, o serviço de regulação, não somente na mensuração dos ganhos no serviço de provisão da água. O instrumento de PSA representa uma grande oportunidade para adequação ambiental das propriedades rurais do Brasil, onde as iniciativas devem ser estimuladas a adotar o processo metodológico adaptativo a partir dos próprios aprendizados e das demais experiências já incorridas.

Playing Into the Hands of the Powerful: Extracting “Success” by Mining for Evidence in a Payments for Environmental Services Project in Matiguás-Río Blanco, Nicaragua

Payments for Environmental Services (PES) are premised upon the provision of monetary incentives to induce land-use practices viewed to be beneficial for advancing tropical conservation. A recent article published by Pagiola et al. in this journal claims that PES successfully transitioned land-use from agricultural use in Matiguás-Río Blanco, Nicaragua to silvopastoralism through afforestation and hence associated improvements in carbon sequestration and biodiversity conservation. Building on contrasting perspectives from peasants and local organizations in the region for more than a decade, we illustrate why viewing relations like payment provision and adoption of land-use outcomes that disregard parallel voices of implicated actors is not only analytically imprecise, but risks being anti-ecological if such a decontextualized connection is used to show evidence that tropical conservation is being advanced. We argue that the effect of payments must be contextualized with: a) increasingly globalized and expanding commodity frontiers for which PES programs may actually further advance to the detriment of tropical conservation; and b) the assumptions made in the methodological approaches adopted to determine causality. In sum, we highlight the dangers of uncritically portraying narratives of “success” to scale up investment to further proliferate decontextualized conservation projects that may not ensure long-term outcomes. We propose responding to these potential dangers through more open, horizontal, and long-term engagement on both the criteria and the consequences of defining success in tropical conservation interventions with actors whose lives are directly affected by them.

PAYMENTS FOR ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES (PES): CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR RURAL PRODUCERS AT SENHORA DE OLIVEIRA, MINAS GERAIS

Payment for Environmental Services (PES) is an important tool for environmental conservation and is a relevant practice in many countries for the maintenance of forests. Thus, the objective of the present study was to evaluate challenges and opportunities of implementing a Payment for Environmental Services program in the municipality of Senhora de Oliveira, Minas Gerais. Socioeconomic and environmental diagnosis was performed using the Rapid Participatory Diagnosis technique. The total of 20 socioeconomic and environmental questionnaires were applied in the municipality, aiming to know in detail the local reality, raising potentialities and demands. The number of members of the 20 families that participated in the rural diagnosis was 72, of which 36 were men and 36 were women, with an average of 3.6 persons per family. Of the 20 rural properties that participated in the rural diagnosis, 35% have delimited RL areas and none of them has a management plan. The exploration of Legal Reserve occurs in 15% of the evaluated properties, being the production of firewood and cuttings the predominant activity. The average value of disposition receivable by rural producers was R$ 220.00 ha-1year-1, in which the producers who did not respond to this question were not considered. The municipality of Senhora de Oliveira, Minas Gerais has the necessary conditions to implement the PES, however the producers still do not receive any incentive to provide environmental services. If this process of PES is implemented, there will certainly be advances in environmental conservation and will bring social benefits throughout the region.

Potential for Sustainable Aquaculture: Insights from Discrete Choice Experiments

The growth in global aquaculture production may address the lack of sustainability in wild fisheries, alleviate poverty in rural and coastal areas, and help meet the worldwide increase in demand for animal protein. However, there is an ongoing debate about the severity of the environmental impact of aquaculture production. Investing in new high-tech production systems can address both productivity growth and the environmental externalities, but high investment costs hinder adoption of high-tech production methods. We investigate the potential of a payment for environmental services program easing access to capital for producers to increase willingness-to-invest in more sustainable aquaculture practices in Vietnam. We conducted two discrete choice experiments to explore the supply and demand side of the policy. First, we elicited the public’s willingness-to-pay to reduce the environmental impact of conventional shrimp aquaculture, and second, we elicited farmers willingness-to-accept a credit subsidy to invest in high-tech production methods. Our results show that the public care about reduced environmental impacts, while farmers strongly prefer increased productivity. Furthermore, the public’s willingness-to-pay for reduced environmental impacts exceeds producer’s willingness-to-accept a subsidy to invest under most scenarios. This implies a potential for more sustainable aquaculture production in Vietnam.

Making the priceless valuable: forests and ecosystem services

Historically, forest ecosystem services have been undervalued or not valued at all, thus encouraging the destruction and conversion of our global forest estate. Fortunately, these last decades have witnessed a real shift – the active and innovative development of markets and payments for the ecosystem values of forests and other ecosystems. Payments for Environmental Services programs are now in place around the globe. Schemes focused on forest carbon, such as the California Cap-and-Trade law, programs in China and Colombia, South Korea and Chile, coupled with new initiatives in the aviation sector, point to steady progress toward the carbon/climate value of forests. Innovative green infrastructure initiatives around water and watersheds in Peru, Costa Rica, Australia and South Africa provide another growing stream of value for forests. And sustainable commodity supply chains and conservation banking bring more large-scale private sector actors and new business sectors to the table. Here we provide a global status of PES around the world.

Could PES Change the Agrarian Structure? a Lesson Learned of Citaman Village, Banten

This study aimed to analyze changes in the agrarian structure in Citaman Village, whether or not capitalists enters the formation of community land, after payment for Environmental Services (PES) mechanism is effective. This research relies on the constructivism paradigm, using qualitative method. The primary data was collected through in-depth interviews and focus groups discussion, with farmer groups, community leaders and related parties. Relevant secondary data was also collected. The results show that: First the PES program which has been running for more than 15 years, has not changed the agrarian structure significantly in Citaman Village. The agricultural land is still dominantly controlled and owned by Citaman Village residents. Second the changes that occurred as a PES program were found in the patterns of agricultural land use. Agricultural land that was originally used for upland rice cultivation or huma is now turned into an agroforestry area.

What factors influence the willingness of protected area communities to relocate? China's ecological relocation policy for Dashanbao Protected Area

Resettlement of local people from protected areas (PAs) has been regarded as a preferred method to alleviate human disturbance and environmental pressure. Lack of knowledge about local communities' perceptions of resettlement, however, can lead to failed relocation projects and negative impacts on environmental sustainability and livelihoods. To better understand local communities' perception of relocation in PAs, we examine factors that affect local communities' willingness to relocate in Dashanbao Protected Area (DPA), an important location for conservation of the rare Black-necked Crane and the subject of a large-scale relocation policy in China. We surveyed 512 households in DPA and used multiple logistic regression to identify which factors predict local communities' willingness to relocate. Then, we examined how local communities' opinions of different payment for environmental services programs (PES) impacted their willingness to relocate. The results indicated that participation in a PES program for wetland conservation significantly decreases willingness, while distance from scenic spots and roads increases willingness. Furthermore, participants in the PES program for wetlands had a greater positive perception of the benefits from the DPA. Concern about a sustainable livelihood and loss of a sense of belonging represent the two main categories or ‘clusters’ of reasons explaining unwillingness to relocate. Our results suggest that prior experience with PES programs influences attitudes about relocation, and that integrating the perception of local communities into policy is important to the success of conservation programs relying on relocation. Managers and decision-makers could usefully consider the coupled relationships between sustainable livelihood strategies such as PES, attitudes toward relocation, and conservation benefits when working with communities in PAs toward enhanced livelihoods and conservation.

Payments for environmental services, gendered livelihoods and forest management in Vietnam: a feminist political ecology perspective

Economic approaches to combat environmental degradation and deforestation have resulted in development initiatives such as the Payment for Environmental Services program (PES). This study deals with the effects of PES on women's livelihoods in Thuong Lo commune, Central Vietnam. Employing a feminist political ecology perspective and adopting a qualitative approach, we analyze the gendered roles, responsibilities and effects of PES on local livelihoods. We found that the women in our study portrayed different preferences and knowledge in relation to PES, forest management and livelihoods. Women are often excluded in PES projects due to a range of various socio-cultural factors.Keywords: Payments for Environmental Services; forest management; gender; women's empowerment; livelihoods; Central Vietnam; Co Tu people

Assessing the Permanence of Land-Use Change Induced by Payments for Environmental Services: Evidence From Nicaragua

Gains achieved by conservation interventions such as payments for environmental services (PES) may be lost upon termination of the program, a problem known as permanence. However, there have been few efforts to evaluate the permanence of conservation results. This article examines the permanence of land-use changes induced by a short-term PES program implemented between 2003 and 2008 in Matiguás-Río Blanco, Nicaragua. Under this program, PES had induced substantial adoption of silvopastoral practices. To assess the long-term permanence of these changes, participants were resurveyed in 2012, 4 years after the last payment was made. We find that the land-use changes that had been induced by PES were broadly sustained in intervening years, with minor differences across specific practices and subgroups of participants. The patterns of change in the period after the PES program were completed to help us understand the reasons for the program’s success and rule out alternative explanations for the program’s success. Our results suggest that, at least in the case of productive land uses such as silvopastoral practices, PES programs can be effective at encouraging land owners to adopt environmentally beneficial practices and that the benefits will persist after payments cease.

Predicting the effectiveness of community anti‐poaching patrols for conserving threatened wildlife in the Lao PDR

Abstract Worldwide, wildlife poaching results in significant losses to biodiversity, especially for species that are most vulnerable and at risk of extinction. While studies that assess the impact of poaching have been conducted, there is limited work that evaluates strategies to reduce poaching pressure, and their subsequent effects on wildlife. We develop a model to predict the effectiveness of a unique community‐led anti‐poaching patrol programme for conserving local wildlife in a biodiversity hotspot in the Lao People's Democratic Republic (Lao PDR). Our model scenarios are based on local villagers’ proposals to undertake anti‐poaching patrols. To deal with limited data availability in this region, we develop a flexible modelling framework that can incorporate a range of data sources, including expert opinion. The model can be readily altered by the user if additional data becomes available. The results predict that, without intervention, 14 out of the 19 endangered species investigated are likely to be poached to local extinction over the next 10 years. Implementing anti‐poaching patrols is predicted to protect individual animals and species in the area, although with diminishing marginal benefits as patrol‐efforts increase. Synthesis and applications. We present the first model developed in the Southeast Asia region to examine the effectiveness of community anti‐poaching patrols on protecting wildlife populations. This work is directly linked to an innovative Payments for Environmental Services programme where villagers are being paid for community‐led anti‐poaching patrols. Our model results demonstrate how different patrolling strategies can help to protect vulnerable species, and are being used to determine the payment levels for different patrolling schemes.

Community-Based Environmental Management Through The Payments for Environmental Services Program in Cidanau Watershed, Banten Province, Indonesia

Payments for Environmental Services (PES) are seen as an effort to preserve and used environmentally sustainable manner. The program is believed to bridge two different interests, such as the people who inhabit in the upstream watershed who are generally poor farmers with land holding less than one hectare with urban communities. The purpose of this paper is to describe the implementation of PES in Cidanau watershed. The field data were processed using descriptive qualitative method. The results showed that PES in Cidanau watershed started in 2003 and has entered phase two (the second 5 years), followed by 15 farmer groups to target land area of 520 hectares. The value of contracts signed through a memorandum of agreement with PT. KTI as a buyer to a group of farmer-members (sellers) through Communication Forum of Cidanau watershed (FKDC) as organizational managers is IDR 4 billion for 2019. For farmer groups of an initial contract for five years was paid IDR 1.2 million per hectare per year will increase to 1.75 million per hectare per year for five-years contract. The implementation of PES in Cidanau watershed relatively was well proved by increasing number of farmers who are interested in becoming participants of PES. The implications of PES program for environment are increased forest cover and maintained water discharge. In addition, teh program has increased income for farmers in upstream watershed.

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>

Additionality from Payments for Environmental Services with Technology Diffusion

Because payments for environmental services (PES) often subsidize practices that offer latent private benefits, there are concerns that PES programs may provide little additional environmental benefits. Previous literature has framed the problem of non‐additionality as an adverse selection problem. We develop a model where moral hazard can also arise because some agents delay adoption due to the incentive of potentially receiving a payment in the future. Moral hazard arises when agents have expectations of potential future subsidies, the technology naturally diffuses without a policy, and a subsidy is only available if the agent has not previously adopted the technology. We develop a conceptual model to illustrate the moral hazard incentive and conduct numerical simulations to understand the impact of policy parameters on aggregate outcomes. Numerical simulations illustrate that moral hazard creates a non‐monotonic relationship between policy parameters—such as the subsidy and budget levels—and the net change in adoption induced by the program because some agents delay adoption. We also find that the cost‐effectiveness of the policy is smaller when the policy is introduced during periods of rapid technology adoption.

Diverse ecologies: Mapping complexity in environmental governance

This article outlines a novel framework for investigating complex intersections among divergent approaches to enacting environmental governance. I term this the study of “diverse ecologies.” The framework builds on J.K. Gibson-Graham’s influential “diverse economies” perspective but seeks to integrate this with research in political ecology that devotes greater attention to issues of structural power. In particular, the article draws on growing analysis of environmental governance as a form of “environmentality” building on Foucault’s influential governmentality analytic. While early literature in this area overlooked the multiple forms of environmentality that may intersect within a given context, more recent research emphasizes this diversity. Integrating multiple environmentalities and diverse economies perspectives thus provides the grounding for the “diverse ecologies” framework outlined herein. The framework’s application is illustrated through analysis of a popular payment for environmental services program in Costa Rica.

Village-scale reserves in the forest frontier regions of Chenes and Calakmul, Mexico

ABSTRACT Sketch-map-facilitated interviews were conducted in 23 villages in two adjacent regions in the southern Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico – the Maya (and increasingly Mennonite) forest-agriculture mosaic of the Chenes, and the late-20th-century-settlement forest frontier of Calakmul – to determine the frequency and typology of local-scale reserves, including the external (e.g. Payments for Environmental Services programs) and internal sources of their generation. 9% of the study communities are found to satisfy the author’s criteria for deliberate, autochthonous reserves. The static polygon reserve and static map are found to have limited value for understanding the evolving cultural ecologies of these regions. Alternative approaches are discussed, particularly those employed by geographers.

‘Partial’ participation in Payments for Environmental Services (PES): Land enrolment and forest loss in the Mexican Lacandona Rainforest

Payments for Environmental Services (PES) mushroomed since the late 1990s as a key strategy to curb forest loss and degradation. PES typically provide conditional incentives for the conservation of standing forests, often in short-term and renewable contracts. Although the topic of participation in PES has been covered extensively, there is a gap in the literature when it comes to a more comprehensive examination of how landholders make decisions about which lands to enrol in a PES programme. This paper investigates how people make PES-related land use decisions and how they manage enrolled and non-enrolled lands during their contracts. We build a framework rooted in social-ecological systems that accounts for the characteristics of resource users involved in PES, and the multiple motivations and decision-making processes related to land use. Our mixed-methods approach combines geospatial land distribution and forest cover loss analysis in a region of six communities in the Mexican Lacandona Rainforest, and in-depth qualitative research among three of these communities. Our geospatial analysis shows that compliance with PES on enrolled parcels may coevolve with extensive forest loss if people ‘partially’ participate in PES by enrolling only a fraction of their eligible lands. Our qualitative research shows that decisions about which lands to enrol in PES involve a complex cognitive mix, –combining rational behaviour, biases and heuristics–, reflecting a series of tensions between land opportunity costs, livelihood aspirations and constraints for expanding the agricultural frontier. Based on our findings, we discuss how a better conceptualisation of resource users involved in PES, and their land-related behaviour, enables a more complete understanding of the decision-making processes underlying enrolment outcomes, and we also discuss how our framework, methodology, and empirical evidence allows to better understand and evaluate PES effectiveness.