Incentives to Sustain Forest Ecosystem Services | International Institute for Environment and Development
From a review of 13 cases of reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) through payment for ecosystem services (PES) conducted by the International Institute for Environment and Development, along with CIFOR and the World Resources Institute:
While the benefits of environmental services are public goods, the cost of ensuring their provision often falls on local land managers. As land is usually managed for private benefit, it is generally more attractive for land managers to convert their land to alternative uses such as agriculture rather than maintain it in its natural state. As a result, natural ecosystems continue to be degraded or lost at an alarming rate. ...
The emergence of the concept of payments for ecosystem services has raised expectations among many stakeholders that ecosystems can be conserved through popular payments to ecosystem service providers rather than through unpopular measures of command and control. The basic logic is simple: those that provide ecosystem services by foregoing alternative uses of the land should be compensated by the beneficiaries of that service. The principle is increasingly being applied in broader contexts beyond conservation, including the maintenance of cultivated landscapes, water supply and – most recently – for mitigating climate change. ...
The findings of this report are that payments for ecosystem services can create incentives for reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation. They are, however, not a universal panacea. A crucial issue is the overall national and forest governance framework. Under conditions of weak governance it is very difficult for payments for ecosystem services to be effective.
If the providers of ecosystem services can be fairly rewarded there is good chance of reducing tropical deforestation and mitigating greenhouse gas production.
Hat tip: Climate Wire. Pdf link below.
