|
| Submission |
| ID |
|
62795 |
| Submitting Entity |
|
ETH Zurich |
|
| Main Information |
| Title |
|
Designing payments for environmental services in theory and practice: An overview of the issues. |
| Description |
|
Payments for environmental services (PES) have attracted increasing interest as amechanism
to translate external, non-market values of the environment into real financial incentives for
local actors to provide environmental services (ES). In this introductory paper, we set the stage
for the rest of this Special Issue of Ecological Economics by reviewing the main issues arising in
PES design and implementation and discussing these in the light of environmental economics.
We start with a discussion of PES definition and scope. We proceed to review some of the
principal dimensions and design characteristics of PES programs and then analyze how PES
compares to alternative policy instruments. Finally, we examine in detail two important
aspects of PES programs: their effectiveness and their distributional implications.
PES is not a silver bullet that can be used to address any environmental problem, but a tool
tailored to address a specific set of problems: those in which ecosystems are mismanaged
because many of their benefits are externalities from the perspective of ecosystem
managers. PES is based on the beneficiary-pays rather than the polluter-pays principle,
and as such is attractive in settings where ES providers are poor, marginalized landholders
or powerful groups of actors. An important distinction within PES is between user-financed
PES in which the buyers are the users of the ES, and government-financed PES in which the
buyers are others (typically the government) acting on behalf of ES users. In practice, PES
programs differ in the type and scale of ES demand, the payment source, the type of activity
paid for, the performance measure used, as well as the payment mode and amount. The
effectiveness and efficiency of PES depends crucially on program design. |
|
| Additional Information |
| Authors |
|
Engel, S., S. Pagiola, S., S.Wunder, S. |
| Source |
|
Ecological Economics, 65(4), 663-674. |
| Ecosystems |
|
Agricultural Biodiversity
Biodiversity for Development
Dry and Sub-Humid Lands Biodiversity
Forest Biodiversity
Inland Waters Biodiversity
Island Biodiversity
Marine and Coastal Biodiversity
Mountain Biodiversity
Polar Biodiversity |
| Regions |
|
Global |
| Incentive Measures |
|
Positive Incentives (subsidies, tax breaks, ...) |
| Keywords |
|
Agri-environmental payments
Compensation for loss of use
Conservation payments
Support payment |
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
