Forest cover effects of payments for ecosystem services: Evidence from an impact evaluation in Brazil

2020 ◽  
Vol 169 ◽  
pp. 106522 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana Carolina Oliveira Fiorini ◽  
Conner Mullally ◽  
Marilyn Swisher ◽  
Francis E. Putz
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Impact Evaluation ◽  
Forest Cover ◽  
Payments For Ecosystem Services

scholarly journals Evaluating the environmental impact of payments for ecosystem services in Coatepec (Mexico) using remote sensing and on-site interviews

2011 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
pp. 426-434 ◽  
Author(s):  
JASON SCULLION ◽  
CRAIG W. THOMAS ◽  
KRISTINA A. VOGT ◽  
OCTAVIO PÉREZ-MAQUEO ◽  
MILES G. LOGSDON
Keyword(s):  
Remote Sensing ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Forest Cover ◽  
Remote Sensing Data ◽  
Environmental Benefits ◽  
Payments For Ecosystem Services ◽  
Programme Implementation ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Monitoring And Enforcement ◽  
Landsat Satellite

SUMMARYOver the last decade, hundreds of payments for ecosystem services (PES) programmes have been initiated around the world, but evidence of their environmental benefits remains limited. In this study, two PES programmes operating in the municipality of Coatepec (Mexico) were evaluated to assess their effectiveness in protecting the region's endangered upland forests. Landsat satellite data were analysed to assess changes in forest cover before and after programme implementation using a difference-in-differences estimator. Additionally, surveys and interviews were conducted with local residents and a subset of PES programme participants to evaluate the programmes’ social and environmental impacts, particularly the effect of the programmes on landowner behaviour. The remote-sensing data show that deforestation was substantially lower on properties receiving PES payments compared to properties not enrolled in the programmes, but the programmes did not prevent the net loss of forests within Coatepec. Moreover, the on-site interviews suggest that the payments may have had little impact on deforestation rates, and that other factors contributed to the conservation of forests in PES properties. These findings suggest that risk-targeted payments, robust monitoring and enforcement programmes, and additional conservation initiatives should be included in all PES schemes to ensure environmental effectiveness.

scholarly journals Self-selection into payments for ecosystem services programs

2018 ◽  
Vol 116 (12) ◽  
pp. 5326-5333 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Kelsey Jack ◽  
Seema Jayachandran
Keyword(s):  
Cost Effectiveness ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Randomized Trials ◽  
Forest Cover ◽  
Environmental Benefits ◽  
Social Welfare Policy ◽  
Payments For Ecosystem Services ◽  
Improve Cost Effectiveness ◽  
Program Enrollment ◽  
Improve Cost

Designers and funders of payments for ecosystem services (PES) programs have long worried that payments flow to landholders who would have conserved forests even without the program, undermining the environmental benefits (“additionality”) and cost-effectiveness of PES. If landholders self-select into PES programs based on how much conservation they were going to undertake anyway, then those who were planning to conserve should always enroll. This paper discusses the less-appreciated fact that enrollment is often based on other factors too. The hassle of signing up or financial costs of enrollment (e.g., purchasing seedlings) can affect who participates in a PES program. These enrollment costs reduce overall take-up, and, importantly, they can also influence the composition of landholders who select into the program—and thereby the program’s environmental benefits per enrollee. Enrollment costs can increase a program’s benefits per enrollee if they are systematically higher for (and thus deter enrollment by) landholders who would have conserved anyway. Alternatively, enrollment costs can dampen per-enrollee benefits if their correlation with status-quo conservation is in the opposite direction. We illustrate these points with evidence from two studies of randomized trials of PES programs aimed at increasing forest cover in Uganda and Malawi. We also discuss how in other sectors, such as social welfare, policy designers have purposefully adjusted the costs of program enrollment to influence the composition of participants and improve cost-effectiveness. We propose that these ideas for targeting could be incorporated into the design of PES programs.

A systematic review of scientific publications on the effects of payments for ecosystem services in Latin America, 2000–2020

2021 ◽  
Vol 49 ◽  
pp. 101270
Author(s):  
Maria Perevochtchikova ◽  
Ricardo Castro-Díaz ◽  
Alfonso Langle-Flores ◽  
Juan José Von Thaden Ugalde
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Latin America ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Payments For Ecosystem Services ◽  
Scientific Publications

Multi-level social-ecological networks in a payments for ecosystem services programme in central Veracruz, Mexico

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
Alfonso Langle-Flores ◽  
Adriana Aguilar Rodríguez ◽  
Humberto Romero-Uribe ◽  
Julia Ros-Cuéllar ◽  
Juan José Von Thaden
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Payments For Ecosystem Services ◽  
Collaboration Network ◽  
Governmental Organizations ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
Non Governmental Organizations ◽  
Conservation Activity ◽  
Ecological Importance ◽  
Hydrological Services

Summary Payments for ecosystem services (PES) programmes have been considered an important conservation mechanism to avoid deforestation. These environmental policies act in social and ecological contexts at different spatial scales. We evaluated the social-ecological fit between stakeholders and ecosystem processes in a local PES programme across three levels: social, ecological and social-ecological. We explored collaboration among stakeholders, assessed connectivity between forest units and evaluated conservation activity links between stakeholders and forest units. In addition, to increase programme effectiveness, we classified forest units based on their social and ecological importance. Our main findings suggest that non-governmental organizations occupy brokerage positions between landowners and government in a dense collaboration network. We also found a partial spatial misfit between conservation activity links and the forest units that provide the most hydrological services to Xalapa. We conclude that conservation efforts should be directed towards the middle and high part of the Pixquiac sub-watershed and that the role of non-governmental organizations as mediators should be strengthened to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the local PES programme.

Assessing policies to mitigate abandonment of shade-grown coffee production in forest systems amid low and uncertain prices

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-26
Author(s):  
Heidi J. Albers ◽  
Stephanie Brockmann ◽  
Beatriz Ávalos-Sartorio
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Biodiversity Hotspot ◽  
Payments For Ecosystem Services ◽  
Natural Forests ◽  
Coffee Production ◽  
Certification Programs ◽  
Coffee Farmers ◽  
Effective Policy

Abstract Low and highly variable prices plague the coffee market, generating concerns that coffee farmers producing in shade systems under natural forests, as in biodiversity hotspot Oaxaca, Mexico, will abandon production and contribute to deforestation and reduced ecosystem services. Using stakeholder information, we build a setting-informed model to analyze farmers' decisions to abandon shade-grown coffee production and their reactions to policy to reduce abandonment. Exploring price premiums for bird-friendly certified coffee, payments for ecosystem services, and price floors as policies, we find that once a farmer is on the path toward abandonment, it is difficult to reverse. However, implementing policies early that are low cost to farmers – price floors and no-cost certification programs – can stem abandonment. Considering the abandonment that policy avoids per dollar spent, price floors are the most cost-effective policy, yet governments prefer certification programs that push costs onto international coffee consumers who pay the price premium.

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