Paying for biodiversity conservation services in agricultural landscapes

Paying for biodiversity conservation services in agricultural landscapes

Environment Department Papers

Year of publication 2004

Place of publication Rome, Italy ;

Pages 48

Product type Book (stand-alone)

Edition 1

Full item page

Synopsis (short abstract) Adoption of improved silvopastoral practices in degraded pasture areas is thought to provide valuable local and global environmental benefits, including biodiversity conservation, However, these practices are insufficiently attractive to individual land users for them to adopt them spontaneously, particularly due to their high initial costs. This paper describes the contract mechanism developed for the Regional Integrated Silvopastoral Ecosystem Management Project, which is being imple mented with financing from the Global Environment Facility (GEF). The project is testing the use of the payment-for-service mechanism to encourage the adoption of silvopastoral practices in three countries of Central and South America: Colombia, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua. The project has created a mechanism that pays land users for the global environmental services they are generating, so that the additional income stream makes the proposed practices privately profitable. Designing the mechanism required addressing issues such as (1) measuring the actual amount of environmental services being provided, so that appropriate payments can be made; (2) providing payments in a way that resulted in the desired change in land use; and (3) avoiding the creation of perverse incentives (for example, for land users to cut down existing trees so as to qualify for additional payments for tree planting). Two variants of the proposed payment mechanism are being tested, with partici pating land users assigned randomly to one or the other. The project also includes extensive monitoring of the effectiveness of each mechanism in stimulating adoption of the proposed measures and of the resulting impact on environmental services and on household welfare. These features, together with the three-country approach, will provide in the coming years a very rich dataset for testing the use of contract mechanisms for biodiversity conservation.

Language English

Related items

Showing items related by metadata.

Meeting
Mechanisms and economic incentives for: i) Mitigation of climate change effects, ii) Protection of biodiversity (wildlife) and conservation of ecosystem services, and iii) Restoration of forests and landscapes
Latin American and Caribbean Forestry Commission, 30th Session Tegucigalpa, Honduras, 25 -29 September 2017
2017

Also available in:

Spanish
Document
Introduction of new agricultural methods for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, including plant and animal genetic resources, in productive landscapes in selected areas of Cuba
ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIAL ASSESSMENT. GCP/CUB/017/GEF
2017

Also available in:

Spanish
Brochure, flyer, fact-sheet

No free lunches: PES and the funding of agricultural biodiversity conservation. Insights from a competitive tender for quinoa-related conservation services in Bolivia and Peru
Case studies on Remuneration of Positive Externalities (RPE)/ Payments for Environmental Services (PES) Prepared for the Multi-stakeholder dialogue 12-13 September 2013 FAO, Rome
2014

Also available in:

No results found.

Rusenski Lom Nature Park is one of WWF's pilot sites in the project Promoting PES and other related sustainable financing schemes in the Lower Danube Basin. PES has the potential to finance the conservation of biodiversity values of Rusenski Lom Nature Park by targeting cultural services provided by the protected area and aims at decreasing the pressure of tourism activities on the wildlife and ecosystems.

Users also downloaded

Showing related downloaded files

No results found.