How effective are Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) schemes in safeguarding ecosystem services as well as benefitting local livelihoods and ensuring pro-poor outcomes?

In a new working paper, scientists from the World Agroforestry Centre sought to answer this question, as the REDD Desk reports.

The study involved a survey of 36 PES projects and found that in most cases non-financial benefits in the short term lead to longer term financial benefits for landholders, usually in the form of increased yields and greater revenue from harvests as well as access to markets.

For PES schemes related to Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+) it seems that those at the national scale differ considerably from those at the project scale, especially in their ability to deploy a full suite of incentives, policies, and regulatory interventions in order to meet domestic goals.

Read the full story: Payments for ecosystem services schemes: project-level insights on benefits for ecosystems and the rural poor

Download the paper: Kissinger G, Patterson C, Neufeldt H. 2013. Payments for ecosystem services schemes: project--‐level insights on benefits for ecosystems and the rural poor. ICRAF Working Paper No 161, Nairobi: World Agroforestry Centre.