The World Agroforestry Centre representatives were given a chance to show the Centre’s Pro-poor Rewards for Environmental Service in Africa (PRESA) initiative as part of RIO+20 negotiations focused on how to shift to a sustainable, green economy.
One way of shifting to a green economy is to “place an economic value on environmental goods and services and encourage a shift towards more sustainable activities by paying or rewarding those who practice good stewardship,” writes Vanessa Meadu of CCAFS.
In a CCAFS blog article, Vanessa writes about Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) as a possible mechanism for encouraging farmers to shift to a green economy with the help of initiatives such a PRESA.
Sara Namirembe of the World Agroforestry Centre shared about PRESA which brings together people working in several PES projects to share lessons and exchange strategies for successful implementation of PES.
In Vanessa’s article, Sara’s experience of PES is that it is still a major challenge trying to balance fairness and efficiency across different PES programs.
Another common drawback as noted by Sara is that buyers “want proof that they will actually receive what they are paying for”. As Vanessa writes, buyers want to be sure that land use practices will deliver the anticipated environmental services.
Programs such as PRESA are helping to build a solid base of knowledge and enhance the capacity of local groups that want to implement, and perhaps benefit from, PES.
