Posted on June, 22 2006

WWF publication on Payments for Environmental Services (June 2006) which gives an overview of current PES schemes and players, WWF's approach to equitable PES; and field examples of equitable PES projects (Guatemala, Peru, The Philippines, Tanzania, Indonesia and Eastern Europe).

The concept of payments for environmental services (PES) has received substantial interest in recent years as a way of creating incentive measures for managing natural resources, addressing livelihood issues for the rural poor, and providing sustainable financing for protected areas.

The basic idea is that those who “provide” environmental services by conserving natural ecosystems should be compensated by beneficiaries of the service.

WWF and its partners are developing a new, holistic PES approach that explicitly aims to balance poverty reduction with conservation, and to do so with social justice and equity. We see this equitable PES as one financing mechanism for conservation that, in the appropriate circumstances, will deliver both sustainable natural resource management and improved livelihood security for the rural poor.