Payment for environmental services

„ „ The review identified a range of PES programme design criteria. Two stand out: PES programmes need to carefully target participants corresponding to the social or economic programme objectives; and there is a need to invest in the development of strong local governance structures for the programmes. Payment for environmental services (PES) programmes provide economic or in-kind incentives to encourage landowners to adopt behaviours that are thought to conserve or restore ecosystems services.1 PES programmes, initially a means of environmental conservation, have grown in popularity in the last two decades. More recently, they have been promoted as a climate change mitigation measure, and some programmes aim to improve socio-economic outcomes and alleviate poverty. Despite their increasing popularity, key policy questions around the effectiveness of PES on environmental and socio-economic outcomes remain unanswered.