Transcript PES: Basic Concepts and Outstanding Issues. A WWF Perspective

What Are PES?
Opportunities and Obstacles to
Implement Pro-Poor PES Projects
By Pablo Gutman / WWF – MPO
A Presentation at a Meeting organized by f the
Africa Biodiversity Collaboration Group, on
Payments for Environmental Services and Poverty Reduction, at
WRI, Washington D.C.
December 15, 2005
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What Are Payments For
Ecosystem Services (PES)?
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PES is the generic name of a variety of arrangements
through which the beneficiaries of ecosystem services
pay back to the providers of those services.
The PES concept can be thought as the complement
(or the opposite?) to the “Polluter Pays Principle.”
In any specific PES scheme there are at least three
major issues: (a) the ES; (b) the payment
arrangements; and (c) what is driving the whole PES
scheme
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What Are Ecosystem Services And
Where Do They Come From?
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Ecosystem services are whatever nature provides that
is valuable for humankind… but notice that:
There are differences between ecosystem functions
and ecosystem services (we should avoid double
counting and over assessing).
There are differences between services and goods
(that at times are difficult to make)
There are differences between services provided by
nature on its own, and through human husbandry
(important to decide what are you paying for).
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The Millennium Ecosystem
Assessment View of ES
Provisioning
Services
Food
Fresh
water
Fuel wood
Fiber
Biochemicals
Genetic Resources
Regulating
Services
Cultural Services
Spiritual
and religious
Climate regulation Recreation and
Disease regulation ecotourism
Aesthetic
Water regulation
Inspirational
Water purification
Educational
Pollination
Sense of place
Cultural heritage
Supporting Services
Soil formation
Nutrient cycling
Primary production
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Ecosystem Services May Be
Present At Any Scale
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Local: For example water quality benefits of
conservation in a small watershed.
National. For example country-wide benefits of
biodiversity conservation.
International. For example global commons benefits
of conserving of biodiversity, international waters or the
atmosphere.
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Payment Arrangements
May Vary a Lot
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They may entail a market that brings together willing
buyers and willing sellers.
Or a private or public entity may pull together the
demand. E.g. a private utility or a river basin authority
may collect fees and use those revenues to pay
providers of ES.
It can be a government-driven system where public
revenues (earmarked or not) are used to pay the
providers of ecosystem services.
Or it can be an international scheme where
international or regional funds are used to pay for the
provision of global commons.
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What is Driving the Whole PES
Scheme: 1
Pro-Markets Approach
Social Developers Approach
PES definition narrowed to
Markets for ES
 Motivation: tap markets’
efficiency gains, economic
development
 Unbundling of ES
 Focus on: Valuation of ES,
conditionality, efficiency,
market pricing
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Broad PES definition
 Motivation: Improve
livelihood of would be
providers
 Unbundling of ES
 Focus on: property rights,
entitlements, social capital,
and income needs
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What is Driving the Whole PES
Scheme: 2
Conservation Approach
Governmental Approach
Broad PES definition
 Motivation: sustainable
financing for conservation
 Wary of unbundling ES
 Focus on overall
ecosystem integrity and
conservation gains
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Broad PES definition
 Motivation:
Unbundling ES
 Mixed goals, securing ES
may be only a minor one.
Many times is more about
income redistribution and pay
backs to constituencies
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Current PES Experiences
If we accept a “broad” definition of PES there are many
PES schemes operating around the world,
 Large PES schemes tend to be government driven
(e.g., Australia, Brazil, China, EU, Colombia, Costa
Rica)
 Most private market- type PES are of local scale (e.g.
Africa conservancies, LAC watershed protection
schemes) they tend to be small (but look to New York
water company experience)
 The enforcement of the Climate Change Convention
may change this picture fostering a large private
market for carbon sequestration services.
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What Have We Learnt From
Current PES Experiences?
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Most market-type PES have been of small scale,
hence a marginal source both of ecosystem services to
users and of income to providers;
Government sponsored PES schemes tend to be
larger, but critics point to little conservation gains, high
costs and poor social targeting.
From a conservation point of view the PES unbundling
approach risks loosing stage for the less “marketable”
ES, or pitching one ES against another.
From a social point of view it raises issues of equity
and access to basic services, and actually PES
approaches face a lot of resistance in many developing
countries
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Could there be Pro-Poor PES?
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OPPORTUNTIES
The world needs a new
urban-rural compact
The map of rural poverty
overlaps with the map of rural
biodiversity
In many cases the poor are
actually the de facto stewards
of the environment
In many cases nature is the
poor’s m ain asset
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OBSTACLES
Fears that the poor will lose
more as buyers than they
may gain as sellers
Conservation is usually
nature-intensive, seldom
labor-intensive
The poor may lack the
property rights, know- how
and capital
High transaction costs
Non-supportive regulations
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Is a PES Appropriate for your Rural
Conservation and Development Project? 1
It may be, but you will need to carefully think it through,
considering PES not in isolation, but as part of a
broader sustainable financing strategy. And here is a
checklist to help you decide about it
1. Can you clearly state what are both the social and
conservation goals for the area in question?
2. Achieving these objectives requires promoting
significant natural resources use changes among
farmers and other rural dwellers?
3. Is there is a clear relation between the conservation
goals and some ecosystem services that are valuable
to would-be payers, or at least to a relevant sector of
society?
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Is a PES Appropriate for your Rural
Conservation and Development Project? 2
5.
6.
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8.
Are you going after payers that actually can pay, and
may be motivated to pay?
Have you a good idea of how the moneys collected
will be used?
Have you a good idea of how the rural poor would
participate and benefit of such PES scheme?
Are there already in place regulatory and institutional
frameworks that may facilitate the adoption of a PES
scheme and the participation of the rural poor?.
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Is a PES Appropriate for your Rural
Conservation and Development Project? 3
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You always need a good answer to question 1
If answers to questions 2 through 8 are mostly “yes”
you may have a PES winner at hand.
If answers to questions 2 through 8 are mostly
negative, better look for other financing schemes.
If some are yes and some are no, it may be useful to
dig a little deeper before deciding if a PES scheme is
the way to go for your rural conservation and
development project.
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Where to Learn More and Look
for WWF PES-Related Activities?
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To learn more about PES, these sites provide
valuable references and information:
www.iied.org ; www.forest-trends.org ;
www.cifor.cigiar.org ; www.worldbank.org
www.panda.org/mpo ; www.flowsonline.net
For updates on WWF PES-related activities
subscribe to PES InfoExchange (email
[email protected] ) or contact your
regional WWF-PES anchor office (DCPO in
Europe)
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