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2.4 Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES)

2.4.1 Overview

This section is the fourth of five specific biodiversity related markets and focuses on Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES).

According to WWF, Payments for ecosystem services, also called payments for environmental services (or PES for short) is the name for a variety of arrangements through which the beneficiary of ecosystem services pay back the providers of those services. The ecosystem services in question can be watershed protection, forests conservation, biodiversity conservation, carbon sequestration, landscape beauty and wildlife husbandry in support of tourism and eco-tourism, and more. Ecosystem services may be present at any scale, from local to national to international (international ecosystem services are often called "global commons") and all these scales may allow a PES approach.

This section has less material available than the previous three. One useful source is:

The Katoomba Group
An international working group composed of leading experts from forest and energy industries, research institutions, the financial world, and environmental NGOs dedicated to advancing markets for some of the ecosystem services provided by forests – such as watershed protection, biodiversity habitat, and carbon storage.

2.4.2 Two key resources

These resources were chosen to provide the best overview for this field, but it is also worth checking out the other resources in this section.

Katoomba Group- Getting Started: An Introductory Primer to Making Payments for Ecosystem Services Agreements Payments for Ecosystem Services
An introduction to designing and implementing payments for ecosystem services schemes. The primer is intended primarily for practitioners focused on rural economic development and environmental conservation. It documents lessons learned from experiences in developing payment for ecosystem services (PES) projects.
ICRAF/Forest Trends- Organization and Governance for Fostering Pro-Poor Compensation for Environmental Services
To provide the Rural Poverty and Environment programme with a broader and richer deliberation on the potential for economic instruments (including market, financial and incentive based instruments) which conserve ecosystem services and at the same time contribute to poverty reduction in the developing world.

2.4.3 Market research

Tools/guidelines/methodologies
EcoEnterprises Technical Assistance fund
A technical assistance fund which covers fund management costs and provides business advisory services to prospective and portfolio projects which include, Business planning; Marketing; Training in technical subject areas such as ecotourism and organic agriculture; Financial control and accounting; Establishment of environmental indicators and monitoring programs.
IIED- Case studies of biodiversity markets for forest environmental services
Looks at the demand and supply of a selection of biodiversity markets from around the world including Carbon Sequestration and watershed protection.
Reports/literature
Building Foundations for Pro-Poor Ecosystem Service Payments in Africa: Summary Report of Strategic Planning Workshop
An outline of developments and strategic gaps in developing payments for ecosystem services to a significant scale in Eastern and Southern Africa.

2.4.4 Business planning

Tools/guidelines/methodologies
EcoEnterprises- Technical Assistance fund
A technical assistance fund which covers fund management costs and provides business advisory services to prospective and portfolio projects which include, Business planning; Marketing; Training in technical subject areas such as ecotourism and organic agriculture; Financial control and accounting; Establishment of environmental indicators and monitoring programs.
IUCN/Shell- Building biodiversity business report
Collaboration between The World Conservation Union (IUCN) and Shell International Limited, in a joint effort to identify potential new business opportunities and market-based mechanisms to conserve biodiversity.
Conservation Finance
Conservation Finance share experiences with applying business and financial planning tools to protected areas management, biodiversity conservation and sustainable development activities.
Reports/literature
Katoomba Group- Introduction to PES
A useful introductory document to PES, the resources and information currently available and the people and organizations working with ecosystem services
CIFOR- Making Nature Count: enhancing payments for environmental service initiatives in Ecuador and Colombia
The overall goal of the project is to build national capacity in Ecuador and Colombia on how best to implement payments for environmental services (PES). This will be done by distilling and disseminating information on best practices in PES in support of planned, nascent and ongoing PES initiatives. It should help to make PES a more effective tool for biodiversity conservation and a source of benefit to local people.
IUCN/Shell Building biodiversity business report
Collaboration between The World Conservation Union (IUCN) and Shell International Limited, in a joint effort to identify potential new business opportunities and market-based mechanisms to conserve biodiversity.

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