Description

This publication discusses the conservation paradigm of Payments for Environmental Services (PES). CIFOR provides a definition of PES with five fundamental principles; PES is a (1) voluntary, (2) conditional transaction with at least (3) one seller, (4) one buyer, and (5) a well-defined environmental service. The brief describes current trends in location, scale, and type of PES projects; suggests conditions in which PES is an efficient, effective approach to conservation; and discusses potential positive and negative impacts on poverty.

This Infobrief is based on text from Wunder, S. 2005. Payments for environmental services: some nuts and bolts. CIFOR Occasional Paper no. 42. Center for International Forestry Research, Bogor, Indonesia.