Payments for environmental services: new panacea or auxiliary for environmental management?

Payments for Environmental Services (PES) is an instrument which use is increasingly frequent for biodiversity conservation and ecosystem ecological integrity improvement. Yet it is also a tool for poverty alleviation. Are we dealing with a new panacea or with an old wine in a new bottle? Are PES really effective for environment management purposes?

With the objective of measuring the scope of the impact that PES can have into environmental and agricultural policies, Pesmix analyses the synergies and conflicts between PES and the above policies. The project has been launched in 2012 for a length of 3 years. To test such research questions Pesmix works in two countries:

  • Mexico, emergent country, where national PES programs are steered by the National government;
  • Madagascar, least developed country, where private actors (e.g. NGOs, Foundations and private donors) are the executors of a variety of PES projects and the local level.

Pesmix is funded by the ANR (Agence Nationale pour la Recherche – National Research Agency), and counts with the collaboration with Mexican and Malagasy partners. The overall project is coordinated by Ciard, by the research team ‘Goods and Ecosystem Services of Tropical Forests’.