The experience of payments for environmental services (PES) systems set up in Costa Rica, Mexico, and Ecuador in the last decade provides valuable insights for shaping REDD+ strategies in participating countries in the Latin America and Caribbean region. Between them, these programs are currently helping to conserve over 3 million hectares of forests. Their experience shows how to make PES work, but also -- problems to avoid.
A World Bank-supported pilot project, launched in January 2011, has demonstrated that several agrosilvopastoral technology innovations and systems developed and/or tested in Central America can be adapted to the Tugi (Gutah) Hills in the North West Region of Cameroon, resulting in the rehabilitation of degraded pasture lands, improved livestock productivity, increased income of the rural communities and reduced risk and vulnerability to climate change. A new PROFOR activty aims to document and disseminate the lessons from that project.
