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.
Building on a report titled Rethinking Forest Partnerships and Benefit Sharing: Insights on What Makes Collaborative Arrangements Work for Communities and Landowners and field work in Latin America and Africa, PROFOR is supporting a study drilling down on two questions of particular interest in the context of REDD initiatives: how to identify legitimate beneficiaries, and how to identify appropriate mechanisms for sharing benefits.
What is the composition and size of the global market for payments for ecosystem services (PES)? In an effort to answer this question, PROFOR supported an endeavor to devise a matrix which maps the size, environmental and community impacts, participants and shapers, and market trends for PES in the forestry and other sectors. The findings are broad in scope and complex.
