Payments for Ecoystem Services

GHG Mitigation Potential, Costs and Benefits in Global Forests: A Dynamic Partial Equilibrium Approach

Background

In this article, the authors discuss the global mitigation potential for greenhouse gas carbon sequestration in forest plantations. They estimate the land area that land users would plant or prevent from being deforested above the reference scenario of no carbon prices. Their economic analysis suggests that billions of dollars are gained through carbon sequestration.

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Payments for Environmental Services: Some Nuts and Bolts

Background

This paper reviews current literature and considers observations from Latin America and Asia to describe Payment for Environmental Services (PES) strategies. 

Research Goals & Methods

This paper aims to help demystify PES for non-economists, starting with a simple and coherent definition of the term.

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Paying for Restoration

Background

The authors examine the payments for ecosystem services and review strategies for funding ecological restoration. They do so by conducting a literature review that is focused on two main questions:  "how should ecological and economic considerations be balanced in determining expenditures on restoration projects? how is society going to pay for the substantial costs involved?" 

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Paying for the Environmental Services of Silvopastoral Practices in Nicaragua

Background

The Regional Integrated Silvopastoral Ecosystem Management Project uses funds from the Global Environmental Facility(GEF) in piloting the use of payment for ecosystem services to encourage adoption of silvopastoral practices in Nicaragua, Colombia, and Costa Rica. This paper presents the results of the project implemented in Nicaragua.

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Lowering Emissions in Asia's Forests (LEAF)

Background

The Lowering Emmissions in Asia's Forests (LEAF) program was USAID regiona initiative that ran for five years, from 2011 to 2016. This final report summarizes the challenges the LEAF program faced and the results it achieved.

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Assessing and Monitoring Forest Biodiversity: A Suggested Framework and Indicators

background

This study looks at afforestation and reforestation (A/R) projects that are part of the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism. The study seeks to determine whether large-scale A/R projects meet the twin goals of carbon sequestration and sustainable development, using projects in India's Karnataka State as case studies.

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Carbon sequestration versus bioenergy: A case study from South India exploring the relative land-use efficiency of two options for climate change mitigation

background

This study explores avenues to meet increased rural electricity demand with carbon emissions mitigation. The study compares the option of energy derived from gasification of biomass from forest plantations to energy derived from fossil fuels, with forest plantations used as a carbon sink.The case study uses power demand, land requirements, and management approaches for Hosahalli village, Karnataka, pop. 218.

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China's sloping land conversion program: Institutional innovation or business as usual?

Background

China’s Sloping Land Conversion Program (SLCP) is the largest land retirement program in the developing world, having the goal of converting 14.67 million hectares of cropland to forests by 2010, primarily targeting high-slope and marginal lands. The program is being implemented in more than 2000 counties across 25 provinces in China and affects tens of millions of rural households using PES models to promote afforestation.

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Using ecosystem valuation to protect the Atlantic Rainforest: the case of the Oasis Project

Background

The article explores the Oasis Project, which is a payment for ecosystem services program that aims to protect the Atlantic Forest in Brazil. The program was established in 1990 in response to the destruction of the forest. The Oasis Project aims to provide drinking water to approximately 17 million in the Sao Paulo metropolitan region by financially compensating landowners engaged in maintaining forest cover in their proprieties. 

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Marco regulatório sobre pagamento por serviços ambientais no Brasil (Regulatory framework of payment for ecosystem services in Brazil)

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