The alleged capacity of Payment for Environmental Services (PES) to reach conservation policy goals, while reducing poverty in a cost-effective manner, makes it an extremely attractive development instrument for policymakers and international funding agencies.
For an economy to “grow green”, investments must be made in natural capital.
Last month, the Organization of American States and the Dirección Ejecutiva Nacional de Honduras del Plan Trifinio held the Fourth Edition of their international course "Design and Implementation of Payments for Environmental Service Schemes" and a series of events aimed at building capacity for
Biodiversity and ecosystem services provide tangible benefits for society, such as food provisioning, water purification, genetic resources or climate regulation. These services provide critical life support functions and contribute to human health, well being and economic growth.
Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) describes the situation where the user of an environmental service, such as water purification, pays the landowners who provide that service.
Because the effectiveness of payment for ecosystem services (PES) programs depends on landowners’ engagement, understanding the relationship between the type of payment and participation is a key issue.