Payments for environmental services in watersheds: Insights from a comparative study of three cases in Central America

We have compared three cases of payments for water-related environmental services (PES) in Central America, in terms of socioeconomic background, opportunity costs of forest conservation and stakeholders' perceptions of the conditions of water resources and other issues. We found that, in gener...

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Published inEcological economics Vol. 61; no. 2; pp. 446 - 455
Main Authors Kosoy, Nicolas, Martinez-Tuna, Miguel, Muradian, Roldan, Martinez-Alier, Joan
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Elsevier B.V 01.03.2007
Elsevier
SeriesEcological Economics
Subjects
Case studies
Comparative analysis
Costa Rica
Environmental services
Honduras
Latin America
Nicaragua
Property rights
Rural development
Service industry
Water management
Watershed management
Rural development
Nicaragua
Property rights
Watershed management
Environmental services
Honduras
Costa Rica
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Summary:We have compared three cases of payments for water-related environmental services (PES) in Central America, in terms of socioeconomic background, opportunity costs of forest conservation and stakeholders' perceptions of the conditions of water resources and other issues. We found that, in general, the opportunity costs are larger than the amounts paid, which apparently contradicts the economic foundation of PES schemes and suggests that the role of “intangibles” is important in inducing participation. The results also show that trade-offs between different environmental and social goals are likely to emerge in PES schemes, posing some doubts as to their ability to be multipurpose instruments for environmental improvement and rural development. We also found that PES schemes may work as a conflict-resolution instrument, facilitating downstream–upstream problem solving, though at the same time they might introduce changes in social perceptions of property rights.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-2
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-1
content type line 23
ISSN:0921-8009
1873-6106
DOI:10.1016/j.ecolecon.2006.03.016