Improving the design of payment for ecosystem service policies: spatial coordination and collective action

Abstract

Payment for Ecosystem Service (PES) schemes are based on voluntary enrolment by land managers. Such schemes are designed to deliver additional environmental benefits to society relative to a no-payment situation. However, often the effective delivery of environmental benefits depends on spatial coordination of participation: examples of such contexts include wetlands restoration, catchment management, and biodiversity enhancement. In this presentation I summarize results from a number of recent studies where we tested out the performance of alternative mechanisms to try to enhance spatial coordination. These are the agglomeration bonus, spatially-connected conservation auctions and group participation (collective action) contracts.