More than just linking the nodes: civil society actors as intermediaries in the design and implementation of payments for ecosystem services–the case of a blue carbon project in Costa Rica

While in many cases the benefits of ecosystem services (ES) can be enjoyed on different scales, the provision of ES requires engagement and commitment at the local scale. Therefore, the local level becomes important when thinking about compensation schemes or payments for ecosystem services (PES) as an approach to managing ES. The difficult task of bringing together different actors and institutions at different scales for specific conservation projects at the local level often remains in the hands of intermediaries. In this paper, we investigate the role of a civil society organisation (CSO) as an intermediary organisation in a PES scheme, the Community Blue Carbon Project (CBCP) in Costa Rica. To assess the role of intermediaries in a PES scheme, we rely on social network analysis and examine the position and role of the intermediary organisation. Based on Net-Map interviews, which is an interview-based mapping tool that helps people understand, visualise, discuss and improve situations in which many different actors influence outcomes, we find that the intermediary organisation in the CBCP is composed of several institutional and individual intermediaries who create both formal networks for connecting the international to the local level and informal networks for creating trusting relationships among the actors. Different spatial levels are reflected within the CSO’s organisational structure, and the CSO mitigates the distributional, procedural, recognition and contextual aspects of environmental justice.     

Political Modernization in China's Forest Governance? Payment Schemes for Forest Ecological Services in Liaoning

Payment for environmental services (PES) schemes are increasingly being introduced in developed and developing countries for the ecological conservation of forests also. Such payment schemes resemble a new mode of forest governance labelled political modernization, in which centralized and state-based command-and-control policies make room for market dynamics, non-state actors, and decentralization. In entering the new Millennium, China has massively started using payment schemes to conserve its forests. An analysis of the implementation of the Forest Ecological Benefit Compensation Fund Programme in Liaoning Province is used to investigate whether China's PES schemes resemble notions of political modernization. It is concluded that Liaoning Province introduced market dynamics and farmer participation in the implementation of its PES scheme, but in a way different from that theorized by political modernization scholars. Hence, it should rather be seen as a ‘Chinese style’ political modernization process.     

Beer,beef, and boards: the role of intermediaries in payment for ecosystem services arrangements in northwestern Montana

Payments for ecosystem or ecological services (PES) are voluntary, often market-based approaches to protecting environmental values. In the rural United States, some landowners receive PES through government led conservation programs, but little is known about their involvement in market based arrangements. We analyzed three examples of market based PES arrangements in northwestern Montana: watershed restoration and craft brewing, niche meat production, and certified timber supplies. We find that intermediaries were working between buyers and sellers in each case to set conditions for transactions and undertake the mechanics of implementation. These findings align with existing conceptualizations of intermediaries as crucial links in PES arrangements, but also suggest that intermediaries for market based PES arrangements are not always facilitators or neutral nongovernmental actors; they may actually be from the private sector and drive the process by serving as buyers. This research contributes to stronger understanding of the possibilities for local market based conservation in the rural West.     

Trade-Offs Between Biodiversity Conservation and Economic Development in Five Tropical Forest Landscapes

This study explores how conservation and development are interlinked and quantifies their reciprocal trade-offs. It identifies interventions which hold a promise to improve both conservation and development outcomes. The study finds that development trajectories can either be at the cost of conservation or can benefit conservation, but in all cases sustained poverty negatively affects conservation in the long term. Most scenarios with better outcomes for conservation come at a cost for development and the financial benefits of payments for environmental services (PES) are not sufficient to compensate for lost opportunities to earn cash. However, implementation of strategies for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in locations with low population densities come close to overcoming opportunity costs. Environmental services and subsistence income enhance the attractiveness of conservation scenarios to local people and in situations where these benefits are obvious, PES may provide the extra cash incentive to tip the balance in favor of such a scenario. The paper stresses the importance of external factors (such as industrial investments and the development of the national economy) in determining landscape scale outcomes, and suggests a negotiating and visioning role for conservation agencies.     

Environmental service payments: evaluating biodiversity conservation trade-offs and cost-efficiency in the Osa Conservation Area, Costa Rica

The cost-efficiency of payments for environmental services (PES) to private landowners in the Osa Conservation Area, Costa Rica, is evaluated in terms of the trade-off between biodiversity representation and opportunity costs of conservation to agricultural and forestry land-use. Using available GIS data and an 'off-the-shelf' software application called TARGET, we find that the PES allocation criteria applied by authorities in 2002-2003 were more than twice as cost-efficient as criteria applied during 1999-2001. Results show that a policy relevant assessment of the cost-effectiveness of PES relative to other conservation policies can be carried out at regional level using available studies and GIS data. However, there are a number of data and conceptual limitations to using heuristic optimisation algorithms in the analysis of the cost-efficiency of PES. Site specific data on probabilities of land-use change, and a detailed specification of opportunity costs of farm land, labour and capital are required to use algorithms such as TARGET for ranking individual sites based on cost-efficiency. Despite its conceptual soundness for regional conservation analysis, biodiversity complementarity presents a practical challenge as a criterion for PES eligibility at farm level because it varies depending on the set of areas under PES contracts at any one time.     

Who participates in conservation initiatives? Case studies in six rural communities of Mexico

Previous studies attempting to explain the factors that determine local participation in conservation initiatives have concluded that socio-political exclusion is the main barrier to being involved in such initiatives. Such studies have not differentiated between different types of conservation initiatives. In this paper, we contribute to the literature analyzing the socio-cultural correlates of participation, by differentiating between participation in three types of conservation schemes: protected areas, payment for environmental services, and community conservation. We use data obtained from six rural communities in Mexico, where different combinations of conservation schemes are found. Through linear regression analysis, we explore the relationship between participation and (1) the community of residence; (2) demographics; and (3) socioeconomic characteristics of individuals. Our results suggest that local participation in conservation strategies depends, to a large extent, on the socio-political context in which they are embedded and that the exclusion of women and young adults is clearly consistent.     

Cui bono: the Scottish Climate Challenge Fund and community benefits

This study adopted an open-ended exploratory approach to elicit the perspectives of a selection of six Climate Challenge Fund projects. This central idea is that communities' perspective on attempted carbon reduction initiative in their areas has use in other contexts and could enable better design of such interventions in future. The main finding was that emphasising local benefits was conducive to their achieving local involvement in the project. The results of this research should be tested in other contexts. Three broad implications for the design of community carbon reduction initiatives are raised in assuming these outcomes are correct. First, the community hosting such initiatives should be perceived to hold a degree of power over the project. Second, central authorities should not be overly prohibitive about the motivations of those participating in such projects. Finally, the use of non-environmental messaging has value in shifting people to more pro-environmental behaviours.     

Transforming the Integrated Conservation and Development Project (ICDP) Approach: Observations from the Ranomafana National Park Project, Madagascar

Preservation of the biological diversity and ecosystems in protected areas can be achieved through projects linking conservation of the protected areas with improved standards of living for resident peoples within surrounding buffer zones. This is the hypothetical claim of the integrated conservation and development project (ICDP) approach to protected area management. This paper, based on several years of experience with the Ranomafana National Park Project in Madagascar, questions the major assumptions of this approach from ethical and practical perspectives. The four basic strategies available to ICDPs – protected areas, buffer zones, compensation, and economic development – are analyzed and shown to be deficient or untested in the case of Ranomafana. Recommendations are made to explore conservation models other than the western conception of the national park, to modify the notion of a buffer zone outside the protected area, to redistribute money or other resources directly to the poor people living in and around the protected areas, and to eliminate the middle men in the development business. An appeal is made to focus on local education, organization and discipline in order to promote self-determination and self-reliance among resident peoples of protected areas. The paper argues that a public works program, similar to the Roosevelt administration's Civilian Conservation Corps of the 1930s, funded through a hard-currency endowment or other innovative financing mechanism, should be tried as a replacement for the currently questionable ICDP approach at Ranomafana.     

基于生态学研究制定湿地保护策略：以台湾七股湿地为例

制定合理有效的滨海湿地保护法律制度和管理策略,需要我们理解生物多样性、生态功能和生态系统服务之间的相互关系,并正确地评估滨海湿地的脆弱性以及人类活动和环境变化对湿地的影响。然而,当前滨海湿地保护政策制定过程中有关生态及经济评估数据尚显不足。在此,本文以台湾七股滨海区域作为案例,展示了滨海湿地环境保护政策制定过程生态学研究发挥的影响力,并体现出对其他领域和当地居民相互协作的力量整合,最终实现湿地保护的策略。     

Does Community-Based Conservation Shape Favorable Attitudes Among Locals? An Empirical Study from Nepal

Like many developing countries, Nepal has adopted a community-based conservation (CBC) approach in recent years to manage its protected areas mainly in response to poor park–people relations. Among other things, under this approach the government has created new “people-oriented” conservation areas, formed and devolved legal authority to grassroots-level institutions to manage local resources, fostered infrastructure development, promoted tourism, and provided income-generating trainings to local people. Of interest to policy-makers and resource managers in Nepal and worldwide is whether this approach to conservation leads to improved attitudes on the part of local people. It is also important to know if personal costs and benefits associated with various intervention programs, and socioeconomic and demographic characteristics influence these attitudes. We explore these questions by looking at the experiences in Annapurna and Makalu-Barun Conservation Areas, Nepal, which have largely adopted a CBC approach in policy formulation, planning, and management. The research was conducted during 1996 and 1997; the data collection methods included random household questionnaire surveys, informal interviews, and review of official records and published literature. The results indicated that the majority of local people held favorable attitudes toward these conservation areas. Logistic regression results revealed that participation in training, benefit from tourism, wildlife depredation issue, ethnicity, gender, and education level were the significant predictors of local attitudes in one or the other conservation area. We conclude that the CBC approach has potential to shape favorable local attitudes and that these attitudes will be mediated by some personal attributes.     

Valuation of open space and conservation features in residential subdivisions

Conservation subdivision design has been promoted as a way to protect ecologically sensitive areas while maintaining housing densities comparable to standard subdivisions, but many developers and planners question the appeal of conservation design to consumers. This study was conducted to compare economic aspects of conservation subdivision design to standard subdivision design in the midwestern United States. Three methods were used to determine the value homebuyers have for embedded conservation features in residential areas: transactional analyses (to indicate the value homebuyers have expressed for such features in the past); hedonic analyses (to determine the proportion of present value of homes attributable to such features); and contingent valuation (to examine willingness to pay according to homebuyers' preferred features, an indicator of potential future investment). Transactional analyses were based on assessment and transaction data for homes in three conservation-oriented subdivisions and three standard subdivisions in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, United States. Hedonic price models were also derived from assessment and transaction data. Contingent valuation analyses were based on a survey of residents in the same six subdivisions. Transactional data indicated higher 5-year appreciation rates for conservation versus standard subdivision design. Hedonic price models revealed that well-integrated conservation features (e.g. protected stream corridors) within subdivisions have a positive effect on home prices. Sixty-six percent of all respondents indicated willingness to pay for more embedded open space. Maximum willingness to pay was related to several factors including income, gender, desired level of open space, and concern about urban development. Overall, these results indicate that consumer demand and willingness to pay for conservation subdivision design are positive and should not be considered a barrier to implementation.     

Community Forestry as Perceived by Local People Around Cross River National Park, Nigeria

The prior identification of local people’s preferences for conservation-development projects will help gear nature-conservation strategies toward the needs of different groups of local people. This will help policy-makers in designing a more acceptable and effective conservation strategy. This article reports a study of local perceptions of a community forestry project that aims to help improve the design as well as local acceptance of the project. The data originated from personal interviews conducted in communities around Okwangwo Division of the Cross River National Park in southeast Nigeria and were analysed using ordered logit and binary logit models. The results showed that >50% of the respondents were satisfied with the community forestry project. The respondents’ perceptions were mainly influenced by education, age, gender, and willingness to contribute money to tourism as well as the contributions of cocoa, banana, and afang (Gnetum africanum) to the respondents’ income. The results from this study have important implications for nature conservation in Nigeria and potentially other conservation contexts across the developing world.     

Visitor payback: panacea or pandora's box for conservation in the UK?

This paper assesses the efficacy and relevance of visitor payback as a tool for recreation management in the UK. Visitor payback is essentially a voluntary payment made by visitors towards conservation, differing significantly from the compulsory tourist or bed tax practised in other countries. Attention has recently focused on this technique as a means to supplement the limited funds available for conservation work. However, whilst there are several schemes operating in the UK, there is a dearth of published research that has critically reviewed the concept and operationalization of visitor payback. The research reported here utilizes primary and secondary data to include case studies, semi-structured interviews and focus groups. The findings reveal that visitor payback is a complex concept to evaluate, both in theory and practice, involving a range of benefits and disbenefits. Financial benefits appear less prevalent than the more esoteric ‘feel good’ factor, increased awareness about conservation and partnerships that are evident in payback schemes. Support for visitor payback varies considerably with visitors strongly receptive, whilst the tourism business interests are more cautious. It is concluded that visitor payback needs to be re-conceptualized in more positive terms as a ‘visitor investment scheme’ where conservation takes precedence over financial considerations. Further research is required to try and demystify the tourism business resistance to visitor payback as its potential seems somewhat constrained in the present climate.     

Ethical Considerations in Agro-biodiversity Research,Collecting, and Use

Humans have always played a crucial role in the evolutionary dynamics of agricultural biodiversity and thus there is a strong relationship between these resources and human cultures. These agricultural resources have long been treated as a global public good, and constitute the livelihoods of millions of predominantly poor people. At the same time, agricultural biodiversity is under serious threat in many parts of the world despite extensive conservation efforts. Ethical considerations regarding the collecting, research, and use of agricultural biodiversity are currently topics of great concern. For example, easy access to genetic resources for breeding purposes is important, but international agreements and legal frameworks are necessary to ensure adequate recognition of the contributions of local communities and traditional farmers in creating and nurturing these resources. Here, we assess ethical principles in the context of existing codes of conduct that are relevant for agro-biodiversity researchers. We aim to create awareness among scientists and policy makers who are concerned with agro-biodiversity research and its potential impact on local communities. We encourage a serious assessment of the ethical principles presented here and hope to facilitate an integration of these principles into the reader’s personal ethical framework. Key ethical principles considered here include the importance of obtaining prior informed consent, equity, and the inalienability of rights of local communities and farmers.     

Environmental Subsidiarity as a Guiding Principle for Forestry Governance: Application to Payment for Ecosystem Services and REDD+ Architecture

This article describes and proposes the “environmental subsidiarity principle” as a guiding ethical value in forestry governance. Different trends in environmental management such as local participation, decentralization or global governance have emerged in the last two decades at the global, national and local level. This article suggests that the conscious or unconscious application of subsidiarity has been the ruling principle that has allocated the level at which tasks have been assigned to different agents. Based on this hypothesis this paper describes the principle of subsidiarity and its application to environmental policies within forest governance and proposes the “environmental subsidiarity” principle as a critical conceptual tool for sustainable resource management. The paper explains as an example how “environmental subsidiarity” is the key principle that can link payment for ecosystem services (PES) with environmental public policies and applies this principle with all its political consequences to reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, and enhancing forest carbon stocks in developing countries (REDD+) architecture. It concludes by showing how the adoption of “environmental subsidiarity” as a ethical principle could help to maximize benefits to all stakeholders involved in PES schemes such as REDD+.     

Assessing Societal Impacts When Planning Restoration of Large Alluvial Rivers: A Case Study of the Sacramento River Project, California

Studies have shown that ecological restoration projects are more likely to gain public support if they simultaneously increase important human services that natural resources provide to people. River restoration projects have the potential to influence many of the societal functions (e.g., flood control, water quality) that rivers provide, yet most projects fail to consider this in a comprehensive manner. Most river restoration projects also fail to take into account opportunities for revitalization of large-scale river processes, focusing instead on opportunities presented at individual parcels. In an effort to avoid these pitfalls while planning restoration of the Sacramento River, we conducted a set of coordinated studies to evaluate societal impacts of alternative restoration actions over a large geographic area. Our studies were designed to identify restoration actions that offer benefits to both society and the ecosystem and to meet the information needs of agency planning teams focusing on the area. We worked with local partners and public stakeholders to design and implement studies that assessed the effects of alternative restoration actions on flooding and erosion patterns, socioeconomics, cultural resources, and public access and recreation. We found that by explicitly and scientifically melding societal and ecosystem perspectives, it was possible to identify restoration actions that simultaneously improve both ecosystem health and the services (e.g., flood protection and recreation) that the Sacramento River and its floodplain provide to people. Further, we found that by directly engaging with local stakeholders to formulate, implement, and interpret the studies, we were able to develop a high level of trust that ultimately translated into widespread support for the project.     

The double-edged sword of grant funding: a study of community-led climate change initiatives in remote rural Scotland

Community-led initiatives are commonly advocated as an effective way of encouraging individuals to adopt more sustainable lifestyles. Since 2008, the Scottish Government's climate challenge fund (CCF) has distributed over £50 million in grants to community-led, carbon-saving projects across the country. Drawing on participant observation within two CCF organisations in remote rural Scotland, this paper examines the assumption that the receipt of government funding is necessarily of overall benefit to community-led initiatives attempting to facilitate more sustainable communities in the long term. Observations indicate that funding can bring with it a number of significant complications to community-scale action as a result of: (i) misaligned output timeframes, (ii) administration demands, and (iii) local competition. It is concluded that the design of funding schemes can in fact hamper the full potential of grassroots initiatives to engender more sustainable lifestyles throughout the community.     

Understanding the Local Socio-political Processes Affecting Conservation Management Outcomes in Corbett Tiger Reserve,India

Several measures have been recommended to guarantee a sustainable population of tigers: sufficient inviolate spaces for a viable population, sufficient prey populations, trained and skilled manpower to guard against poaching and intrusion, banning trade in tiger products to reduce poaching, and importantly, the political will to precipitate these recommendations into implementation. Of these, the creation of sufficient inviolate spaces (generally in the form of protected areas) has created the most issues with local resource-dependent communities, often resulting in significant challenges for tiger conservation policy and management. Very little empirical research has, however, been done to understand and contextualize the local-level socio-political interactions that may influence the efficacy of tiger conservation in India. In this paper, we present the results of exploratory research into the ways in which local-stakeholder groups affect the management of Corbett Tiger Reserve (CTR). Using a combined grounded theory–case study research design, and the Institutional Analysis and Development framework for analysis, we identify the socio-political processes through which local-stakeholder groups are able to articulate their issues and elicit desirable actions from the management of CTR. Increasing our awareness of these processes can help inform the design and implementation of more effective tiger conservation management and policy strategies that have the potential to create more supportive coalitions of tiger conservation stakeholders at the local level.     

Local people's attitudes towards conservation and wildlife tourism around Sariska Tiger Reserve, India

Conservationists in the recent years view local peoples' support for protected areas management as an important element of biodiversity conservation. This is often linked to the direct benefits, which local communities get from the protected areas. These benefits could be in the form of biomass resources, park funds diverted to local villages by state agencies and revenue from wildlife tourism. There are a very few studies which have attempted to study the direct relationship between benefits from wildlife tourism and local support for conservation. In India, wildlife tourism is restricted, and mostly controlled by state and private agencies. Wildlife conservation policy does not view tourism in protected areas as a source of revenue for the local communities. The present study examines the local people's attitudes towards wildlife tourism and the impact of benefits from tourism on the local support for Sariska Tiger Reserve (STR), India. STR is a flagship for tourism where protected areas are increasingly being visited and where local support for wildlife tourism has not been studied adequately. Results indicate that two-thirds of the respondents were positive towards tourism and support for conservation. The respondents were aware that more tourism benefits are possible from a well-conserved protected area. There appears to be correlation between benefits obtained by local people from wildlife tourism and other sources, and support for protected area existence, suggesting that benefits impact people's attitudes towards conservation. Some of the main problems are the unequal distribution of tourism benefits, lack of locals' involvement in tourism and development. There is a need to clearly address these issues, so that protected areas may get the support of local people, which may lead to sustainable development.     

The miombo woodlands at the cross roads: Potential threats, sustainable livelihoods, policy gaps and challenges

The Miombo, the most extensive tropical woodland formation of Africa directly supports the livelihoods of over 100 million people through the provision of many tree products and ecosystem services essential to both the rural and urban communities. While the destruction of the Miombo has often been blamed on the rural communities dwelling near the forest resources, many urban dwellers depend heavily on the various products derived from the woodlands. This paper highlights the importance of the Miombo in the livelihoods of rural people, the potential threats to this ecosystem and opportunities for its sustainable management. About 70% of energy consumed in southern Africa is in the form of fuelwood or charcoal. The economic importance of the Miombo especially from non-timber forest products (NTFPs) is usually understated due to their perceived non-economic value yet they play an important role in sustaining livelihoods of forest dependent people in the miombo ecoregion. The Miombo also contributes to health services through the use of medicinal plant and products, in some cases, contributing up to 80% to rural health, including helping in coping with effects of HIV/AIDS, malaria and several diseases. The possibility of developing payment for environmental services schemes through public–private partnerships, and community-based sustainable management models are proposed. Through conservation and commercialization of some of the products and services, there is a potential to provide income and improve the livelihood of people involved in the trade along the value chain.