Why do farmers join Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) schemes? An Assessment of PES water scheme participation in Brazil

Matheus A. Zanella, Christian Schleyer and Stijn Speelman

Ecological Economics, 2014, vol. 105, issue C, 166-176

Abstract: Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) have become a popular instrument in the last decades and this growing trend is also clearly evident in Brazil. However, challenges related to implementation of these schemes are often underestimated. Any guarantee that a payment will secure or provide such a service is subject not only to underlying ecological uncertainties but also to those entailed by the kinds of social interaction that are inherent to policy implementation. It is argued that the objectives proposed with these instruments can only be attained by ensuring a wide participation of land users. This article advances this topic reporting and discussing evidence on farmer's reasons to participate in three PES-water schemes in Brazil using a combination of qualitative and quantitative research approaches. Results indicate that the diverging opinions regarding how ecosystem services are generated or secured, decentralized governance structures and the involvement of representative bodies in scheme design and implementation are important factors to consider. Furthermore, access to information and general environmental concern were found to be important variables to explain the propensity of farmers to participate. This generates serious policy implications for developing consistent communication and consultation strategies with scheme beneficiaries.

Keywords: Payments for Ecosystem Services; Water governance; Participation; Environmental policy; Brazil (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (40)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921800914001840
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:105:y:2014:i:c:p:166-176

DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2014.06.004

Access Statistics for this article

Ecological Economics is currently edited by C. J. Cleveland

More articles in Ecological Economics from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu (repec@elsevier.com).