A systematic review of scientific publications on the effects of payments for ecosystem services in Latin America, 2000–2020

Maria Perevochtchikova, Ricardo Castro-Díaz, Alfonso Langle-Flores and Juan José Von Thaden Ugalde

Ecosystem Services, 2021, vol. 49, issue C

Abstract: This article presents a systematic review of scientific publications on the effects of payments for ecosystem services (PES) schemes in Latin America (LA) from 2000–2020. A multi-dimensional perspective, using the Search, Appraisal, Synthesis, Analysis (SALSA) framework was followed to explore, describe and determine the PES effect in scientific articles indexed in Scopus, SciELO and Redalyc databases. We applied the qualitative method to describe the PES schemes, principal trends and general tendencies in studies reported in 72 pre-selected publications. The qualitative analysis included methodological steps, such as search, article screening, coding, data extraction, analysis and synthesis. Our review reveals that PES schemes in Latin America are primarily supported by public funds that are implemented at national scale with an average timescale of five years. The schemes are largely oriented toward conservation goals, hydrological modality and forestry systems, and are dominated by the traditional disciplinary approaches. The predominant effects of the schemes are mainly related to positive weak changes on environmental, social and economic aspects. In addition, collaboration among co-authors involved the USA, Mexico, Spain, Brazil, Costa Rica and the UK (including an important percentage of publications with authors from non-LA countries), with incipient LA intercountry co-workers. Results from this systematic review highlight issues that represent future challenges for studies of PES effects and open further dialog to improve the effectiveness of compensation programs to reduce the replication of undesirable impacts, lack of additionality, and the pursuit of perverse incentives regarding the complexity of social-ecological systems.

Keywords: State of art; PES effects; SALSA framework; Evidence synthesis; Semantic network analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212041621000280
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:ecoser:v:49:y:2021:i:c:s2212041621000280

DOI: 10.1016/j.ecoser.2021.101270

Access Statistics for this article

Ecosystem Services is currently edited by Leon C Braat

More articles in Ecosystem Services from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().