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Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Rome 2011

ABSTRACT

A healthy ecosystem can provide a variety of crucial services for public goods, such as clean water, nutrient cycling, climate regulation and food security services that contribute directly or indirectly to human well-being. Yet today, many ecosystems are in decline; this is of particular importance to agriculture, which depends on ecosystem services. Loss of healthy ecosystems will seriously affect the production of food, both today and in the future. Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) is an economic instrument designed to provide positive incentives to users of agricultural land and those involved in coastal or marine management. These incentives are expected to result in continued or improved provision of ecosystem services, which, in turn, will benefit society as a whole.

Table of Contents

Foreword Preface Introduction	[434kb]
1. The role of PES in agriculture	[1Mb]
2. Relevance of OECD agri-environmental measures for PES	[922kb]
3. Opportunity and gaps in PES implementation and key areas for further investigation	[1.8Mb]
4. Cost-effective targeting of PES	[860kb]
5. Social and cultural drivers behind the success of PES	[1.5Mb]
6. Landscape labelling approaches to PES: Bundling services, products and stewards	[1.5Mb]
7. Enabling conditions and complementary legislative tools	[1.6Mb]
8. PES within the context of Green Economy	[1.9Mb]

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ISBN 978-92-5-106796-3

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