Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations- FAO
Payments for Environmental Services (PES) from Agricultural Landscapes
Establishing environment
PES are about sharing power- flexible and decentralized negotiations over resource management
Supportive policy and regulation
PES schemes require the clarification of property rights of environmental services and the adaptation or creation of institutional and administrative arrangements to collect and distribute funds locally. It may require investment in areas covering different administrative boundaries requiring combined efforts from different scales and domains of public administration, within a country or even across countries. It is common to require the creation of new municipal laws or the creation of decentralized offices of national bodies. Often, a new entity is created to bridge the gaps.
National regulations, such as cap and trade policies on greenhouse gas emissions, biodiversity offsets or wetland banking (more on Menu 1- add link), can also encourage support for PES schemes as ways of generating environmental improvements which will help buyers to comply with the new imposed limits on environmental impacts.
Effective negotiations
Because PES agreements require voluntary commitments from land managers and environmental service beneficiaries and the combined efforts of different institutions, negotiations are really the core of the PES development process.
Rather than offering a wish list, listen to what providers are willing to do.
Ensure that the beneficiaries' different needs are acknowledged - some might be interested in increasing tree cover for carbon sequestration, others may be against the increased water use that new tree plantations would generate.
