Organisation des Nations Unies pour l’alimentation et l’agriculture- FAO
Paiements des services environnementaux (PSE) dans les paysages agricoles
Paiements des services environnementaux (PSE)
Politiques de gestion environnementale(11)
Opportunities for humans to manage environments may range from penalizing negative externalities to introducing more flexible incentive mechanisms such as Payment for Environmental Services (PES). This tool can encourage the conservation and enhanced provision of regulating and supporting ecosystem services, the basis for all other types of service.Different policy options for environmental management exist when there is discrepancy between the actual level of environmental quality and the preferred one: "decentralised" policies (liability laws, changes in property rights, voluntary action), "command-and-control" policies (environmental legislation , e.g. environmental standards) and "incentive-based" policies (taxes, subsidies and transferable discharge permit systems - so called "cap and trade" regimes (12)).
One approach to environmental management, therefore, is to rely on liability laws, making polluters liable for the damages they cause: knowing that they will be held liable for environmental damages, potential polluters will make careful decisions. As an alternative, when private property rights are well defined, enforceable, and transferable, the conditions under which decentralised bargaining can produce efficient levels of environmental quality are established. In some other cases, individuals may engage in pollution-control behaviour in the absence of any formal or legal obligation to do so (voluntary action).
With "command-and-control" policies the behaviour considered as socially desirable is mandated in law and then monitored and enforced appropriately. In the case of environmental policy, such an approach consists of relying on proven standards to bring about improvements in environmental quality.
As environmental degradation advances and human demand for resources intensifies, "command-and-control" policies may not be effective enough due to enforcement problems (high costs or monitoring problems). At the same time, efforts to internalize the value of environmental assets in economic activity are likely to become a more important component of sustainable management efforts. Therefore, economic incentives (environmental taxes and subsidies, transferable discharge permits, environmental labelling) are among the most widespread incentive-based strategies for environmental management. These mechanisms seek to internalize environmental costs or benefits into production and/or consumption decisions and induce more efficient use of natural resources-PES is one of such mechanisms.(11)Field, B.C., M. K. Field (2002). Environmental Economics: An Introduction, McGraw-Hill/Irwin, New York , NY , 10020 .
(12) In a transferable discharge permit system, a new type of property right is created. It consists of a permit to emit pollutants. Each permit entitles its holder to emit one unit of the waste material specified in the right. The permts are transferable: they can be bought and sold among anybody participating in the permit market.
