The social impacts of payments for environmental services in Costa Rica. A quantitative field survey and analysis of the Virilla watershed (original) (raw)
Related papers
Desenvolvimento e Meio Ambiente, 2015
Costa Rica’s Payment for Environmental Services Program–PESP was launched in 1997. It is a market-oriented policy instrument designed to stimulate forest conservation by making monetary payments to landowners who choose not to engage in deforestation or to engage in forest recovery or plantations on their properties. This article focuses on the basic concepts and on the early years of the program’s performance, using data published by the program’s management agency as well as data and analysis published in a limited number of the numerous texts that examine this pioneering experience in payments for environmental services. Findings show that in its early years (between 1997 and approximately 2003) the program managed to reverse a severe process of deforestation and even to expand the total area of forested lands in Costa Rica. It corrected market failures and created trade opportunities linked to the market of environmental services. It benefitted larger landowners in a more than proportional manner, a fact that precluded it from being simultaneously a poverty alleviation program. The conclusion is that the program, if targeted more precisely at small landowners, can serve as a model for comparable forest protection policies in developing countries, reducing deforestation rates, changing land uses and expanding forest cover, besides mitigating rural poverty.
Social impacts of Costa Rica's PSA program
2008
PES Learning Papers draw on the World Bank's extensive experience in supporting programs of Payments for Environmental Services (PES). They are part of a larger effort by the World Bank to provide open access to its research and make a contribution to development policy discussions around the world. The PES Learning Paper series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about PES. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank and its affiliated organizations, or those of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent. The boundaries, colors, denominations, and other information shown on any map in this work do not imply any judgment on the part of The World Bank concerning the legal status of any territory or the endorsement or acceptance of such boundaries.
Forest Policy and Economics, 2013
This article assesses, from an institutional point of view, the performance of the Costa Rican Payment for Environmental Services Program (PESP) as a conservation tool focusing on its main modality: the forest protection. The PESP has had a low direct impact on the forest cover of the country but may have had an important indirect impact as it served as compensation for the prohibition of forested land uses change. This program appeared also quite competitive from the point of view of its costs before the institutional transformation that occurred in 2008. The PESP has also proved to be a very effective fundraising tool, but it has failed in the development of strong synergies with other institutions for forest protection and it has not supported the development of sustainable forest management. From a cosean perspective, a significant potential for improvement of the PESP cost-effectiveness exists on the short term through changes in the program's rules. However, these changes often deny the program's institutional nature and could jeopardize the program effects on the long term. A safer way to improve the PESP performance is to focus on strengthening its management and governance
Payment for Environmental Services Program in Costa Rica: a policy process analysis perspective 1
2010
The concept of environmental services (ES) has been rising during the last decade. It has led to new generation of mechanisms to cope with environmental issue in various countries. In the case of Costa Rica, which is considered as pioneer country in using the ES concept, its operationalization was done though a specific policy instrument: the Payment for Environmental Services program (PESP). Most of the existing literature put the emphasis on the innovation and learning process to describe this experience. Nevertheless it does not take into account the political dimension behind the emergence and implementation of Costa Rican PESP. Based on literature review and interviews of stakeholders, we analyse the policy process that have led to the emergence and evolution of the Costa Rican PSEP to derive lesson learnt for the improvement and extension of such policy instrument. We combine (i) the sequential approach of policy cycle to identify and describe the different phase of the emerge...