Selling Forest Environmental Services Market-Based Mechanisms for Conservation and Development

Forest destruction throughout the world poses significant risks. Not only are forests a source of valuable timber and non-timber products, but they also provide important environmental services that help sustain life on Earth. However, only rarely do beneficiaries pay for the services they receive, resulting in low incentives to conserve forests, and limiting opportunities for rural development.

The risks posed by forest destruction throughout the world are highly significant for all. Not only are forests a critical source of timber and non-timber forest products, but they provide environmental services that are the basis of life on Earth. However, only rarely do beneficiaries pay for the goods and services they experience, and there are severe consequences as a result for the poor and for the forests themselves. It has proved difficult to translate the theory of market-based approaches into practice. Based on extensive research and case studies of biodiversity conservation, watershed protected and carbon sequestration, this book demonstrates how payment systems can be established in practice, their effectiveness and their implications for the poor.

List of Tables, Figures, and Boxes * Foreword * Acknowledgements * List of Contributors * Acronyms and Abbreviations * Market-based Mechanisms for Forest Conservation and Development * Forest Environmental Services: An Overview * Paying for Water Services in Central America: Learning from Costa Rica * Sharing the Benefits of Watershed Management in Sukhomajri, India * Paying to Protect Watershed Services: Wetland Banking in the United States * Financing Watershed Conservation: the FONAG Water Fund in Quito, Ecuador * Selling Biodiversity in a Coffee Cup: Shade-grown Coffee and Conservation in Mesoamerica * Conserving Land Privately: Spontaneous Markets for Land Conservation in Chile * Linking Biodiversity Prospecting and Forest Conservation * Using Fiscal Instruments to Encourage Conservation: Municipal Responses to the 'Ecological' Value-added Tax in Parana and Minas Geras, Brazil * Developing a Market for Forest Carbon in British Columbia * Helping Indigenous Farmers to Participate in the International Market for Carbon Services: The Case of Australian Forests * Insuring Forest Sinks * Making Market-based Mechanisms Work for Forests and People * Index

Stefano Pagiola is senior environmental economist in the Environment Department of the World Bank. Joshua Bishop is the director of the Environmental Economics Programme at the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED). Natasha Landell-Mills is a research associate of the Environmental Programme at IIED.