This presentation was given by Luca Tacconi from ANU on the “Regional workshop on Payment for Environmental Services” on November 19 2014 in Hanoi, Vietnam. The overall aim of the workshop was to enhance the understanding and capacity of policy makers, PES practioners, and researcher communities on the topic of payments for ecosystem services and ecosystem-based approaches and also to increase dialogue between them on latest lessons learned and recommendations for effective, efficient and equitable implementation of PES.

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Luca Tacconi
Crawford School of Public Policy
The Australian National University
Environmental Governance
Regional Synthesis of PES
in the Greater Mekong Region

2. Definitions of PES
Cambodia country study uses:
a ‘transfer of resources between social actors, which
aims to create incentives to align individual and/or
collective land use decisions with the social interest in
the management of natural resources’ (Muradian et al. 2010)
With a focus on:
•importance of the economic incentive
•directness of the transfer, i.e. role of intermediary
•degree of commodification of ES
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3. Definitions of PES
Laos country study uses:
‘a voluntary transaction where a well-defined ES
[environmental service] (or a land-use likely to
secure that service) is being ‘bought’ by a
(minimum one) ES buyer from a (minimum one)
ES provider, if and only if the ES provider secures
ES provision (conditionality)’ (Wunder 2005)
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4. Definitions of PES
In the review I note that PES schemes should:
•be transparent
•provide additional environmental services (ES)
•with conditional payments
•to voluntary providers
And I make explicit all the key elements on a PES
scheme, and use them to consider PES scheme in
the region
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5. Comparison of key features
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6. Comparison of key features
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7. Comparison of key features
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8. Comparison of key features
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9. Lessons learnt from implementation
1. Lack of understanding of the contribution of ES
to social and economic activities in Thailand
Cambodia and Laos
– Continued information dissemination and capacity
building activities targeting senior government officials
1. Capture by political elite and corruption are
obstacles to improved resource management
and PES, but PES could also contribute to
improved governance
– Promote the design of accountable and transparent
PES schemes
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10. 3. In Laos there is view that all citizens should
contribute to the conservation of ecosystems
without implementing benefit sharing programs,
not due to the political system
– Need further consideration of how that view could be
influenced in order to provide more benefits to rural
people through PES schemes
4. There is no necessary conflict between the use
on of a policy tool such as PES and the
maintenance of a socialist system, as
demonstrated by Vietnam
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Lessons learnt from implementation

11. 5. PES schemes in the region do not consider the
ES providers’ opportunity costs This is a
concern cause ES providers could be
negatively affected.
– Implementers of PES schemes in the region should
address this issue as a matter of priority
6. Payments for the conservation of forest areas
(Vietnam) do not closely reflect differences in
quality of forest
– Important issue from an economic perspective, but
needs to be carefully managed given possible social
tensions if implemented
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Lessons learnt from implementation

12. 7. Provision of benefits to the ES providers is
unlikely to occur, or simply be viable, unless
resource use or property rights are attributed to
them
– This is a priority issue for consideration by governments
8. PES schemes in the region do not measure and
monitor ES that are supposedly provided by the
schemes
– This a priority issue that needs capacity building
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Lessons learnt from implementation

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To conclude…
• The countries considered are at different stages of PES
development. The experience of the most advanced
ones can be usefully considered by the other countries
• The most advanced PES scheme has several positive
features, but there are concerns identified in relation to
all the schemes analysed
• These concerns should be addressed to ensure that
rural people, the ES providers, benefit as much as
possible from the PES schemes