Pranab R Choudhury CGIAR SEMINAR SERIES Payments for Ecosystem Services: Win-Win Solutions? Co-organized by IFPRI, the CGIAR, and Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) Session at Tropentag 2023 SEP 21, 2023 - 7:45 TO 9:15AM EDT

1. The Promise of Commons in the context
of PES Markets :
Learning of FES in India
Pranab R Choudhury

2. Promises of Commons :
Potential Economic (Green Market) Opportunities through a System Lens
From a Village Socio-Ecological System (Landscape mosaic)
Pasture
Forest
Farm
Wetlands
Supply
Chain
Economy
Value
Chain
Economy
Village
Landscape
Mosaic
of
Commons
&
Private
X
3
Production
phases

4
Eco-Opportunities
Streams

3. Community-Forest Relations/
Stewardship Practices –
Local mechanisms critical for global resilience
GLOCAL benefits (?)
Win-Win for Nature, Community & Market?
Value
Care, Co-
existence
Management
Traditional
Knowledge &
Practices
Governance
Institution,
Tenure,
Gender
Cultural,
Social,
recreational
provisions
Ecosystem
Services
(Carbon,
Biodiversity,
Water,
Nutrition)
Products
Food, NTFP,
Fuelwood,
Fodder,
Timber
Community
Wellbeing &
Commons
Resilience
Climate Action
(PES)
Bundled Ecosystem Products & Services
Global (Regulatory services) & Local
(Provisioning - Food and livelihoods products
& farm-services as well as other socio-
cultural services )

4. Meghalaya & Odisha :
Early Insights into System Thinking of Community, &
Potential Risks from Linear & Commodity approach
Bundled Eco-opportunities
• Forest as source of local food and
medicine
• Timber and Fuel wood
• NTFP – Hill broom for livelihoods
• Watershed and Nutrition services
• Forest Paths – social & recreational
spaces
• Reducing employment/ engagement
with forest
• Increasing extractive actions – stone
quarry, Private timber forests
Forest-People Relations
• Value : Care & Co-existence (view on
pests & wildlife damage in farm to
livestock grazing in forests)
• Governance : Hierarchical Landscape
to Village Tenure – Community-
Individual continuum
• Management : Forest-Pasture- Farm
(Horti-Paddy) continuum, Poh-Bun
system (Shifting Cultivation on Grass
lands), Ethno-silviculture
• Increasing tenure- individualisation,
knowledge erosion, weakening of
local governance
Project Intervention
• PES Scheme in Meghalaya – Copy
book forestry project premised
external knowledge and control –
limited FPIC, risking local
governance, management and value
systems
• JFM & CFR Management overlap in
Odisha : Project based approach
weakening local governance and
knowledge, while rights recognition
potentially reviving community value

5. For a Win- Win Option in PES-Ecosystem
Shift to System approach is Imperative
Carbon
Commodification :
Unbundling of Forest-
People relation;
limited scope of Co-
benefits or Carbon +
Colonial Market Structure &
Dynamics :
Risk to Community Tenure &
Governance, FPIC, fair share &
environmental Justice
Methodology focusing
More on Quality &
Integrity : Challenges
of Additionality for
Community
Colonisation to Communitisation
FPIC + (Project & methodology development, Monitoring, enhanced voice,
participation and share)
Commodification to Bundling
Co-benefits, Carbon+++
Reductionism to Holism
India’s Green Credit, Verra’s Nature Credit
Adding Socio-ecological lens to Science & Market based Approach
Enhancing Community Voice and Engagement of CSO in PES Market

6. Thanks!
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