New Report Compares Payments for Environmental Services in Greater Mekong Region

With support from USAID, the Center for International Forestry Research recently published the “Regional Synthesis of Payments for Environmental Services (PES) in the Greater Mekong Region.” The report combined studies on PES schemes in Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam to compare the various schemes and assess their current statuses, implementation processes and lessons learned.

The paper finds that the actors implementing PES schemes range from national governments to NGOs. While that the potential beneficiaries of the schemes are clear, whether there are real, objective benefits for those beneficiaries is not.

Environmental services providers are unlikely to receive benefits unless resource use or property rights are attributed to them and the costs of providing those services has not been assessed by any of the schemes.

Source: USAID/RDMA Regional Environment Office Weekly Update

Related Website: http://www.cifor.org/library/5510/regional-synthesis-of-payments-for-environmental-services-pes-in-the-greater-mekong-region/