Pro-poor Payment for Environmental Services: Some Considerations

PES is a new concept gaining momentum in the Asia-Pacific region. But what are the enabling conditions for employing PES schemes, and how can they be made pro-poor? Payment for Environmental Services (PES) sets up systems where beneficiaries of environmental services reward the providers of such services with payments or other non-financial goods (market access, land security, public services, infrastructure, capacity building). However, the Asia-Pacific region has relatively little experience with PES, and risks and challenges remain towards realizing pro-poor PES schemes.

This introductory brief considers several key questions:

• Why consider PES?
• Under what conditions is PES likely to work?
• What is the potential for a pro-poor PES scheme?
• What are the challenges and potential risk for a pro-poor PES?
• Potential roles for governments?