Collective payments for ecosystem services: a counterpart of commodification and privatization trends in nature conservation?

Ecology and Society: a journal of integrative science for resilience and sustainability

article

Josef Kaiser¹  Dagmar Haase¹  Tobias Krueger¹ 

[1] Department of Geography, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin;Department of Computational Landscape Ecology, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research;Integrative Research Institute on Transformations of Human-Environment Systems ,(IRI THESys), Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

关键词: collective action;    collective payments for ecosystem services;    commodification;    community-based payments for ecosystem services;    environmental governance;    land tenure;    privatization;    property;   

DOI  :  10.5751/ES-13549-280113

学科分类：生物科学（综合）

来源: Resilience Alliance Publications

【 摘 要 】

Payments for ecosystem services (PES) gained an increasing importance in science and politics within the last decades.Although the enthusiasm about PES is particularly high in Environmental Economics, opponents criticize the market-based characterof PES and the associated commodification as well as privatization trends. By means of a systematic literature review we aim at sheddinglight on the complex and controversial debate about how to define commodification and related privatization processes and how theyare linked to PES outcomes. We do so by setting a particular focus on the potentials and challenges of community-based and collectivePES (C-PES), also in contrast to PES targeting land under private land tenure (P-PES). Our results reveal that C-PES show promisingresults when targeting local communities with a high level of social capital. However, there is a lack of studies that systematically assessthe relations between different degrees of commodification and the ecological and social outcome of PES programs. For this reason,we provide a new conceptual framework of commodification by highlighting two interrelated spheres, where PES-relatedcommodification processes take place: The first sphere relates to the commodification of ES-providing land, which greatly depends onthe land tenure regime in place. The second sphere addresses the commodification of ecosystem services (ES). Our review indicatesthat C-PES show rather low degrees of commodification in the first sphere because the ES-providing land is often less embedded intoprivate land markets. This is due to often missing alienation rights, more complex decision-making processes, and a potentially lowerprofit-orientation of the landowners. Empirical long-term studies are needed to investigate changes in both spheres of commodificationover time, their potential interactions, and how they affect the outcome of C-PES and P-PES programs.

【 授权许可】

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