Payments for ecosystem services as an adaption strategy
The aim of the research project was to analyse the extent to which the concept of payment for ecosystem services may be suitable not only as an instrument to promote sustainable resource management but at the same time as a measure that could be used in Africa to adapt to climate change.
Project description
While ecosystems provide a number of ecosystem services (carbon sequestration, biodiversity conservation, hydrological services, scenic beauty), they are, as noted by the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, faced with growing degradation. One of the main reasons for the degradation of ecosystem services is that their value is not really appreciated. This is the point around which the concept of payment for ecosystem services (PES) revolves. The aim of PES is to create an incentive mechanism designed to remunerate the providers of ecosystem services for making the latter available.
The PES concept has already been successfully implemented in Latin America in particular, but also in Asia. In Africa, on the other hand, there are still relatively few functioning PES systems in place.