Payments for Ecosystem Services
Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES)
PES is a market-based approach to conserving biodiversity by compensating landowners and communities for preserving ecosystem services like clean water, carbon storage, and biodiversity. It incentivizes sustainable land use while discouraging harmful practices like deforestation.
Through PES, beneficiaries—such as consumers—pay for the protection and sustainable use of ecosystems. The system involves three key players:
- Service providers: Those who conserve and manage natural resources.
- Service users: Beneficiaries who rely on these services.
- Intermediaries: Facilitators ensuring smooth transactions between the two.
Why PES Matters
✔ Conservation – Encourages sustainable management of natural resources.
✔ Economic Support – Provides income to landowners and communities, especially in developing regions.
✔ Climate Action – Helps mitigate climate change by preserving forests and carbon sinks.
✔ Water Security – Enhances water quality through conservation efforts.
Challenges
- Monitoring – Ensuring proper implementation and impact measurement.
- Equity – Preventing benefits from being skewed toward large landowners.
- Costs – Managing transaction expenses for PES programs.
- Additionality – Verifying that PES contributions lead to real, added benefits.
PES at Last Forest
Last Forest markets honey from the Giant Rock Bee (Apis dorsata), a keystone species in tropical forests. These bees play a vital role in pollination, supporting biodiversity and sustaining ecosystems. PES enables consumers to contribute directly to forest conservation through their purchases.
Your purchases support:
🌱 Planting native trees to expand bee habitats
🐝 Promoting beekeeping within indigenous communities
📚 Training young Adivasis in traditional, sustainable harvesting methods
🌿 Ecological monitoring by barefoot ecologists
While the premium on PES products is not based on the exact cost of ecosystem services, it reflects a commitment to environmental stewardship.
A Growing Global Movement
With over 550 active PES programs worldwide, Last Forest—alongside Keystone Foundation, Nilgiri Natural History Society, and Aadhimalai—actively promotes PES. Through dedicated branding and awareness campaigns, we aim to make conservation a shared responsibility.
How can you be part of PES?
By choosing PES-backed products, you invest in a sustainable future—one where environmental conservation and economic well-being go hand in hand.
FAQs about PES
Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) is one of the most commonly used mechanisms to generate market-based revenue for biodiversity conservation. PES aims to provide benefits to landowners and land-users who preserve ecosystem services (ES). The recognition of and valuation of the ES also works to disincentivize from land use which degrades the land, such as deforestation. Payments are used to incentivize land users to properly manage and conserve their natural environment, thus ensuring the flow of ecosystem services (Pagiola and Platais, 2002). Through PES, beneficiaries of ecosystem services, i.e., consumers, pay for the conservation and sustainable use of the ecosystems they benefit from. The concept is based on the idea that ecosystems provide valuable services to society – such as water, air, and land – and that valuable resources are reusable or regenerated. PES can allow for an ecosystem to be reused or regenerated, via natural processes and social efforts such as through water purification, carbon sequestration, soil conservation, and biodiversity preservation. The benefits of PES are: Conservation and management of natural resources Economic benefits Climate change mitigation Improved water quality PES in Last Forest’s context : Honey marketed by Last Forest is from the Giant Rock Bee (Apis dorsata), which plays an important role in the forest ecosystem. Bees pollinate many species of these tropical forests, thus enabling the cycles of nature. Many other plant and animal species thrive in these forests. Many springs and streams emerge from these areas – enabling the survival of all life forms. When you buy the honey and beeswax products, you support the symbiotic relationship that exists between man and nature. The amount will be used to support the following activities: Planting tree species that increase bee habitats and colonies. Promoting beekeeping with communities. Training and knowledge exchange for the younger generation of Adivasis to imbibe traditional values and sustainable harvesting methods. Undertake Ecological monitoring in these forests with barefoot ecologists. The premium charged is not based on the actual costs of ecosystem services rendered by bees, it is a notional amount to determine willingness to pay. For further information, please access these website links: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Payment_for_ecosystem_services https://lastforest.in/pages/pay-for-ecosystem-services-pes What will PES do for you?
Pay for Ecosystem Services (PES) is a promising solution for environmental conservation that can provide economic incentives for sustainable management of natural resources. PES has the potential to address environmental challenges while also promoting social and economic development. However, PES also faces challenges and limitations that need to be addressed–by each organization, the global PES community, and consumers–to ensure its effectiveness and sustainability. As a consumer, as a business, as a beneficiary and user of resources like water and air, PES offers a regenerative path forward for you. PES is principled, yet flexible–how could you fit PES into your spaces?
