Environmental governance and payments for environmental services

Abstract

This article aims reviews the development of the environmental governance arrangements of the Payment for Environmental Services (pes) in Latin America by identifying the stakeholders, normative frameworks and institutions involved in its implementation. Describing this environmental governance arrangements is particularly important since they include the management of natural resources, in this particular case, of environmental services. The analysis shows that, despite the neoliberalization of conservation, the state continues to play a key role, mainly as an arbitrating and role-assigning stakeholder. It also highlights the presence of a variety of environmental governance arrangements, characterized by the involvement of various combinations of stakeholders, particularly businesses, non governmental organizations, multilateral organizations and grassroots actors. In conclusion, although the governance arrangements of payments for environmental services have democratized the benefits of conservation, it is necessary to establish clear property rights over environmental services to offset asymmetries experienced by local communities as part of their vulnerability to the logic of neoliberal conservation.