Evidence of Payments for Ecosystem Services as a mechanism for supporting biodiversity conservation and rural livelihoods

Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) represent a mechanism for promoting sustainable management of ecosystem services, and can also be useful for supporting rural development. However, few studies have demonstrated quantitatively the benefits for biodiversity and rural communities resulting from PES. In this paper we review four initiatives in Guatemala, Cambodia, and Tanzania that were designed to support the conservation of biodiversity through the use of community-based PES. Each case study documents the utility of PES for conserving biodiversity and enhancing rural livelihoods and, from these examples, we distill general lessons learned about the use of PES for conserving biodiversity and supporting poverty reduction in rural areas of tropical, developing countries.