Conservation tenders in developed and developing countries − status quo, challenges and prospects

- Conservation tender performance, potential, pitfalls, and challenges are explored.
- Success relies on economic efficiency, institutions, social and behavioral factors.
- Four key lessons for the future of conservation tenders are set out.
- Conservation tenders are concluded to be a smart but underutilized tool.

Conservation tenders − or procurement auctions − are a competitive mechanism, in which payment for ecosystem service contracts are allocated to landholders based on their submitted bids. These encompass a price and sometimes a measure for the environmental services the landholder offers to provide. This special edition comprises a set of papers from a workshop on conservation tenders across developed and developing countries. These papers assess the status quo, and the challenges and prospects of tendering approaches. Four high level lessons emerge: 1) Conservation tender performance has been robust; 2) Developed − developing country conservation tender differences are modest; 3) Conservation tender prospects are dependent on political and institutional support; and 4) Optimal conservation tender design is circumstance specific.