Who are the stakeholders and how do they respond to a local government payments for ecosystem services program in a developed area: A case study from Suzhou, China

Payments for ecosystem services (PES) play a crucial role in maintaining ecosystem services (ES) and adjusting stakeholder interests. In this article, we chose Suzhou as an example to explore stakeholders and their responses to a local PES system in the developed area. Suzhou's PES program complies with the Pigouvian PES conceptualization with characteristics of legal and regulatory frameworks and lack of private negotiations. The results show that, as the core stakeholders, local governments (the municipal government and concerned district/county governments) dominate the compensation process. However, other stakeholders' rights and obligations were neglected in the past in Suzhou's PES system. The study also shows that, local conditions included the PES arrangements, rural production and management patterns, and macro-economy and local governments' preference, affect the activities of stakeholders in PES. It can be concluded that developed economy and local governments' preference active motivate the PES system. Our study accordingly suggests a need to attach importance to all stakeholders involved the local PES program rather than local governments and develop private negotiation mechanism in PES systems in the developed area. The state operated PES program integrates some components of Coasean approach would be an innovation benefiting PES systems development and ES provision.