Environmental NGOs, policy entrepreneurs of market-based instruments for ecosystem services? A comparison of Costa Rica, Madagascar and France

• Diffusion of market based instruments for ecosystem services varies by countries.
• Environmental NGOs play a key role in the diffusion.
• Influence of environmental NGOs on policies primarily depends on national contexts.
• Instruments do not develop uniformly in different territories

Market based instruments for ecosystem services have become the norm since the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment advanced the concept of “ecosystem services” as an international reference in global governance. In this way, market based instruments for ecosystem services have increasingly been implemented within nation States. In this paper we analyze the role of environmental nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in spreading market based instruments for ecosystem services. We put forward the hypothesis that: when a State cannot adequately defend its political and economic sovereignty to produce its own public policies, then the environmental NGOs are strong policy entrepreneurs, that are able to diffuse standards and policy instruments. When a State is more politically and economically capable, the role of environmental NGOs as policy entrepreneurs is more limited. To test this hypothesis, we analyze the diffusion of market based instruments for ecosystem services in three contrasted countries regarding State and NGOs' respective strength: Costa Rica, Madagascar and France. A comparison and analysis of the dissemination of the market based instruments for ecosystem services in different countries therefore seems highly relevant for analyzing such transfers of international standards and policy instruments.