Contesting the market-based nature of Mexico's national payments for ecosystem services programs: Four sites of articulation and hybridization

► Begun as a market-based policy, Mexico's PES program was hybridized at four sites of articulation. ► Federal politics of poverty alleviation led to targeting the program to the rural poor. ► Rural social movements altered discourse from campesinos as forest destroyers to stewards. ► Institutional context of the ecosystem services provided barriers to commodification. ► Lack of state intervention completed transformation of program to rural subsidy.