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.