The Payment of Environmental Services as an Economic and Governance Mechanism for the Conservation and Management of Natural Protected Areas

According to the 2006 Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA), ecosystem services (ES) are defined as “the benefits people obtain from ecosystems” which are divided into four categories of ecosystem services: supporting, provisioning, regulating and cultural. As a strategy to protect and promote conservation of ecosystems and the services they provide, the payments for environmental services (PES) were conceive as part of a new and more direct conservation paradigm, explicitly recognising the need to bridge the interests of landowners and outsiders. The financing and payment mechanism are circumscribed according to the legal conditions of each country. The PES concept in natural protected areas (NPAs) arises as a tool to adequately internalise in individual and social decision-making the value they possess, and the well-being provided to individuals and society by the environmental services safeguarded in NPA. The resources invested in the natural protected areas have favoured their inhabitants and conservation. Likewise, they have managed to protect them through compensation to the locals, who are empowered to ensure the governance of these lands. The Payment for Environmental Services (PES) programme in Mexico has been an effort carried out by the National Forestry Commission (CONAFOR) and several important partners such as the National Commission of Natural Protected Areas (CONANP). This programme aims to promote the recognition of the value of environmental services provided by forest ecosystems, agroforestry and natural resources, in addition to supporting the creation of markets for these services inside the NPA. The implementation of PES has been an important economic and governance mechanism for the conservation and management of natural protected areas.