Biodiversity offsets can be a valuable tool in achieving sustainable development: Developing a holistic model for biodiversity offsets that incorporates environmental, social and economic aspects of sustainable development

The interpretation and use of biodiversity offsets in planning and development is a contentious issue because they rarely encompass each of the environmental, social and economic aspects of sustainable development. While currently agreed best practice for biodiversity offsets includes consideration of scope, scale, location, timing and duration, and monitoring, current literature on these components does not consider all aspects of sustainable development. Furthermore, much of the current agreed best practice focusses on the design of biodiversity offsets, without consideration of ongoing management or end-of-life. This manuscript reviews current best practice for biodiversity offsets, giving consideration to the environmental, social and economic aspects of sustainable development. In particular, we report that consideration of cost and risk is key and the use of planning frameworks, bonds and advanced offsets could mitigate these risks and allow for long-term success. Following this approach, a holistic model for design, implementation and ongoing management of direct biodiversity offsets that balances all aspects of sustainable development is presented

Implementing result-based agri-environmental payments by means of modelling

From a theoretical point of view, result-based agri-environmental payments are clearly preferable to action-based payments. However, they suffer from two major practical disadvantages: costs of measuring the results and payment uncertainty for the participating farmers. In this paper, we propose an alternative design to overcome these two disadvantages by means of modelling (instead of measuring) the results. We describe the concept of model-informed result-based agri-environmental payments (MIRBAP), including a hypothetical example of payments for the protection and enhancement of soil functions. We offer a comprehensive discussion of the relative advantages and disadvantages of MIRBAP, showing that it not only unites most of the advantages of result-based and action-based schemes, but also adds two new advantages: the potential to address trade-offs among multiple policy objectives and management for long-term environmental effects. We argue that MIRBAP would be a valuable addition to the agri-environmental policy toolbox and a reflection of recent advancements in agri-environmental modelling

A Primer for Monitoring Water Funds

This document is intended to assist people working on Water Funds to understand their information needs and become familiar with the strengths and weaknesses of various monitoring approaches. This primer is not intended to make people monitoring experts, but rather to help them become familiar with and conversant in the major issues so they can communicate effectively with experts to design a scientifically defensible monitoring program.The document highlights the critical information needs common to Water Fund projects and summarizes issues and steps to address in developing a Water Fund monitoring program. It explains key concepts and challenges; suggests monitoring parameters and an array of sampling designs to consider as a starting-point; and provides suggestions for further reading, links to helpful resources,and an annotated bibliography of studies on the impacts that result from activities commonly implemented in Water Fund projects

Governmental Payments for Ecosystem Services Programs in China

Meine Dissertation beschäftigt sich mit den institutionellen Aspekten staatlicher Zahlungen für Ökosystemleistungen (Payments for Ecosystem Services „PES“) in China. Marktbasierte Ansätze zur Steuerung von Ökosystemleistungen, insbesondere von PES, wurden in den letzten Jahrzehnten als neue und innovative Politikinstrumente angesehen. Entsprechend diesem internationalen Trend sind PES auch in China populär, werden jedoch meist mit dem inländischen Begriff der Ökokompensation beschrieben. Einen wirtschaftlichen Anreiz für Verhaltensänderungen zu schaffen, wenn das Ökokompensations-Programm nur ein Ausgleich für gesetzliche Einschränkungen ist, kann eine Herausforderung darstellen. Die Merkmale der Ökokompensation unterscheiden sich von anderen nationalen PES-Programmen, da sich das Governance-Modell, die Eigentumsrechte und die gesellschaftlichen Strukturen in China stark von anderen Staaten unterscheiden. Die Ökokompensation steht vor vielen institutionellen Herausforderungen, wenn es darum geht, ökonomische Anreize für Verhaltensänderungen zu schaffen. Zahlungen für Ökosystemleistungen, die Elemente sowohl eines freiwilligen, marktbasierten als auch eines hierarchischen Systems kombinieren, um mit den besonderen institutionellen Rahmenbedingungen umzugehen, wurden bisher noch nicht ausreichend untersucht. Eine Wissenslücke besteht insbesondere hinsichtlich der Anpassung des Designs von PES an die institutionellen Rahmenbedingungen in China. Die Mechanismen von Zahlungen für Ökosystemleistungen in China unterscheiden sich in wichtigen Punkten von den aus der westlichen Erfahrung bekannten Mechanismen. Die vorliegende Dissertation zielt darauf ab, die Diskrepanz zwischen der allgemein gültigen Rahmung von Zahlungen von Ökosystemleistungen und der Realität ihrer Praxis zu verringern, indem sie eine institutionelle Analyse des chinesischen staatlichen PES-Programms vornimmt. Das Sloping Land Conversion Program (SLCP) gilt als eines der weltweit größten PES-Programme und ist ein wichtiger Bestandteil der Ökokompensation. Das erste Ziel dieser Dissertation ist es, anhand des SLCP als empirische Fallstudie zu verstehen, wie das institutionelle Design des staatlichen PES in China verbessert werden kann. Das zweite Ziel ist in einem breiteren internationalen Kontext zu sehen und zielt darauf ab, einen methodischen Beitrag zur Analyse der Governance von Ökosystemleistungen zu leisten. Die Dissertation folgt einer kumulativen Struktur, die aus einem Rahmentext besteht, in den fünf, von Experten begutachtete, Artikel aus internationalen Fachzeitschriften integriert sind. Kapitel 1 ist eine Einführung, in der die Forschungslücken und die Forschungsziele im Hinblick auf staatliche PES beschrieben werden. Kapitel 2 liefert die theoretische Grundlage der institutionellen Ökonomie und zeigt die Bedeutung der Governance von Naturressourcen in China auf. Darauf aufbauend konkretisiert Kapitel 3 das Forschungsdesign, indem es die Forschungsziele in verschiedene Forschungsfragen untergliedert. Kapitel 4 beinhaltet den Ergebnisteil, der fünf Zeitschriftenartikel umfasst. Der erste Artikel liefert die konzeptionelle Grundlage für alle nachfolgenden Untersuchungen, die in dieser Dissertation vorgestellt werden, und gibt einen Überblick über die Wirksamkeit und die institutionellen Herausforderungen des chinesischen SLCP. Sowohl der zweite als auch der dritte Artikel sind empirische Untersuchungen. Der zweite Artikel untersucht, wie die sozioökonomischen und institutionellen Bedingungen Anreize für Haushalte in ländlichen Gebieten schaffen, um die primären Umweltziele des SLCP zu erreichen. Der dritte Artikel zeigt, wie lokale Dynamiken die Umsetzung des SLCP beeinflusst und geprägt haben. Der vierte Artikel veranschaulicht und diskutiert die im zweiten Artikel angewandte Methode im Vergleich zu einer weiteren Fallstudie in Deutschland. Der fünfte Artikel schließlich stellt die Stärken und Schwächen der im dritten Artikel angewandten Methode den Erfahrungen ähnlicher Studien in vier weiteren Ländern gegenüber. Zusammen liefern diese Artikel wichtige Beiträge für die beiden Ziele der Dissertation. Kapitel 5 beinhaltet die Synthese und Diskussion der Ergebnisse und Kapitel 6 schließt die Dissertation ab. Das wichtigste Ergebnis dieser Dissertation ist, dass die Wirksamkeit des staatlichen PES in China das Ergebnis der Interaktion der treibenden sozialen Kräfte ist, während institutionelle Rahmenbedingungen und lokale Dynamiken eine Schlüsselrolle bei der Ausgestaltung der Programmumsetzung spielen. Das SLCP hätte unter bestimmten institutionellen Bedingungen ein großes Potenzial für die Schaffung signifikanter Skaleneffekte und für die Verbesserung der Umwelteffektivität. Allerdings weicht die derzeitige Umsetzung des SLCP wegen der besonderen institutionellen Rahmenbedingungen erheblich von dem von der Politik geförderten Marktansatz ab. Zwar haben die institutionellen Rahmenbedingungen die breite Akzeptanz und schnelle Entwicklung des SLCP in der Anfangsphase nicht behindert, doch gibt es keine Möglichkeit, einen langfristigen Erfolg im Hinblick auf die Umwelteffektivität zu erreichen, wenn die wichtigsten PES-Elemente fehlen. Der überwiegend von oben nach unten gerichtete Ansatz des Programms und das Fehlen von echter Freiwilligkeit, Konditionalität und Eigentumsrechten werden zusammen als kritische Faktoren verstanden, die mögliche Misserfolge langfristig erklären. Ein weiterer Beitrag der Dissertation sind die methodischen Ansätze, die zum besseren Verständnis der Governance von Ökosystemleistungen beitragen. Diese Dissertation zeigt, dass Ansätze, die qualitative und quantitative Methoden kombinieren, wie z.B. Qualitative Vergleichende Analyse (Qualitative Comparative Analysis „QCA“) und Soziale Netzwerkanalyse (SNA), ein großes Potenzial für die institutionelle Analyse und partizipative Forschung von PES haben. Bei beiden Methoden wurde besonderes Augenmerk auf die detaillierte Beschreibung ihrer Anwendung sowie die damit verbundenen Vor- und Nachteile gelegt.My dissertation focuses on institutional aspects of governmental payments for ecosystem services (PES) in China. Market-based approaches for ecosystem service governance, particular the PES, have been considered new and innovative policy instruments over the past decades. Corresponding to this international trend, PES schemes in China are mostly described by the domestic term eco-compensation. However, the characteristics of eco-compensation are distinct from other national PES programs, as governance model, property rights and societal structures in China are different to the PES theory. Eco-compensation faces many institutional challenges in creating economic incentives for behavioral change. However, PES that combines elements of both a voluntary market and hierarchy-based system in dealing with incomplete institutional settings has not yet been sufficiently addressed. In particular, there is a knowledge gap regarding fitting the design of PES and institutional settings in China together. The mechanisms of PES in China differ in important ways from mechanisms familiar from the western experience. This dissertation aims to reduce the divergence between the common framing of PES and the reality of its practice by presenting the institutional analysis of China’s governmental PES program. As a major component of eco-compensation, the Sloping Land Conversion Program (SLCP) is considered one of the world’s largest PES programmes. By taking SLCP as an empirical case, the first objective of this dissertation is to understand how to improve the institutional design of governmental PES. The second lies in a broad international context, aiming at methodologically contributing to the analysis of ecosystem services governance. This dissertation follows a cumulative structure, integrating the framework text and five papers. Chapter 1 is an introduction, outlining the research gaps and objectives of governmental PES. Chapter 2 provides a theoretical foundation to the institutional economic schools, their respective theories and the relevance of nature resource governance in China. Based on this, Chapter 3 confirms the research design by deconstructing the research objectives into different research questions. Chapter 4 is the results section, which comprises five papers. The first paper provides the conceptual basis for all subsequent studies presented in this dissertation, as it is an overview of the effectiveness and institutional challenges of China’s Sloping Land Conversion Program (SLCP). Both the second and third papers are empirical works. The second paper explores how socioeconomic and institutional conditions encourage rural households to reach the primary environmental goals of SLCP. The third paper shows how local dynamics derived and shaped the SLCP’s implementation. The fourth paper illustrates and discusses the method used in paper 2, comparing it with another case study in Germany. Finally, the fifth paper present the strengths and weaknesses of the method used in paper 3 based on the experiences of four different countries. Together, these papers deliver important contributions to both objectives. Chapter 5 is the synthesis and discussion, and Chapter 6 concludes the dissertation. The key finding of this dissertation is that the effectiveness of governmental PES is a result of interacting driving forces, whereas institutional settings and local dynamics play key roles in shaping program implementation. The SLCP could achieve its potential in creating significant economies of scale and environmental effectiveness under certain institutional conditions. However, against incomplete institutional settings, the current implementation of SLCP has deviated substantially from the market approach promoted by policy makers. While the incomplete institutional settings did not prevent SLCP’s wide acceptance and fast development in its first phases, there is no by-pass to reach the long term success in terms of environmental effectiveness in the absence of key PES elements. The program’s predominantly top-down approach and lack of genuinely voluntary characteristics, conditionality and property rights are jointly understood to be critical factors that explain possible failures in the long-term. Another contribution which this dissertation makes is in methodological approaches of ecosystem service governance. This dissertation has shown that mixed approaches combining qualitative and quantitative methods, such as Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) and social network analysis (SNA), could have great potential for institutional analysis and participatory research for PES. The two methods were given particular emphasis in the detailed description of application, as well as in the inherent merits and limitations

Water Funds: Conserving Green Infrastructure

This manual is an effort by TNC to compile, analyze and synthesize its own experience, together with that of the water funds already in existence and under creation, in order to provide operational guidelines to people and organizations interested in establishing a water fund or similar mechanism. Each location has different ecological, social, economic, legal and institutional features and, therefore, each water fund will have its own characteristics, phases and projections. This manual presents general guidelines and logical steps that must be followed to boost the opportunities and benefits of a water fund and to minimize possible obstacles for its creation. It is not intended to be an in-depth look at every aspect of water funds. Although TNC participates in several other initiatives and similar approaches to watershed management, such as the water producers program in Brazil, this document will not address those initiatives and will only focus on the water funds scheme, placing greater emphasis on experiences in the Andean region

Investigating fishers' preferences for the design of marine payments for environmental services schemes

We determine the effects of various management restrictions on adoption rates of marine Payments for Environmental Services (PES) schemes. Choice experiments are used in order to determine how fisher participation rates change under different marine PES programme designs. Various designs, with differing restriction rates, show different rates of adoption. However, fishers show a high utility loss associated with any move away from the current management situation, irrespective of restriction levels. This indicates that PES scheme costs may be high and creating an enabling environment could be important to reducing perceived losses, as could investment into conditional in-kind compensation mechanisms. The paper also shows choice experiments to be a useful tool in marine PES design

Role of economic instruments in water allocation reform: lessons from Europe

A growing number of countries are reforming their water allocation regimes through the use of economic instruments. This article analyzes the performance of economic instruments in water allocation reforms compared against their original design objectives in five European countries: England, France, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands. We identify the strengths of, barriers to and unintended consequences of economic instruments in the varying socio-economic, legal, institutional and biophysical context in each case study area, and use this evidence to draw out underlying common guidelines and recommendations. These lessons will help improve the effectiveness of future reforms while supporting more efficient water resources allocation

Innovative financing mechanisms for sustainable ecosystem management

The increasing human influence on ecosystems and the ensuing unsustainable exploitation and degradation has led in many places to depletion and loss of function of these ecosystems. These problems cannot be solved by (innovative) financing mechanisms, as the causes do not lie in a lack of financing mechanisms. Although decifit in funding in general is an important issue - the amount of finance available for ecosystems and biodiversity falls short of the funding neede