The Prospects for Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) in Vietnam: A Look at Three Payment Schemes

Global conservation discourses and practices increasingly rely on market-based solutions to fulfill the dual objective of forest conservation and economic development. Although varied, these interventions are premised on the assumption that natural resources are most effectively managed and preserved while benefiting livelihoods if the market-incentives of a liberalised economy are correctly in place. By examining three nationally supported payment for ecosystem service (PES) schemes in Vietnam we show how insecure land tenure, high transaction costs and high opportunity costs can undermine the long-term benefits of PES programmes for local households and, hence, potentially threaten their livelihood viability. In many cases, the income from PES programmes does not reach the poor because of political and economic constraints. Local elite capture of PES benefits through the monopolization of access to forestland and existing state forestry management are identified as key problems. We argue that as PES schemes create a market for ecosystem services, such markets must be understood not simply as bald economic exchanges between ‘rational actors’ but rather as exchanges embedded in particular socio-political and historical contexts to support the sustainable use of forest resources and local livelihoods in Vietnam

Ecofeminism and Globalism: A Critical Appraisal

Ecofeminism offers a useful yet limited framework through which to critique globalisation. Ecofeminism claims that the domination of women and of nature are intrinsically linked. Material ecofeminists, in particular, focus on the material conditions of women’s lives locating the source of this twin domination in patriarchal capitalism. These ecofeminists provide insights into the impacts of globalisation on women but their analysis of the causes of globalisation are limited. They identify globalisation as an outgrowth of patriarchal capitalism, insisting on the primacy of gender as the determinant of social organisation and arguing that it is the dichotomy between production and reproduction that essentially defines capitalism. However, the rise of modern capitalism has been more convincingly described by those who focus on the domination of workers, the role of the market economy, and the enrolment of all sections of society through the propagation of the work ethic and the allure of consumerism

The Right Way to Go? Earth Sanctuaries and Market-based Conservation

Australia\u27s Earth Sanctuaries Limited (ESL) is an internationally acclaimed organisation that uses private property as a way to achieve conservation objectives, thereby demonstrating a commitment to using free market principles to create sustainable futures. This private approach to conservation clearly resonates with the agenda of conservative think tanks and is ideologically motivated. The environmental credentials of this organisation obscure this motivation and also the far-reaching ethical and political consequences of private conservation. By suggesting that all that is required to protect the environment is good management by private owners, ESL deflects attention away from the \u27socio-economic crisis\u27 and confines debate and action to what can be achieved by the market. In doing so ESL sidesteps important equity considerations about the private ownership of endangered species and remnant ecosystems, including questions about the private appropriation of common heritage, public accountability, and community participation. The ESL case study shows that when conservation is turned into a private enterprise, environmental priorities can be compromised by the vagaries of the market and the needs of private concerns to earn an income. These issues throw into question the potential \u27sustainability\u27 of ESL\u27s operations and the effectiveness of private conservation as a long-term environmental strategy