RUI: What happens when payments stop? Collective resource management under the rise and fall of payment for environmental services

环境服务付款（PES）是一种自愿交易，资源使用者提供明确的养护活动而获得付款，已成为支持管理和提供关键环境服务（例如保护流域的森林）的一项重要政策。近年来，政府和非政府援助和保护机构越来越多地支持PES作为可持续资源管理的工具。尽管PES在美国和国际上广泛使用，但我们对其支持持续保护活动的能力的了解有限。虽然一些研究表明，支付在短期内有效地实现了保护收益，但很少有研究调查这些保护行为是否能在更长的时间内持续下去，特别是在支付停止的情况下。本研究考察了PES模式在多大程度上促进了保护行为和公共资源管理安排，即使在支付停止时也能持续下去。2009年，厄瓜多尔政府实施了一项国际公认的保护项目，向社区和家庭支付保护其原生生态系统的费用。2016年，该项目意外地失去了资金，停止了支付。2012-2015年，主要研究人员从厄瓜多尔10个省的一组社区收集了社会经济、制度、生态和行为数据，以测试厄瓜多尔支付计划如何改变家庭土地使用行为并影响公共资源管理安排的发展（nsf# sds -1156271）。研究发现，在PES方案下，家庭减少了资源使用并建立了集体管理安排。拟议的研究使用这些基线数据，并收集来自同一社区的社会经济、制度、生态和行为数据，以评估支付损失如何影响家庭土地使用决策和公共资源管理。使用定量、定性和空间分析技术对家庭和领导人问卷、焦点小组、生物物理数据和航空照片进行了分析。研究结果为希望利用PES和类似支付举措作为可持续资源管理机制的政府和捐助者提供了基于证据的政策教训。

Payment for Environmental Services (PES), a voluntary transaction in which a resource user receives payment for providing well-defined conservation activities, has emerged as a prominent policy to support the management and provision of critical environmental services (e.g. forest for watershed protection). In recent years, governmental and non-governmental aid and conservation agencies have increasingly supported PES as a tool for sustainable resource management. Despite the widespread use of PES within the US and internationally, we have limited understanding of its ability to support sustained conservation activities. While some studies have shown payments to be effective at attaining conservation gains over the short-term, few studies have examined whether those conservation behaviors are sustained over longer time periods, particularly if payments stop. This research examines the extent to which the PES model prompts conservation behavior and communal resource management arrangements that endure, even when payments stop. In 2009, the Ecuadorian government implemented an internationally recognized payment for conservation program that paid communities and households to conserve their native ecosystems. In 2016, the program unexpectedly lost funding and payments stopped. In 2012-2015 the Principal Investigators gathered socio-economic, institutional, ecological, and behavioral data from a set of Ecuadorian communities in 10 provinces to test how the Ecuadorian payment program changed household land-use behaviors and influenced the development of communal resource management arrangements (NSF #SES-1156271). The study found that, under the PES program, households reduced resource use and created collective management arrangements. The proposed research uses this baseline data and gathers socio-economic, institutional, ecological, and behavioral data from the same communities to assess how loss of payments has impacted household land-use decisions and communal resource management. Household and leader questionnaires, focus groups, biophysical data, and aerial photos are analyzed using quantitative, qualitative and spatial analysis techniques. The research findings provide evidenced-based policy lessons for governments and donors wishing to use PES and similar payment initiatives as a mechanism for sustainable resource management.