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

为环境服务付费是一种自愿交易，资源使用者因提供明确的养护活动而获得报酬，现已成为支持管理和提供关键环境服务（如森林用于流域保护）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生态系统服务付费系统，将其作为可持续资源管理的工具。尽管在美国和国际上广泛使用生态系统服务补偿，但我们对其支持持续保护活动的能力了解有限。虽然一些研究表明，支付是有效的，在短期内实现保护收益，很少有研究探讨这些保护行为是否持续较长的时间，特别是如果支付停止。本研究探讨在何种程度上PES模式提示保护行为和社区资源管理安排，持久，即使付款停止。2009年，厄瓜多尔政府实施了一项国际公认的保护付费计划，向社区和家庭支付费用，以保护其本土生态系统。2016年，该计划意外失去资金，付款停止。在2012-2015年，主要研究人员从10个省的一组厄瓜多尔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 #SES-1156271）。研究发现，在生态系统服务付费方案下，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社区资源管理。家庭和领导人的问卷调查，焦点小组，生物物理数据，航空照片进行了分析，使用定量，定性和空间分析技术。研究结果为希望使用生态系统服务付费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.