The ESPA Framework: A socio-ecological systems analysis of the political economy of Ecosystem Services for Poverty Alleviation.

ESPA框架旨在帮助世界上的穷人通过从生态系统服务中获益来改善他们的生活。我们从以前的研究中知道，许多重要的生态系统服务（ES）被认为是理所当然的，并且正在退化。负责决策和制定政策的人往往忽视生态系统服务对世界穷人的价值。因此，使用和管理生态系统的成本和收益没有得到公平的分享，穷人获得的利益很少，同时最容易受到环境退化的影响。ESPA的政治经济学主题寻求实施高质量的研究，以提供所需的证据和工具，确保将有关社会经济的知识纳入更公平的政策和决策。为了实现这一目标，我们需要制定影响人类行为的方法，从而确保穷人能够从社会经济中获益，并在必要时建立更有效的机构和市场。这些都是ESPA框架项目将要解决的挑战。积极管理生态系统以减轻贫困的概念尚处于初级阶段。评估人在生态系统中的作用的传统方法侧重于经济学（主要是新古典经济学），将其作为决策过程的基础。我们建议，需要从纯粹基于经济的方法转向一种新的范式，这种范式描述了复杂的社会生态系统，该系统考虑了传统、文化、非货币目标和许多其他人类行为的潜在因素。这种看待减轻贫困的生态系统服务的方式也认识到，个人的作用受到人们活动的体制和政治环境的强烈影响。该项目将突出影响人类福祉的因素和相互关系，然后取得进展，建立一个可用于未来ESPA项目的概念框架。这项工作将以理论（复杂的社会生态系统）和在ESPA的三个区域（撒哈拉以南非洲、南亚和亚马逊）进行一系列案例研究的实际情况为基础。该项目汇集了来自英国和ESPA地区的领先专家，形成了一个真正的跨学科团队。区域项目将系统地审查将ES与减贫联系起来的证据。早先的《ESPA区域局势分析》将作为这一进程的起点。区域小组将确定将与项目合作的当地利益攸关方（包括社区、政府和私营部门），以评估该框架在其当地情况下的相关性。森林生态系统将用于评价和制定每个区域内的框架。该项目将促进南南学习进程，受益于发展中国家伙伴将提供的非常高水平的专门知识和经验。这将导致根据对当前文献的审查，对生态系统服务减轻贫困的政治经济学进行比较分析。这将有助于为框架的制定提供信息，并为其他项目、决策者和实践者提供极其宝贵的资源。把发展中国家伙伴聚集在一起的机会将有助于建立国际ESPA实践社区，进一步增加来自全球南方的研究人员参与更广泛的ESPA方案的机会。在ESPA主要方案开始时制订这一办法将有助于启动ESPA各主题和各区域的一系列活动。我们的框架将提供给所有ESPA项目。

The ESPA Framework is designed to help the world's poor to improve their lives through the benefits they can derive from ecosystem services. We know from previous studies, that many vital Ecosystem Services (ES) are taken for granted and degraded. People responsible for making decisions and forming policy tend to ignore the value of ecosystem services for the world's poor. As a result, the costs and benefits of the use and management of ecosystems are not shared equitably, with the poor capturing few benefits whilst being most vulnerable to environmental degradation. ESPA's Political Economy theme seeks to implement high quality research to provide the evidence and tools required to ensure that knowledge about ES are integrated into more equitable policy and decision making. In order to deliver this we need to develop ways to influence human behaviour and so to ensure that the poor can capture benefits from ES and where necessary to establish more effective institutions and markets. These are the challenges that the ESPA Framework project will address. The concept of active management of ecosystems for poverty alleviation is in its infancy. Traditional approaches to assessing the role of people in ecosystems have focused on economics (mostly neo-classical) as the foundation for decision making processes. We propose that a shift is required away from purely economic based approaches towards a new paradigm that describe complex socio-ecological systems that account for traditions, culture, non-monetary goals and a host of other factors that underlying human behaviour. This way of looking at ecosystem services for poverty alleviation also recognises that the role of the individual is strongly influenced by the institutional and political context within which people operate. The project will highlight the factors and interrelationships that influence human well-being and then progress to build a conceptual framework that can be applied by future ESPA projects. This work will be grounded both in theory (of complex socio-ecological systems) and in practical reality through a series of case studies in three of the ESPA regions (Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and Amazonia). The project brings together leading experts from the UK and the ESPA regions to form a truly interdisciplinary team. Regional projects will conduct systematic reviews of evidence linking ES and poverty alleviation. The earlier ESPA regional Situation Analyses will be used as a starting point for this process. The regional teams will identify local stakeholders (including communities, government and the private sector) who will work with the project to assess the relevance of the framework within their local contexts. Forest ecosystems will be used to evaluate and development the framework within each region. The project will facilitate a process of South-South learning benefiting from the very high level of expertise and experience that the developing country partners will contribute. This will lead to the production of a comparative analysis of the political economy of ecosystem services for poverty alleviation, based on a review of the current literature. This will help to inform the development of the framework, as well as providing an extremely valuable resource for other projects, policy makers and practitioners. The opportunity to bring together the developing country partners will contribute to build the international ESPA community of practice, further enhancing the opportunities for researchers from the global south to participate in the wider ESPA programme. The development of this approach at the start of the main ESPA programme will help kick-start a range of activities across ESPA's themes and regions. Our framework will be made available to all ESPA projects.