Can capturing global ecosystem service values reduce poverty?

扎菲住在马达加斯加森林边缘的一个村庄里。他想给他的家庭带来最好的东西，因此利用他拥有的资源和选择，开垦了一片森林来种植山上水稻。他的辛勤劳动得到了回报，他能够出售少量盈余。Rakoto在谷底种植水稻。在年景好的时候，当水充足的时候，他生产的水超过了家人的承受能力。然而，随着山坡上的森林继续被砍伐，旱季的水分减少，好年景越来越少。热带森林砍伐对物种生存的威胁是众所周知的。人们也越来越意识到，它对气候变化有贡献(通过释放储存在树木和土壤中的碳)。扎菲的故事表明，尽管砍伐森林经常被描述为肆意破坏，但对于直接参与其中的人来说，这可能是一个非常明智的选择。它还表明，砍伐森林的一些负面影响可能会在当地和全球范围内感受到。近年来，一种保护热带森林的新方法已经形成。核心思想是，那些从森林的存在中受益的人应该向那些否则会砍伐森林的人支付报酬。这个概念被称为生态系统服务付费，已经主导了关于雨林保护的讨论。支持这种方法的人认为，这将使像扎菲这样的穷人受益，他们将通过现金支付或在他们所在地区的发展活动获得补偿，因为他们没有砍伐森林。此外，根据支付计划鼓励的土地使用变化(保护森林或种植新森林)可能会使该地区的其他穷人受益；例如，Rakoto可能会受益于通过改善他的稻田的水流来增加森林覆盖率。不幸的是，事情并不像看起来那么简单。虽然这些生态系统服务计划的费用吸引了数百万美元，而且许多参与者承诺确保它们对穷人有利，但问题仍然存在，既涉及当前计划对穷人的影响，也涉及如何设计这些计划以实现在避免危害的同时缓解贫困的任何潜力。这些至关重要的问题需要一种研究方法，将具有各种专业知识的专家聚集在一起。我们的团队包括社会学家、经济学家、生态学家、水文学家、遥感专家和建模人员，他们将探索国际生态系统服务支付影响穷人生活的复杂方式。我们将解决的具体问题包括量化低地水稻农民可能从增加森林覆盖中获得的好处，探索减少野生产品收获的成本(以及谁承担这些成本)，以及调查政治和社会结构如何影响支付的任何好处的分配。我们专注于单一国家(马达加斯加)的单一地区(东部热带雨林)。如此狭隘的关注是必要的，以获得考虑到生态和社会系统之间的所有相互作用的完整图景。虽然我们专注于马达加斯加的实地工作，我们的结果将直接影响该国的支付方案，但我们项目的发现也将产生更广泛的影响。我们正在与那些参与制定支付计划的政策的人密切合作，并在马达加斯加和全世界实地实施这些政策。我们的项目将产生科学论文，推动跨学科研究的边界，并在媒体和我们的项目网站上进行有趣的报道。然而，通过这一更广泛的参与，我们的项目也将导致支付方案设计的具体变化，这应该会改善像Rakoto、Zafy及其家人这样的人的生活，无论他们生活在世界的哪个地方。

Zafy lives in a village on edge of the forest in Madagascar. He wants the best for his family and so uses the resources and options he has open to him and clears a patch of forest to grow hill rice. His hard labour pays off and he is able to sell a small surplus. Rakoto farms rice on the valley floor. In good years, when there is plenty of water, he produces more than his family can eat. However as the forest on the slopes continues to be cut, water in the dry season is reduced, and there are fewer and fewer good years.That tropical deforestation threatens species' survival is well known to the general public. There is also increasing awareness that it contributes to climate change (through the release of carbon stored in trees and soils). Zafy's story demonstrates that although cutting down forest is often presented as wanton destruction, it may well be a perfectly sensible choice for the people directly involved. It also shows that some negative impacts of deforestation may be felt locally as well as globally. In recent years a new approach to conserving tropical forests has evolved. The central idea is that those who benefit from the existence of forest should pay those who would otherwise cut it down. This concept is known as payment for ecosystem services and has come to dominate discussions about rainforest conservation. People who support this approach argue that it will benefit poor people like Zafy, who will be compensated for not clearing forest, through cash payments or development activities in their area. In addition, the land-use changes which will be encouraged under the payment schemes (protecting forest or planting new forest) may benefit other poor people in the area; for example Rakoto may benefit from increased forest cover through improved flow of water to his rice fields.Unfortunately nothing is ever as simple as it seems. While these payments for ecosystem services schemes are attracting millions of dollars, and there is a commitment by many involved to ensure they are beneficial for poor people, questions remain both about the impact current schemes are having on the poor and about how these schemes could be designed to realise any potential for alleviating poverty while avoiding harm.These vitally important questions need a research approach which brings together specialists with a range of expertise. Our team involves sociologists, economists, ecologists, hydrologists, remote sensing experts and modellers who will explore the complex ways in which international ecosystem service payments affect the lives of poor people. Specific questions we will address include quantifying the benefits which lowland rice farmers may expect from increasing forest cover, exploring the costs (and who bears them) of reduced access for wild-product harvesting, and investigating how politics and social structures influence how any benefits from payments are distributed. We focus on a single area (the eastern rainforests), in a single country (Madagascar). Such a narrow focus is necessary to get the complete picture which takes account of all the interactions between ecological and social systems. Although we focus field work within Madagascar, and our results will directly influence payment schemes in the country, our project's findings will also have a much wider impact. We are working closely with those involved in developing the policies which underpin payment schemes, and in implementing them on the ground both in Madagascar and worldwide. Our project will result in scientific papers which push the boundaries of interdisciplinary research, and interesting coverage in the media and on our project website. However through this wider engagement our project will also result in concrete changes to the design of payment schemes which should improve the lives of people like Rakoto, Zafy and their families, wherever they live in the world.