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。他想为他的家人最好的，所以使用的资源和选择，他已经开放给他，并清除了一片森林种植山稻。他的辛勤劳动得到了回报，他能够出售少量剩余。Rakoto在谷底种植水稻。在丰年，当有充足的水时，他生产的超过他的家人可以吃。然而，随着山坡上的森林不断被砍伐，旱季的水量减少，好年景越来越少，热带森林的砍伐威胁到物种的生存，这是众所周知的。人们也越来越认识到，它有助于气候变化（通过释放储存在树木和土壤中的碳）。Zafy的故事表明，尽管砍伐森林通常被视为肆意破坏，但对于直接参与的人来说，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在地方和全球都能感受到。近年来，一种保护热带森林的新方法已经形成。其中心思想是，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付钱。这一概念被称为生态系统服务付费，并已成为有关雨林保护的讨论的主导议题。支持这种方法的人认为，它将使像Zafy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。此外，在支付计划下鼓励的土地使用变化（保护森林或种植新的森林）可能会使该地区的其他穷人受益;例如，Rakoto可能会通过改善稻田的水流而受益于森林覆盖率的增加。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付费计划吸引了数百万美元，而且许多参与者承诺确保这些计划有利于穷人，关于现行计划对穷人的影响，以及如何设计这些计划以实现减轻贫困的潜力，同时避免伤害，仍然存在一些问题。这些至关重要的问题需要一种汇集专家的研究方法拥有一系列专业知识。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付款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稻农可能期望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付款收益的分配方式。我们专注于一个国家（马达加斯加）的一个地区（东部雨林）。这样一个狭隘的焦点是必要的，以获得完整的画面，考虑到所有的生态和社会系统之间的相互作用。虽然我们的工作重点是马达加斯加的实地工作，我们的成果将直接影响该国的支付计划，但我们的项目调查结果也将产生更广泛的影响。我们正在与参与制定支持支付计划的政策以及在马达加斯加和全世界实地执行这些计划的各方密切合作。我们的项目将产生科学论文，推动跨学科研究的界限，并在媒体和我们的项目网站上进行有趣的报道。然而，通过这种更广泛的参与，我们的项目也将导致支付计划的设计发生具体变化，这将改善Rakoto，Zafy及其家人的生活，无论他们居住在世界何处。

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.