Co-Production of Environmental Conservation and Social Equity: Is Conditionality in Payments for Ecosystem Services a Necessity or an Impediment?

事实证明，现代保护方法在纠正生态系统退化方面基本上是无效的，人们对基于市场的保护方法越来越感兴趣，例如生态系统服务付费（PES），作为一种有希望的替代方法。PES的核心假设是，为产生环境效益而向自然资源管理者支付的款项必须以可观察到的行动或可衡量的结果为条件，这意味着需要强迫自然资源管理者保护环境。然而，先前的研究表明，在PES中严格执行条件并不是产生预期结果所必需的，而且它往往会增加社区内的不平等。本项目将调查是否有必要设定条件以达到保育目标，以及执行条件会在多大程度上导致不良的环境、社会和经济影响。该项目将有助于从理论上理解基于市场的方法如何影响保护成果并改变人与环境的关系。这些知识将为理解基于市场的方法产生预期和非预期结果的途径提供一个框架。从这个项目中获得的知识可能有助于扩大PES项目的参与。研究结果可能有助于保护组织、政策制定者和社会改进保护计划的设计。最后，该项目将促进研究生的研究和培训以及本科教学。该项目的未识别数据将提供给其他研究人员。本项目将确定PES中的条件限制在形成人与环境关系方面的作用，以及在不增加不平等的情况下放宽或取消条件限制以产生环境效益的程度。研究人员将使用一个政治生态框架，该框架承认保护的社会、文化、政治经济和制度背景，以分析PES计划及其定义特征：条约性。具体而言，研究者提出了三个问题：(1)PES中的条件限制对保护的影响是什么？(2) PES的条件限制对家庭和社区内部不平等的影响是什么？(3)有条件和无条件支付产生预期和非预期结果的机制是什么？研究人员将采用混合方法来回答这些问题，该方法将随机对照试验与定性调查相结合，以评估玻利维亚农村社区的有条件PES与无条件PES。该项目的成果将通过PES论坛传播，并提供给资助或管理全球PES项目的公共和私营实体。

Modern conservation approaches have proved largely ineffective to redress ecosystem degradation, and there is growing interest in market-based conservation methods, such as payment-for-ecosystem-services (PES), as a promising alternative. At the core of PES is the assumption that payments made to natural resource managers to produce environmental benefits must be conditional on observable actions or measurable outcomes, which implies that natural resource managers need to be coerced to conserve the environment. However, previous research has suggested that strictly enforced conditionality in PES is not necessary for producing desired outcomes, and it often increases inequities within communities. This project will investigate whether conditionality is necessary to achieve conservation objectives and the extent to which enforcement of conditionality leads to undesirable environmental, social, and economic effects. The project will contribute to theoretical understandings of how market-based approaches affect conservation outcomes and transform human-environment relations. This knowledge will provide a framework for understanding the paths by which market-based approaches produce intended and unintended outcomes. Knowledge generated from this project may contribute to broadening PES program participation. Results are likely to assist conservation organizations, policy makers, and society improve the design of conservation programs. Finally, the project will advance graduate student research and training and undergraduate teaching. De-identified data from the project will be made available to other researchers.This project will determine the role of conditionality in PES in shaping human-environment relations, and the extent to which conditionality can be relaxed or removed to produce environmental benefits without increasing inequities. The investigators will use a political ecological framework that recognizes the social, cultural, political economic, and institutional contexts of conservation to analyze PES programs and their defining feature: conditionality. Specifically, the investigators ask three questions: (1) What are the effects of conditionality in PES on conservation? (2) What are the effects of conditionality in PES on inequalities within households and communities? (3) What are the mechanisms through which conditional and unconditional payments produce intended and unintended outcomes? The investigators will answer these questions using a mixed-methods approach that integrates a randomized controlled trial with qualitative enquiries to assess conditional versus unconditional PES in rural Bolivian communities. Results from this project will be disseminated through a PES forum, and made available to public and private entities that fund or manage PES programs worldwide.