Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES)
What is WWF doing on PES?
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During the 1990s, WWF developed or supported many conservation financing schemes that were essentially PES approaches in all but name, such as community conservancies in Namibia and other African countries.
Since 2000, several WWF offices have developed or supported specific PES projects related to the conservation of a local watershed or the management of a protected area. Some of these include: Guatemala’s Sierra de Minas Water Fund; Indonesia's Lombok Island Water Fund; Florida's Pay for Performance program in the US; and Mexico's Monarch Butterfly Conservation Fund.
In 2002, WWF-MPO launched a world-wide initiative to scale up WWF’s PES schemes and related activities with the goal of delivering substantial rural conservation and rural livelihood improvements. This initiative is undertaken in partnership with WWF offices in countries around the world and includes training, capacity-building, development of policies and standards, and development and support for on-the-ground PES projects. These projects include:
• The 2004-2007 Initiative for Capacity-Building and on-the ground PES project development. With support from the Swedish Development Agency, this project will help put in place 3-6 local level PES schemes; 1-3 large-scale/international PES schemes and will foster PES standards among the conservation and development community. This programme works through WWF regional anchor offices and by early 2006 was already coaching 8 PES project initiatives around the world.
• The 2006-2009 Danube Basin PES project, developed in close partnership with WWF’s Danube Carpathian Programme Office, has recently been awarded a UNEP/GEF medium-size project grant to develop PES schemes in Bulgaria and Rumania and replication activities in all 6 lower Danube countries.
• The Private Sector – WWF Forum to Promote Ecosystem Services and Payments for Ecosystem Service, aims to tap private sector knowledge of markets and market development to help increase society’s awareness of and willingness to pay for the provision of ecosystem services.
