place-based payments for ecosystem services
TRANSCRIPT
Prof Mark Reed
Birmingham City University
Research Manager, IUCN UK Peatland Programme
Payments for Ecosystem Services:
A Place-Based Approach
Introduction
The problem
2 What are our options?
Nationalisation of land
Information provision and capacity building
Regulation
Financial mechanisms
Creation of new markets
What are our options?
Nationalisation of land
Information provision and capacity building
Regulation
Financial mechanisms
Creation of new markets
Payments for Ecosystem Services
A voluntary transaction where
A well-defined ecosystem service (or land use
likely to secure that service)
Is being “bought” by a (minimum one)
ecosystem service buyer
From a (minimum one) ecosystem service
provider
If and only if the ecosystem service provider
secures provision (conditionality)
Who should pay?
Putting a price-tag on nature?
Problems with PES
How do you (cost-effectively) quantify the
ecosystem service benefits?
How do you attribute ecosystem service
enhancements in complex systems where their
delivery is influenced by many factors?
How do you prevent markets for one ecosystem
service compromising other services?
Main approach to date: bundling and layering
Bundling and layering
Problems with bundling/layering
Tend to target single habitats (ignore
interactions between wider ecosystems and
underplay role of cultural ecosystem services)
Pay little attention to governance of ecosystem
services in complex social-ecological systems
To be robust, PES schemes need multi-level
governance, based on a better understanding of
social dynamics and shared, cultural values
associated with habitats and ecosystem services
Bundling and/or layering of the widest possible
range of ecosystem services over
multiple spatial and temporal scales in the same location
Multi-level governance mechanisms
Prices that reflect the shared values
of multiple ecosystem service
beneficiaries
A place-based approach to PES
Case Study
Approach
Deliberative, non-monetary
valuation with the development
of multi-level governance
mechanisms, including new
methods for monitoring and
verifying ecosystem service
delivery
Elicitation process
Deliberated values
Non-deliberated values
Value intention
Other-regarding
values
Self-regardingvalues
Value
dimensions
Value scale
Value to society
Value to individual
Value concept
Transcendentalvalues
Contextualvalues
ValueIndicators
Value provider
Societal & cultural values
Communal values
Individual values
Group values
Deliberative value formation model
Phases
Phase 1Underpinning
research
Phase 2 Piloting
Phase 3Code
development
Phase 1: underpinning research Market research (interviews with businesses) & draft UK Code
Analysis of international cases, to develop PES Best Practice Guide
24 ecosystem service beneficiary interviews from selected sectors
2 workshops & comparative analysis of pilot Peatland Code &
MoorFutures
Stakeholder workshop & fieldwork with Local Nature Partnership to
develop a place-based approach for South Pennines
Interviews with visitor giving schemes across the UK, with case
study research in Lake District National Park leading to phone apps
Economic assessment of Code leading to project feasibility tool
Emissions factors to cost-effectively monitor GHG emission
reductions from restoration projects
Phase 2: piloting
Piloting with project developers: pilot restoration and research projects in North Pennines, Exmoor, Lake District and South Pennines, and Peatland Action in Scotland. Field protocol for assessing GHG emission reductions trialled in further 22 sites
Piloting with landowning community: 5 focus groups with landowners and other stakeholders
Piloting with the business community through events organised by IUCN UK PeatlandProgramme
Phase 3: Code development
Governance structures: to oversee the operation
of the Code
Peatland Restoration Handbook
The UK Peatland Code 1.0 and final draft of the
Project Design Document were launched at the
World Forum on Natural Capital in Edinburgh, in
November 2015
Bundling and/or layering of the widest possible
range of ecosystem services over
multiple spatial and temporal scales in the same location
Multi-level governance mechanisms
Prices that reflect the shared values
of multiple ecosystem service
beneficiaries
Findings
Findings
Supply side:
Complementary ecosystem services and trade-offs
associated with peatland restoration
Interest from many stakeholders in layered schemes
that target payments for different ecosystem services
from different beneficiaries
Bundled approach more realistic and likely to avoid
tradeoffs
Potential to integrate payments for cultural services
via visitor giving schemes
Helping walkers and cyclists learn about
nature – and pay for it
Findings
Initial business survey: limited awareness and
immediate opportunities (passing the buck down
the supply chain), local authorities more likely to
be sellers/intermediaries than buy on behalf of
taxpayers
Market research for a peatland scheme: niche
but strong demand
Result: water company funding for pilot phase,
launched Peatland Code 1.0 with initial
investment from a multinational
Bundling and/or layering of the widest possible
range of ecosystem services over
multiple spatial and temporal scales in the same location
Multi-level governance mechanisms
Prices that reflect the shared values
of multiple ecosystem service
beneficiaries
A place-based approach to PES
Findings
Highly dependent on institutional capacity of
local actors
NGOs more likely to benefit in early phases
Working with Welsh Government to open up to
commoners
Developed methods for practitioners to cost-
effectively and easily monitor GHG emission
reductions
Bundling and/or layering of the widest possible
range of ecosystem services over
multiple spatial and temporal scales in the same location
Multi-level governance mechanisms
Prices that reflect the shared values
of multiple ecosystem service
beneficiaries
A place-based approach to PES
Findings
Social valuation of ecosystem services can help
quantify cultural and social value/impacts of
changes in ecosystem services arising from
restoration
Impacts on production
(way of life?)
Cultural benefits e.g.
aesthetics, access,
recreation
Findings A sense of duty and responsibility:
“This is all about custodianship…It’s all about sustainability. It’s about handing over something in a better state than what you were lucky enough to get it at.”(Cairngorms, storyteller 1)
“You never become an estate owner through financial reasoning…I think we are just stewards and passing through and doing the best we can in many ways.”(Dumfries, storyteller 2)
“I do feel I am probably a better steward than a public organisation because I have a heart, I have a stake in it.”(Thurso, storyteller 2)
“Because I’ve been there a long time, so know how it changes. I’ve seen it for a long time now.” (Thurso, storyteller 2)
Findings
A sense of achievement, self-respect and belonging: “The hills have to have sheep, because this is the one and only
place where you find the Shetland sheep.” (Shetland, storyteller 1)
“Shetland men have sheep.” (Shetland, storyteller 2)
“The first time I went I was 1 year old. My mother had been going since she was 11. In family terms, there’s a certain responsibility over the years.” (Dumfries, storyteller 1)
“I can see five kingdoms from up there… To be master of all you survey is a wonderful thing.” (Dumfries, storyteller 1)
“I love creating all the different habitats.” (Dumfries, storyteller 2)
“You’ve got to understand a bit how it developed, why it looks like that…how it got there and how old it is…you’ve got to have a perception of that before you can appreciate them fully.” (Thurso, storyteller 1)
Findings
Concerns over threats to traditional way of life
Managed burning and grouse in the Peak District
Peak District burning
premium: example of
transcendental values
being reflected in fair
price negotiation
Findings
Fair prices:
Deliberated fair price ranged from £11.18 per tonne of
CO2 equivalent in Dumfries to £15.65 per tonne in
Thurso, with substantially higher prices reached in the
Peak District of £54 and £107 per tonne for
revegetation and ditch blocking respectively
Additional payment sought by landowners, after
meeting the costs of restoring peatland under the
Code, was £2 per tonne of CO2 equivalent generated
through restoration in Thurso, £3 per tonne in
Dumfries and the Cairngorms, £3.50 per tonne in
Shetland and £4.30 per tonne in the Peak District
Conclusions
Benefits of place-based approach
Co-ordinate delivery of ecosystem services between
different ecosystems and habitats to minimize
ecosystem service trade-offs
Social valuation of ecosystem services, using a
structured, deliberative approach has the potential to
engage with and empower diverse stakeholders in the
design and governance of PES schemes
Benefits of place-based approach
Monitoring and verification can engage empower
landowners and managers to monitor ecosystem
services, providing important feedbacks to sustainable
land management
By eliciting a broader range
of shared values, including
transcendental values, it is
possible to better capture
cultural ecosystem services
and deliver value from PES to
a wider range of stakeholders
(not just buyers and sellers)
Challenges
Incompatibilities with landowner
objectives
High perceived risks among
sellers
Lack of business awareness
Quantifying biodiversity co-
benefits
Barriers to collaboration
across property boundaries
Future research
Research challenges:
Developing cost-effective
monitoring
Understand & overcoming
barriers to collaboration for place-based PES
partnerships
Different sellers have different motives, perceptions of
risk and values
Future policy
Policy challenges:
Integrating schemes for
multiple habitats and services:
a role for Government?
Need to integrate public & private PES
Opportunities: shrinking CAP
Challenges: incompatible timescales?
Social justice concerns: PES for commoners?
Find out more
www.profmarkreed.com
Twitter: @profmarkreed