Evaluation of the Impact of Payments for Environmental Services on Land Use Change in Quindío, Colombia

The growing use of Payments for Environmental Services (PES) for conservation has fostered a debate on its effectiveness, but the few efforts to date to assess the impact of PES programs have been hampered by lack of data, leading to very divergent results. This paper uses data from a PES mechanism implemented in Quindío, Colombia, to examine the impact of PES on land use change. Alone among all early PES initiatives, the Silvopastoral Project included a control group of nonparticipants, whose land use changes were monitored throughout the project period, as well as detailed baseline data on both PES recipients and control group members. By comparing the land use changes undertaken by PES recipients to those undertaken by control group members, we can distinguish the impact of PES from that of other factors. The results show that payments had a positive and highly significant impact on land use change, under a variety of model formulations. PES recipients converted over 40 percent of their farms to environmentally-friendly land uses over 4 years, increasing environmental service provision by almost 50 percent. In contrast, control group members converted less than 20 percent of their farms, increasing environmental service provision by only 7 percent.

Bibliographic Details

Main Authors:	Pagiola, Stefano, Rios, Ana R.
Language:	English en_US
Published:	World Bank, Washington, DC 2013-09
Subjects:	PAYMENTS FOR ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES (PES), IMPACT EVALUATION, LIVESTOCK, SILVOPASTORAL, COLOMBIA PAYMENTS FOR ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES (PES), COLOMBIA, ACCOUNTING, AFFORESTATION, AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION, AGRICULTURE, AGROFORESTRY, AGROFORESTRY PRACTICES, AIR, AIR POLLUTION, ALTITUDE, BAMBOO, BANKS, BIODIVERSITY, BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION, BIODIVERSITY INDEX, BIOMASS, BUDGET CONSTRAINTS, CARBON, CARBON EMISSION, CARBON SEQUESTRATION, CARBON SEQUESTRATION SERVICES, CARBON SERVICES, CARBON STORAGE, CHANGES IN LAND USE, CLIMATE, CLIMATE CHANGE, COLORS, CONSERVATION AREA, CONSERVATION OF BIODIVERSITY, COUNTRYAPOS;S FOREST AREA, DEFORESTATION, DEFORESTATION RATES, DEGRADATION, DEGRADED PASTURE, DEGRADED PASTURES, DIFFUSION, ECOLOGICAL ECONOMICS, ECONOMETRICS, ECOSYSTEM, ECOSYSTEM MANAGEMENT, ECOSYSTEM SERVICE, ECOSYSTEM SERVICES, ECOSYSTEMS, EMISSION REDUCTIONS, EMPLOYMENT, ENVIRONMENTAL CONSERVATION, ENVIRONMENTAL ECONOMICS, ENVIRONMENTAL ECONOMIST, ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT, ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS, ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICE, ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES, ENVIRONMENTS, EROSION, EXTERNALITIES, FERTILISER, FODDER, FOREST, FOREST AREA, FOREST CONSERVATION, FOREST COVER, FOREST LAND, FOREST LAND USE, FOREST MARGINS, FOREST OWNERS, FOREST REGENERATION, FORESTS, FUELWOOD, GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT FACILITY, GOLD, LAND AREA, LAND CONVERSION, LAND CONVERSION PROGRAM, LAND ECONOMICS, LAND USE, LAND USE CHANGE, LAND USE CHANGES, LAND USE DECISIONS, LAND USE PRACTICES, LAND USERS, LAND USES, LAND-USE, LAND-USE CHANGE, LANDS, LANDSCAPE, LANDSCAPE STRUCTURE, LOSS OF BIODIVERSITY, LOSS OF FOREST, NATURAL RESOURCE, NATURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT, NATURAL RESOURCES, NEGATIVE IMPACT, NOW ACCOUNTS, OPEN ACCESS, PARTNERSHIP, PASTURE, PASTURES, PLANTING, PRESENT VALUE, PRODUCTIVITY, PROFITABILITY, PUBLIC POLICY, REFORESTATION, RIVER, RURAL COMMUNITIES, RURAL DEVELOPMENT, SEA, SOCIALLY SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, SOIL, SOIL CONSERVATION PRACTICES, SOIL EROSION, SOILS, SUSTAINABLE BENEFITS, SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE, TENURE, TIMBER, TIMBER PLANTATIONS, TREES, TROPICAL DEFORESTATION, TROPICAL FOREST, TROPICAL FORESTS, TROPICS, VEGETATION, VEGETATION COVER, WATER QUALITY, WATERSHED, WILDLIFE, WIND,
Online Access:	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/ https://hdl.handle.net/10986/21122
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