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When could payments for environmental services benefit the poor?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 June 2008

DAVID ZILBERMAN ,
LESLIE LIPPER  and
NANCY MCCARTHY
DAVID ZILBERMAN*
Affiliation:
Professor, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720-3310, USA. Tel: (510) 642-6570. Email: [email protected]
LESLIE LIPPER
Affiliation:
Economist, Agricultural and Development Economics Division, Food and Agriculture Organization of the U.N., Rome, Italy
NANCY MCCARTHY
Affiliation:
Research Fellow, Environment and Production Technology, International Food Policy Research Institute, Washington, DC, 20006–1002, USA
*
Corresponding author.
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Abstract

Since modification of agricultural production choices in developing countries often provides positive environmental externalities to people in developed countries, payment for environmental services (PES) has become an important topic in the context of economic development and poverty reduction. We consider two broad categories of PES programs, land-diversion programs, where lands are diverted from agriculture to other uses, and working-land programs, where agricultural production activities are modified to achieve environmental objectives. PES programs are generally good for landowners. The distribution of land and land quality is critical in determining poverty impacts. Where ES and agricultural productivity are negatively correlated and the poor own lands of low agricultural quality, they stand to gain from PES programs. Consumers and wage laborers may lose where food supply is inelastic and programs reduce labor demand. Working-land programs may have better distributional effects than diversion programs.

Type
Research Article
Information
Environment and Development Economics , Volume 13 , Issue 3: Payment for ecosystem services , June 2008 , pp. 255 - 278
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

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