Payments for Ecosystem Services Seminars

The SANREM CRSP sponsored two seminars to introduce USAID personnel to the principles of payments for ecosystems services (PES). The first seminar was held over lunch in July 2007 and was used to introduce USAID/Washington personnel to PES concepts and to encourage participants to participate in a daylong seminar/workshop on PES in October. Presentations were made by Bruce Byers of ARD Inc. and Sven Wunder of CIFOR. The presentations are available at: July 2007 PES Seminar

The theme of the October PES seminar was "Pro-Poor Payment for Ecosystem Services". The seminar was attended by approximately 40 USAID personnel and guests and was designed to provide participants with basic background material on PES that is required to effectively design, implement, and manage PES programs. The seminar also introduced the “PES Source Book”, which provides both introductory and advanced information on PES; a review of PES mechanisms for different environmental services; an overview of PES design and implementation issues; PES case studies; overviews of PES activities Africa, Asia, and Latin America; an introduction to an on-line database that was developed on PES publications and projects; and a list of recommended resources for more information on PES.

Speakers at the October PES seminar included: John Kerr and Rohit Jundal, Department of Community, Agriculture, Recreation and Resource Studies, Michigan State University; Theo Dillaha, SANREM CRSP program director; Paul Ferraro, Department of Economics, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University; and Sven Wunder, senior economist with the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), Belem, Brazil, a SANREM partner. PowerPoint presentation and videos of the presentations are available at October 2007 PES Seminar.