Manuel Ruiz-Pérez

Economic valuation and the commodification of ecosystem services

In the last decade a growing number of environmental scientists have advocated economic valuation of ecosystem services as a pragmatic short-term strategy to communicate the value of biodiversity in a language that reflects dominant political and economic views. This paper revisits the controversy on economic valuation of ecosystem services in the light of two aspects that are often neglected in ongoing debates. First, the role of the particular institutional setup in which environmental policy and governance is currently embedded in shaping valuation outcomes. Second, the broader economic and sociopolitical processes that have governed the expansion of pricing into previously non-marketed areas of the environment. Our analysis suggests that within the institutional setup and broader sociopolitical processes that have become prominent since the late 1980s economic valuation is likely to pave the way for the commodification of ecosystem services with potentially counterproductive effects in the long term for biodiversity conservation and equity of access to ecosystem services benefits.

Markets drive the specialization strategies of forest peoples

Engagement in the market changes the opportunities and strategies of forest-related peoples. Efforts to support rural development need to better understand the potential importance of markets and the way people respond to them. To this end, we compared 61 case studies of the commercial production and trade of nontimber forest products from Asia, Africa, and Latin America. The results show that product use is shaped by local markets and institutions, resource abundance, and the relative level of development. Larger regional patterns are also important. High-value products tend to be managed intensively by specialized producers and yield substantially higher incomes than those generated by the less specialized producers of less managed, low-value products. We conclude that commercial trade drives a process of intensified production and household specialization among forest peoples.

The role of participatory modeling in landscape approaches to reconcile conservation and development

Conservation organizations are increasingly turning to landscape approaches to achieve a balance between conservation and development goals. We use six case studies in Africa and Asia to explore the role of participatory modeling with stakeholders as one of the steps towards implementing a landscape approach. The modeling was enthusiastically embraced by some stakeholders and led to impact in some cases. Different stakeholders valued the modeling exercise differently. Noteworthy was the difference between those stakeholders connected to the policy process and scientists; the presence of the former in the modeling activities is key to achieving policy impacts, and the latter were most critical of participatory modeling. Valued aspects of the modeling included stimulating cross-sector strategic thinking, and helping participants to confront the real drivers of change and to recognize trade-offs. The modeling was generally considered to be successful in building shared understanding of issues. This understanding was gained mainly in the discussions held in the process of building the model rather than in the model outputs. The model itself reflects but a few of the main elements of the usually rich discussions that preceded its finalization. Problems emerged when models became too complex. Key lessons for participatory modeling are the need for good facilitation in order to maintain a balance between “models as stories” and technical modeling, and the importance of inviting the appropriate stakeholders to achieve impact.

Global Patterns in the Implementation of Payments for Environmental Services

Assessing global tendencies and impacts of conditional payments for environmental services (PES) programs is challenging because of their heterogeneity, and scarcity of comparative studies. This meta-study systematizes 55 PES schemes worldwide in a quantitative database. Using categorical principal component analysis to highlight clustering patterns, we reconfirm frequently hypothesized differences between public and private PES schemes, but also identify diverging patterns between commercial and non-commercial private PES vis-à-vis their service focus, area size, and market orientation. When do these PES schemes likely achieve significant environmental additionality? Using binary logistical regression, we find additionality to be positively influenced by three theoretically recommended PES ‘best design’ features: spatial targeting, payment differentiation, and strong conditionality, alongside some contextual controls (activity paid for and implementation time elapsed). Our results thus stress the preeminence of customized design over operational characteristics when assessing what determines the outcomes of PES implementation.

A framework for assessing conservation and development in a Congo Basin Forest Landscape

An integrated framework for assessing conservation and development changes at the scale of a large forest landscape in the Congo Basin is described. The framework allows stakeholders to assess progress in achieving the often conflicting objectives of alleviating poverty and conserving global environmental values. The study shows that there was little change in either livelihood or conservation indicators over the period 2006 to 2008, and that the activities of conservation organizations had only modest impacts on either. The global economic down-turn in 2008 had immediate negative consequences for both local livelihoods and for biodiversity as people lost their employment in the cash economy and reverted to illegal harvesting of forest products. Weakness of institutions, and corruption were the major obstacles to achieving either conservation or development objectives. External economic changes had more impact on this forest landscape than either the negative or positive interventions of local actors.

Trade-Offs Between Biodiversity Conservation and Economic Development in Five Tropical Forest Landscapes

This study explores how conservation and development are interlinked and quantifies their reciprocal trade-offs. It identifies interventions which hold a promise to improve both conservation and development outcomes. The study finds that development trajectories can either be at the cost of conservation or can benefit conservation, but in all cases sustained poverty negatively affects conservation in the long term. Most scenarios with better outcomes for conservation come at a cost for development and the financial benefits of payments for environmental services (PES) are not sufficient to compensate for lost opportunities to earn cash. However, implementation of strategies for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in locations with low population densities come close to overcoming opportunity costs. Environmental services and subsistence income enhance the attractiveness of conservation scenarios to local people and in situations where these benefits are obvious, PES may provide the extra cash incentive to tip the balance in favor of such a scenario. The paper stresses the importance of external factors (such as industrial investments and the development of the national economy) in determining landscape scale outcomes, and suggests a negotiating and visioning role for conservation agencies.

Global Financial Crisis Impacts Forest Conservation in Cameroon

SUMMARY The forests of SE Cameroon lie within the Sangha tri-national landscape (TNS), a priority area for biodiversity conservation under the Congo Basin Forest Partnership. A monitoring program showed minimal changes in conservation and local livelihoods indicators from 2006 to 2008. Following the global financial crisis in late 2008 global demand for timber decreased and this led to suspension of logging activities and lay-offs of staff by logging companies; both biodiversity and livelihood indicators deteriorated. The unemployed workers lost their incomes, experienced declining living standards and reverted to poaching and slash and burn agriculture. Pygmies were no longer able to obtain employment in Bantu agricultural plots, sell forest products to logging company employees or sell bushmeat to passing logging trucks. These global economic forces had greater impact on livelihoods and the environment than local interventions by conservation organizations. Livelihood indicators improved in 2010 and 2011 when the economy picked-up but those for environmental values did not recover as rapidly.

Landscape scenarios visualized by Baka and Aka Pygmies in the Congo Basin

We describe our attempts to use visualization techniques to engage the Baka and Aka in the North-West Congo Basin in a debate about their preferred future options. Baka and Aka Pygmies in the Sangha Tri-National landscape live in extreme poverty and score poorly on most development indicators. Their traditional livelihoods have suffered as their forests are taken over by outsiders for farming and logging. Conservation programmes deny them access to their traditional hunting and gathering forest territories. Over ten years we spent time with the Baka and Aka in their camps and joined them on trips into the forests. We used visualization techniques to enable them to portray their present perception of their landscapes and their preferred future scenarios. We compared their representations with those of non-Pygmy communities in the same area. Baka and Aka showed a richer and more nuanced appreciation of the forest landscape in their representations of the present but converged with the non-Pygmies in representations of their preferred future. Agriculture, health, education and employment opportunities emerged as significant elements portrayed in drawings of desired future scenarios. Visualization cannot provide a definitive diagnosis of the very diverse desires of Pygmy communities. Our study suggests that visualization techniques strengthened the ability of Pygmies to communicate their views to other actors in their landscape and to external decision makers. Decisions about programmes to help the Pygmies have often been made by well-intentioned outsiders and the Pygmies themselves had little input. We conclude that visualization empowered Pygmies in discussions and expanded their options for influencing decisions that would impact on their future.