Two new publications on payments for environmental services (PES) in Africa are now online.  Below are details and links to the publications:

Editors: Steve Zwick, Tommie Herbert, and Anne Thiel

This booklet, Creating New Values for Africa: Emerging Ecosystem Service Markets, contains 12 featured projects and initiatives which demonstrate the current innovations and challenges to carbon, water, biodiversity PES implementation in Africa. This publication, (coupled with training sessions, policy advice, legal analysis, and network building) will enable community leaders, government actors, NGO technical staff, project developers and other interested persons to gain access to PES best practice, build a local community of PES learning, craft policies that are supportive of PES, and design PES projects which provide lasting ecosystem services and livelihood benefits.

Download the booklet (PDF, 2.4MB)

Author: Slayde Hawkins – Forest Trends/Katoomba Incubator

This booklet offers an analytical framework for assessing legal and institutional readiness for PES transactions. It is divided into three segments based on timing and the order of addressing issues, with an eye to what will be most important to investors and buyers in payment for ecosystem services agreements. Specifically, the first level of preparing for PES agreements should be ensuring that fundamental or threshold conditions are in place for buyers to feel that there is sufficient stability in place to consider such a business arrangement. The second level of preparedness, while important for well-functioning PES, may be developed adaptively as needs and options become clearer via a PES experience on the ground. Finally, level three includes non-urgent aspects that may be important to streamline or scale up PES, depending on the particular circumstances.

Download the booklet (PDF, 1MB)