Can the Poor Participate in Payments for Environmental Services?: Lessons from the Silvopastoral Project in Nicaragua

Pagiola, Stefano and Rios, Ana R. and Arcenas, Agustin (2007): Can the Poor Participate in Payments for Environmental Services?: Lessons from the Silvopastoral Project in Nicaragua. Forthcoming in: Environment and Development Economics

Abstract

This paper uses data from a Payments for Environmental Services (PES) project being implemented in Nicaragua to examine the extent to which poorer households that are eligible to participate are in fact able to do so, an issue over which there has been considerable concern. The study site provides a strong test of the ability of poorer households to participate as it requires participants to make substantial and complex land use changes. The results show that poorer households are in fact able to participate—indeed, by some measures they participated to a greater extent than better-off households. Moreover, their participation was not limited to the simpler, least expensive options. Extremely poor households had a somewhat greater difficulty in participating, but even in their case the difference is solely a relative one. Transaction costs may be greater obstacles to the participation of poorer households than household-specific constraints.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Institution: World Bank
• Language: English
• Keywords: Payments for Environmental Services; PES; poverty; participation
• Subjects: Q - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics ; Environmental and Ecological Economics > Q5 - Environmental Economics > Q57 - Ecological Economics: Ecosystem Services ; Biodiversity Conservation ; Bioeconomics ; Industrial Ecology; Q - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics ; Environmental and Ecological Economics > Q2 - Renewable Resources and Conservation

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