Principles for Fairness and Efficiency in Enhancing Environmental Services in Asia Payments, Compensation, or Co-Investment?

The term “Payments for Environmental Services” (PES) has rapidly gained popularity, with its focus on market-based mechanisms for enhancing environmental services (ES). Current use of the term, however, covers a broad spectrum of interactions between ES suppliers and beneficiaries. A broader class of mechanisms pursues ES enhancement through compensation or rewards (Compensation and Rewards for Environmental Services (CRES)). Such mechanisms can be analyzed on the basis of how they meet four conditions: Realistic, Conditional, Voluntary and Pro-poor.